02/03/2023
Presented by World Vision
Curated for you byCP Editors

Good afternoon! It's Friday, February 3, and today's headlines include pro-life activist Mark Houck declaring his intent to press charges against the FBI, Uyghurs detailing Chinese prison camp horror stories during the International Religious Freedom Summit, and a couple leaving a baby at an airport check-in counter after being told the child couldn't board the flight without a ticket.

Mark Houck, the pro-life activist who was arrested in a highly publicized FBI raid, said he intends to press charges over the ordeal. Houck, a Catholic father of seven, was recently acquitted on two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act—charges that could have sent him to prison for 11 years. During an appearance this week on Steve Bannon's Real America's Voice program "The War Room," Houck recounted the 6:45 a.m. raid at his home in Bucks County, Penn., on Sept. 23. Several FBI agents and nearly 15 state troopers descended upon his property and repeatedly banged on his door and rang the doorbell saying "Open up" without declaring who they were. Houck lamented "the degree of the recklessness that this was performed and the act of terror which it was."

After learning that it was FBI agents at the door, Houck informed them of his intention to "open the door" and urged them to "stay calm" because he had children in the house. Houck says he then opened the door and slowly raised his hands. "As I opened the door, I could not believe the circus scene that I saw: at least 10-15 marked and unmarked units right in front of me surrounding the side of my house. I have 100 yards to the street, cars lined all the way up to the street, long guns pointed at me, heavily armored vests, ballistic helmets, ballistic shields, [and a] battering ram," he said. "I had at least five federal agents on my porch with M-16s pointed at me." When asked by Bannon whether he intended to "press charges for prosecutorial abuse" against the FBI agents and state troopers who conducted the raid, Houck answered in the affirmative. He also stated that his legal counsel wants him and his family to tell Congress the details of what happened. Continue reading.

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Two Uyghurs who fled from China took to the third annual International Religious Freedom Summit to detail their family members' experiences in concentration camps and to call on the United States government to take stronger action against the Chinese Communist Party. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been subjected to forced labor and torture in concentration camps to get them to pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. They are subjected to especially harsh treatment because the Chinese Communist Party views them as ethnically inferior to the dominant Han Chinese. Two Uyghurs now living in the U.S. shared their experiences with persecution with CP. Jewher Ilham, who now works at the Worker Rights Consortium, described how her father was arrested while trying to board a flight to the U.S. and lost 40 pounds after twice being denied food for a period of 10 days. He was beaten in his prison cell, and a former inmate informed Ilham that her father was also forced to listen to Chinese propaganda 24/7. Kazzat Altay described fleeing China after two decades of "harassment by Chinese intelligence." His father is currently under house arrest in China, and his brother reports that Chinese officials broke his leg while in a concentration camp, which has inhibited his ability to walk properly. Read more.

A friend of Morgan E. Daub, 26, the Pennsylvania woman who was found dead at home along with her missionary parents last week in what authorities say was a suicide pact, suggested she may have been driven insane by her parents' strict religious upbringing. "She grew up in a very uptight Christian household. ... the amount of control her parents had over her was crazy. She wasn’t allowed to go out with friends. She wasn’t allowed any social media. Anything fun that she liked to do she was only allowed to do it with supervision. It was kinda like she was a prisoner in her own home," the friend, identified only as Samantha told YouTube personality Molly Golightly in an interview on Monday. The friend said she did not know which denomination the Daubs followed, amid speculation from some that they were not Christian and might have been Jehovah's Witnesses. Samantha also described how she became friends with Morgan at the age of 10 but stopped communicating around the age of 18. "I'm not shocked that she went crazy. When I was a kid she was completely normal other than her controlling parents and I feel like she snapped," she added. Read more.

The Satanic Temple has announced the launch of a telehealth abortion clinic in New Mexico, claiming that it is part of their "commitment to protecting our members' civil rights and ensuring that our religious rituals can be performed without government interference." TST says the clinic will be named "The Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic," referring to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito, who authored the 2022 decision ruling that the U.S. Constitution doesn't contain a right to abortion. The organization claims that abortion bans "impede [their] faith in bodily autonomy" and their ability to perform a "religious abortion ritual," which the organization claims is a violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Read more.

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In this editorial, Christian Post Executive Editor Dr. Richard Land addresses the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of at least five police officers and questions whether a white man would have faced the same fate as Nichols. Land discusses the rise in crime in Memphis, Tenn., and questions how movements to defund the police potentially contributed to Nichols' death as police leadership lowered the entrance standards for police officers due to having a significant number of vacancies. "It should be noted that all five of these police perpetrators were very new to the force and four out of the five had already been suspended and/or had letters of reprimand placed in their permanent files," Land explains. Reflecting on the work and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Land concludes, "[T]o my black fellow citizens who asked plaintively on Twitter, 'Do white people care about what happens to our children?' my answer is 'yes, multitudes of us care.'" Read more.

The Washington Stand's Suzanne Bowdey writes about the New York Rangers' decision to not wear their Pride Night uniforms and how "the script is flipping" as players such as Ivan Provorov speak out about being forced to support an ideology that goes against their religious convictions. "We may never know what happened in the Ranger's locker room or which skaters wouldn’t play the league’s games. But one thing's for certain. If the NHL returns to any semblance of neutrality, we'll have Ivan Provorov to thank for it," she writes. Read more.

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A three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Tampa, Fla., ban on sexual orientation change efforts on Thursday. The court sided with Tampa-based family therapist Robert Vazzo and the Christian ministry New Hearts Outreach Tampa Bay in a lawsuit over the city's ban on counselors providing voluntary therapy to minors seeking help with unwanted same-sex attractions. While critics have condemned such therapy as "conversion therapy," proponents maintain that banning such practice infringes on the First Amendment rights of counselors and patients. Liberty Counsel, which represented the plaintiffs, called the ruling a "great victory for counselors and their clients." Read more.

A day ahead of the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., several members of Congress joined Evangelical leaders at the Museum of the Bible for the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. During the event, attendees asked God to forgive the many ways the country has strayed from His will through actions such as the "murder" of children through abortion, as well as by living a gay lifestyle. Church United Pastor Jim Domen, who grew up with same-sex attraction, repented publicly, praying, "I exchanged the truth of sexuality as you created only between a man and a woman for a lie. God, my heart grieves for your Church." Members of Congress in attendance for the nearly three-hour event included House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.; Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill.; Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga.; Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas; Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas; Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.; and Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan. Read more.

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A couple who attempted to board a plane without buying a ticket for their baby left the child behind at an airport check-in counter in Tel Aviv, Israel, and ran to the security gate to catch their flight. The parents, who were traveling to Brussels, Belgium, were detained by airport security after they ran to catch their flight, for which they were already late. The Israeli Airport Authority said the parents arrived late at Terminal 1 for their flight and check-in was already closed when the parents realized their baby did not have a ticket to board the flight. A spokesperson for Ryanair said the matter was referred to local police. In a separate statement to CNN, a spokesperson said that the matter had been resolved by the time the police arrived, the baby was with its parents, and there would be no further investigation. Read more.

Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We look forward to seeing you again on Monday! -- CP Editors

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