| | Critic calls University of Notre Dame's 'Queer Holiness' event a 'revolt against God' | | Curated for you byCP Editors | | Good afternoon! It's Thursday, March 16, and today's headlines include the University of Notre Dame holding a "Queer Holiness" event, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushing back on Biden's claim that prohibiting children from obtaining body-mutilating sex change surgeries is "sinful," and author Johnnie Moore discussing religious freedom in the U.S. and abroad. | | The University of Notre Dame plans to host an event on March 23 titled "Queer Holiness: An Experiential Christian Anthropology" even though Catholic Church teaching labels homosexuality as a sin. The event, which will feature Anglican priest and author the Rev. Charles Bell, is being promoted by the university's Gender Studies program. Bell wrote the 2022 book Queer Holiness: The Gift of LGBTQI People to the Church. "For millennia institutional churches have told LGBTQI people what God expects them to be and how to act. In parts of the church, LGBTQI people remain the subject of hostile questions, rather than being embraced as equal children of God," reads the event's description. "Charlie Bell faces these issues head on. His thesis is simple—to reject the overwhelming scientific and experiential knowledge about LGBTQI people is no longer valid." | | John Ritchie, director of the conservative Catholic organization TFP Student Action, told The Christian Post that the event sounded like "an act of revolt against God, an insult to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a mockery of 2,000 years of Catholic moral teaching." Ritchie further called the event "disgraceful," adding that "it favors sins of lust and impurity and thus insults the holy purity of the Mother of God. It's impossible to serve God faithfully, and at the same time wave the rainbow flag." He told CP that the university has a history of allowing "pro-homosexual activities and events that undermine its Catholic identity" while also having "stifled young Catholic voices." Ritchie said he "personally witnessed campus police shut down a display that promoted traditional marriage as the sacred union between one man and one woman" in 2014. Continue reading. | | P.S.CP is proud to announce the release of "Exposing the Gender Lie," a free e-book in partnership with Summit Ministries. Click here to download your copy today. Don’t forget to sign up for the Unmasking Gender Ideology conference on March 23rd in Dallas, Texas, which is set to feature a panel of experienced professionals such as Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., of The Ethics & Public Policy Center, Woman II Woman founder Amie Ichikawa, and Summit Ministries President Dr. Jeff Myers. Have you listened to CP’s Generation Indoctrination podcast? Listen now on your favorite podcast platform. |
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| DeSantis claps back at Biden's 'sinful' comment with video of mutilated bodies | | President Joe Biden characterized state efforts to protect youth from permanent body-mutilating sex change surgeries as "sinful" during an interview with actor Kal Penn on "The Daily Show" on Monday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called out Biden's comments by sharing graphic images of bodies maimed by such procedures. While Biden did not specify which laws he took issue with, Florida recently passed a law banning trans-identified male athletes from competing on women's sports teams and the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine banned puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and sex-change surgeries for youth. In response to Biden suggesting that the federal government should pass legislation prohibiting states from enacting such laws, DeSantis—who is widely seen as a contender for the 2024 Presidential nomination—took to Twitter to declare, "It is not 'sinful' to prohibit the mutilation of minors. It is not acceptable for the federal government to be able to mandate that procedures like sex change operations be mandated for kids." The DeSantis War Room Twitter account, a "rapid response" unit, posted a video showing footage from Biden's interview with Penn alongside graphic images of mutilated bodies after skin and tissue are removed from girls' forearms to create a fake, flaccid penis that doesn't function and the lifelong scars left after removing girls' healthy breast tissue. "Biden thinks it's 'cruel' that Florida is NOT allowing experimental sex change operations for kids," the post declares. Read more. | | Judge rules frozen embryos are property in divorce dispute | | A Virginia judge cited a 19th-century law about slave ownership in ruling that human embryos can legally be considered property. Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner issued the preliminary opinion last month in a case involving a divorced couple's dispute over embryos they stored together. The couple divorced in 2018. The ex-wife is 45, infertile due to cancer treatments and wants to use the embryos; however, her ex-husband does not. Jason Heidemann's lawyers argued that if his ex-wife, Honeyhline Heidemann, were to use the embryos, this "would force Mr. Heidemann to procreate against his wishes and therefore violate his constitutional right to procreational autonomy." The judge initially sided with the husband and determined that a pre-Civil War law based on "goods or chattels" that involved custody disputes over slaves applied to the couple's case. However, the judge's ruling is not final as he has yet to rule on other arguments in the case. Honeyhline Heidemann's lawyer has asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that his client has no other biological options to conceive a child, and the ex-husband would not be under any legal obligations to parent. Read more. | | Students face felony charges for stealing pro-life sign, assaulting police | | Two students at the University of Florida have been arrested and charged with felonies after assaulting police and violently resisting arrest after one stole a pro-life group's display during an authorized on-campus demonstration. Video footage from pro-life advocacy group Created Equal shows Ian Dinkla, 21, grabbing a pro-life sign on display at the campus and taking it to his car. One of the pro-life students affiliated with Created Equal followed the man after he stole the sign, calling the police and discovering that he had a knife. Dinkla warned a school administrator to "back the f*** up" as she confronted him for taking the property while he placed it in his car and ultimately drove away. Dinkla later approached another pro-life display on the school's campus and resisted arrest when confronted by a plainclothes man who identified himself as a detective. When the detective tried to subdue him, another student, identified as Bryn Taylor, 26, intervened. A scuffle ensued as a uniformed police officer arrived to arrest Dinkla. Taylor, the president of the UF Graduates Assistant United union, shouted and jumped on top of the plainclothes police officer. Both students were eventually placed in handcuffs. Dinkla has been charged with "robbery and resisting an officer with violence"; Taylor has been charged with "aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer" and "resisting arrest without violence." Read more. |
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| Mr. Potato Head, Lego, Dr. Seuss: Let children be children again | | In this editorial, the Providence Forum's Jerry Newcombe calls out "woke" ideologies, lamenting that people were more concerned about removing Mr. Potato Head's gender than they have been about a sitting Supreme Court justice's inability to define a woman. Newcombe discusses the importance of being direct when it comes to addressing right versus wrong, writing, "The Bible is frank about man being sinful. The founders of America acknowledged that reality and created the most durable governing document in history, the U.S. Constitution, because it conforms to the empirical reality that we are sinful." With this post-Christian society pushing for everything to go "woke," whitewashing children's literature, confusing men and women, and walking away from Scriptural teachings, Newcombe asks: Where does it all stop? "When can sin be viewed as sin again? Isn’t it better to admit wrongdoing than to try to redefine what is wrong in the first place? There are moral standards that come from beyond ourselves," he concludes. Read more. | | Unbiblical Christianity and its dangers | | Oscar Amaechina, the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, cautions against unbiblical Christianity that is not rooted in the Word of God. Asserting that many people claim to be Christians only to twist the faith to suit their needs instead of adhering to Scriptural teachings, Amechina notes that "Biblical Christianity relies on the Bible to understand everything about the Christian faith" and serves as the code of conduct for believers. "Gospel-less Christianity, comfortable Christianity, liberal Christianity, and cultural Christianity are all products of unbiblical Christianity. Social vices among believers gained their roots from the practice of Christianity that does not recognize the Word of God as the only acceptable principle and guideline that governs the lives of Christians," he writes. Read more. |
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| What does a girl need to step into a future teeming with possibility? | | Meet Gladys Argentina Vasquez, the 3-year-old girl with pigtails in the picture above. It’s her first day of preschool and her big, happy smile says it all … Her future is bright. She is full of hope. She is strong. | | Gladys is a World Vision sponsored child in Honduras. She’s one of many around the world. And yet, so many others wait to be sponsored … to get the chance to be healthy. To go to school. To marry when and whom she wants. To start a business. | | Each girl, like Gladys, deserves the chance to discover her God-given value. | | Would YOUhelp a girl grow strong today? Your sponsorship will help empower her — and other kids in her community — to overcome poverty for good. You’ll show God’s love and meet practical needs by helping her community get sustainable access to the essentials they need (like clean running water and toilets at Gladys’s school!). | | Sponsor a Girl | | |
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| Author talks 'slow squeezing' of religious freedom in West | | Johnnie Moore, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner, has spent much of his life advocating for persecuted Christians. "I sometimes say that I'm not sure I would still be a Christian at all had I not been exposed to the power of the Gospel through those who've suffered for it," he told CP. Moore recently penned The New Book of Christian Martyrs, an updated version of John Day's 1563 Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Moore and co-author Jerry Pattengale spent seven years engaged in research, which Moore described as "deeply moving" and "emotionally impactful." He explained that he believes there are "so many beautiful things about Christianity." Still, he added that "there are certain things about being Christian, you might call them 'secret things' about being a Christian, that you can only discover when it costs you something." Although he doesn't want to draw a parallel between the persecution faced by those in many countries around the world and the plight of Christians in the U.S., he cautioned that it's important to be "vigilant" on the issue of religious freedom, noting that people from around the world have consistently told him, "[I]t didn't begin here with what we're experiencing now. It began with marginalization, discrimination and a little pressure here and little pressure there.'" The author described it as "this slow squeezing of the religious freedom of the Christian community," adding, "[T]hat's a warning from the persecuted church abroad to people in the West." Read more. |
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| ‘Come Out in Jesus Name’ sparks mass deliverance | | Moviegoers took to social media this week to share footage of mass deliverance occurring in theaters across the U.S. after audiences viewed the new film "Come Out In Jesus Name." The film, which debuted in theaters nationwide on Monday, follows Pastor Greg Locke and fellow well-known deliverance ministers modeling Jesus' ministry of deliverance as described in the New Testament. At the end of the film, Locke held a live mass deliverance alter call that was streamed at nearly 2,000 theaters. "I just wanted to go for it and I thought it would probably be the biggest thing I could ask for the movie theater industry to allow me to do, and when they said, 'Yeah, we don't know anything about it. But let's go,' I knew that was an open door," Locke, the senior pastor of Global Vision Bible Church, told CP on Tuesday. "This is a historic church moment. This has never happened! It's almost like God says, 'OK, you want to run my spirit out of church? Well, I'm going to take you into a movie theater." Read more. | | | | | | | | Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow! -- CP Editors |
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