In an order released Monday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in the case of F.F., as parent of Y.F. v. New York, which centers on a lawsuit challenging a 2019 law repealing religious exemptions for vaccines. The move lets stand a lower court decision that concluded the parents' arguments lacked merit. The lawsuit stemmed from then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signing a bill in June 2019 removing religious exemptions for vaccines in schoolchildren and requiring children to show a certification from a healthcare provider that they had received all mandated vaccinations to attend school or daycare in New York. In signing the bill, Cuomo stated, "While I understand and respect freedom of religion, our first job is to protect the public health." Continue reading.

Dr. John Cheng, a 52-year-old sports physician who died last Sunday as he jumped into action to save lives after a gunman opened fire at an Orange County church, is being remembered by his former classmates at Baylor University as a black belt in kung fu and "a rock star making Christ more famous one person at a time." Cheng, a father of two, "laid down his life for his friends. He was just a solid, Christian doctor," explained James Runnels, who was a Kappa Omega Tau fraternity brother with Dr. Cheng at Baylor University. "He always put others [ahead of] himself, and lived his life like Jesus did—sacrificing for others." Continue reading.

During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, pressed Lawrence Tabak, acting director of the National Institutes of Health, about the agency's research to determine if the use of non-FDA approved puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are safe for children and teenagers who suffer from gender dysphoria. Tabak asserted the NIH funds "a small number of observational studies to gather the data on the effects of treatments that transgender youth and their parents have chosen. But all of the research in this space is observational. We do no interventional work." Rubio challenged how policymakers are promoting puberty blockers for youth without insight into the "long term implications" of such interventions and weighing the "cost and the benefits." Rubio stated, "[T]hese policy decisions are being made on the basis of observational guidance and, by your own admission, without any sort of long term trajectory on its holistic impact." Continue reading.

What does it mean to be a "Christian"? In this op-ed, D.L. Moody Center President Dr. James Spencer argues the church lacks a clear sense of the true meaning of the word "Christian." Stating that its use has become nostalgic instead of theological, Spencer writes, "[O]ne 'Christian college' president told me that he counted it as a success when a graduating Muslim student told him that the school had helped him develop a deeper devotion to Allah ... having a 'Christian college' president identify greater devotion to Allah as a positive outcome suggests that, while the word 'Christian' hasn’t changed, the concepts underlying it have." Continue reading.

Rev. Nolan Harkness shares the importance of not giving up on people whose hearts are hardened and why believers must continuously pray for them. "Ask God to do what He does best—turn stone hearts into flesh. Let’s all pray and believe together that changed hearts are God’s greatest miracle," he writes. Continue reading.

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Evangelist and bestselling author Greg Laurie's latest book, Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus: The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll, takes a look at the religious experiences of several of America's greatest rock music legends. Following the lives of John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Alice Cooper, Laurie explores the rise, fall, and even the redemption the famous entertainers experienced. During an interview with The Christian Post, Laurie discussed how Dylan consistently wove biblical imagery into his songs, noting it wasn't until the 1980s, however, that he declared himself to be a follower of Jesus Christ. While some have questioned whether Dylan's Christian faith cooled, Laurie stated he tends to disagree. "In fact, I think there is evidence to the contrary, and so I would describe Bob as a work in progress. To me, it's more that he didn't talk about it as much as he used to." Continue reading.

"Bringing Up Bates" star Lawson Bates and Nickelodeon actress Tiffany Espensen got married last week and credited their romance to God. "Bringing Up Bates" was canceled by UPtv after 10 seasons, with the network stating they were shifting programming to movies and a new scripted series. Espensen, who has acted in such films as Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Spiderman: Homecoming," earned a political science degree from Liberty University. Continue reading.