Good Morning!
Speaking to the London News back in 1910, G. K. Chesterton quipped:
“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.”
It would seem critics of Franklin Graham are, at the very least, unaware of what Christians are called to do (Matthew 5:43-44, 1 Timothy 2:1-4):
1. Franklin Graham criticized for urging followers to pray for Putin amid threat of war
From the Christian Post:
A social media post by evangelist Franklin Graham asking followers to pray for Russian President Vladimir Putin to avoid a war with Ukraine is drawing backlash from liberals on social media, while some have come to Graham’s defense.
“Pray for President Putin today. This may sound like a strange request, but we need to pray that God would work in his heart so that war could be avoided at all cost,” Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and son of the late evangelist, wrote on Facebook and Twitter Friday.
“May God give wisdom to the leaders involved in these talks and negotiations, as well as those advising them. Our prayers might make the difference between life and death.”
Jon Cooper, a Democratic operative who served as the national finance chair of Draft Biden 2016, wrote: “Trump-loving evangelist Franklin Graham just told his followers: ‘Pray for President Putin today.’ Unreal.”
Some prominent commentators came to Graham’s defense, stating that critics are missing the point behind Graham’s call to prayer.
Syndicated radio host Joseph Pagliarulo stated on Twitter that Graham wants prayer “to ask God to work on Putin’s heart to avoid war.”
- Transgender Swimmers Cap Dominant Performances at Ivy League Women’s Championships
From National Review:
Lia Thomas, the transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer competing on the women’s team after competing on the men’s team in years past, and Iszac Henig, the transgender Yale swimmer, capped off dominant individual performances at the Ivy League Championships on Saturday.
Lia Thomas, the transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer competing on the women’s team after competing on the men’s team in years past, and Iszac Henig, the transgender Yale swimmer, capped off dominant individual performances at the Ivy League Championships on Saturday.
Despite Thomas’s contributions to Penn’s success, some on the team have raised concerns. In a letter written to Penn and the Ivy League, 16 of Thomas’s teammates anonymously urged the school and the conference not to challenge the new NCAA rule. The letter also stressed the group’s support for Thomas’s transition.
“Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female,” reads the letter, which goes on to assert that the athletes were told that they “would be removed from the team” and “never get a job offer,” if they gave voice to that opinion.
- YouTube Censors Mom Fighting School Mask Mandates
From The Daily Signal:
Once again, Big Tech is deciding which voices can speak out and which ones can’t. The latest victim is a mom of four from Virginia whose interview with The Daily Signal was removed Thursday by YouTube.
Merianne Jensen went viral earlier this month when she made a passionate speech about COVID-19 mask mandates affecting kids at school. Jensen was addressing the school board of Prince William County, a Virginia community in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.
“You are on the losing side of history and it’s time to make that right before these children now,” she told the school board. So far, a video of her speech tweeted by The Daily Signal has garnered 1.6 million views.
- United Airlines’ ‘Coercion’ of Religious Employees over Vaccine Mandate ‘Irreparably Harmed’ Them – 5th Circuit
From The Daily Citizen:
In an important religious freedom case, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has reversed a lower court and ruled that religious employees of United Airlines might be entitled to an injunction blocking the company’s vaccine mandate.
The appeals court ruled that the airline’s August 2021 ultimatum – that employees either submit to COVID-19 vaccinations or be suspended indefinitely without pay – amounted to “coercion” of two religious employees who objected to the vaccines’ connection with the use of fetal cells obtained through abortions. Such coercion, the judges ruled in a 2-1 decision, results in “irreparable harm” that meets one of the legal conditions for obtaining a preliminary injunction.
That may sound like a lot of legalese, but it’s actually a big deal. The 5th Circuit’s decision could favorably change the way courts view the religious freedom claims of employees in the private sector.
- Shame on you, Russia. Let Kids be Kids – Even Olympic Ones
From The Daily Citizen:
The controversy-laden Winter Olympics came to a close this past Sunday in Beijing – and for some of the athletes and for many fans boycotting the games altogether due to China’s concerning and disturbing human rights record, it wasn’t a minute too soon.
But Thursday’s women’s free skate competition descended into chaos when Russia’s Alexandra Trusova, age 17, realizing she had lost the gold medal despite a remarkable performance, lost her composure and shouted for all to hear, “I hate this sport! I won’t go onto the ice again.”
Adding to the drama was the ongoing fallout of Russia’s treatment of star skater Kamilia Valieva. After the 15-year-old struggled through her competition earlier in the week, dashing her hopes of a medal altogether, Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze’s chastisement was caught on a hot mic.
“Why did you stop fighting?” she berated the chagrined Olympian. “Explain it to me, why? You let it go after that axel.”
The young prodigy remained silent.
As parents, our hearts break when we watch an adult coach who should know better blast a young woman for falling on the ice. It especially stings because deep down, we know sports – even the Olympics – aren’t nearly as important as properly developing a person’s courage, bravery, character, manners and self-confidence. A child is still a child even when they make an Olympic squad.
Letting children be children in this global, social media-saturated world is an increasingly difficult challenge for moms and dads. Most of us will never have a son or daughter skating in the Olympics, but all of us parents will have children competing on some other stage at some point in time. It’s our job to prepare them as best we know how.
6. Pornography Use Is Becoming an ‘Acceptable’ Sin
From the Gospel Coalition:
Almost 1 in 3 men agree that it’s acceptable for teens to view pornography, compared to only about 1 in 10 women. Roughly half of both men and women agree that pornography viewing is acceptable for adults. The only exception is married women, who are generally less accepting of pornography than both men or women in dating relationships.
One in five couples (20 percent) reported some degree of conflict in their relationships due to pornography. Also, 1 in 4 men reported actively hiding their pornography viewing from their partner. A significant number of women expressed concerns about their partner’s pornography viewing, with almost 1 in 3 dating women reporting they worry about their partner being more attracted to pornography and their partner thinking about pornography while being intimate.
Don’t believe the lie that porn use among committed couples is an acceptable sin. It’s a sin that will harm your relationship today and lead you to hell tomorrow. Fortunately, it’s a sin that can be covered by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7). Repent and recommit to purity. If you are in Christ, then you are a new creation: the old has gone, the new is here (2 Cor. 5:17). Live in accordance with the truth you claim to believe—while you still can.
7. What Makes a Man: Reflections on the Virtues of Manhood
From Public Discourse:
I want to explore this thought by proposing and discussing three central virtues of manhood: gentlemanliness, moral courage, and chastity. I argue that these virtues, properly understood, are a legitimate part of a normative conception of “what makes a man.” This is not to say that women do not also need gentleness, moral courage, and chastity. Rather, the point is that there are general features of the male condition that make these virtues especially important for men and that require a particular interpretation appropriate to this condition. It’s also true that men, just like women, need all the virtues of character and intellect in order to realize fully their good as rational social creatures, which means that all the virtues can be regarded as virtues of manhood. Nevertheless, there is a point to talking in a more specific way about “the virtues of manhood” as those virtues that respond to distinctive features of the male condition.
The virtue of gentlemanliness is part of a civilizing ideal for men. Hence, in polite society women and men are addressed as “ladies and gentlemen.” As a civilizing ideal, it is meant to keep men from being barbarous, bestial, crude, rude, and the like. In his book Manliness, Harvey Mansfield writes: “The gentleman, as opposed to a cad or a lout, does not take advantage of those weaker than himself, especially women. He declines opportunities to push himself on others by means of a stronger will, to say nothing of greater brawn.”
Ideals of being a good husband and a good father, as ideals of manhood proper to our rational social nature, can also inspire men. That is, they can activate male thumos (spiritedness, assertiveness) to take up the responsibilities involved in being a loving, supportive, and faithful husband and a loving, supportive, and protective father who seeks to raise his children to walk in paths of righteousness. A lack of chastity, by contrast, undermines one’s ability to take up these noble roles. As Tucker says: “People who are incapable of monogamy are probably incapable of many other things as well.” In other words, men who are unable to control themselves will be unable to take up the necessary responsibilities of manhood.
So, what makes a man? I have argued that the virtues of gentlemanliness, moral courage, and chastity are each a key part of a normative ideal of manhood. These are not the only virtues needed (indeed, all the virtues are required), but they are especially important, since they offer correctives to problematic tendencies within the male condition, particularly regarding male aggression and male sexual desire. These virtues of manhood help men to channel such tendencies toward noble and properly human ends.
8. ‘I Wanted to Commit Suicide’: Comedian John Crist Opens Up About Faith, Credits Fans With Helping Save His Life After Scandal
From CBN:
Christian comedian John Crist “wanted to commit suicide” after he found himself in rehab amid a sexual harassment scandal that left him embarrassed, beside himself, and planning to leave comedy forever.
“I’ve been through a lot the last two years of my life,” Crist said during a recent comedy show. “I’ve been through a lot of embarrassing things.”
The comedian, who fluctuated between making the audience laugh and speaking about the severe nature of his 2019 scandal, admitted “there’s a lot of shame surrounding sex” and revealed where that shame took him.
The comedian also recalled a touching moment after he left rehab. He found himself wearing a hood and sunglasses inside of a Five Guys restaurant, hoping no one would recognize him. Suddenly, a family called him over to chat. While Crist worried they would scold him, something incredible happened.
“[They said], ‘We just want to let you know that we love you and we care about you and we’ve been thinking about you,’” Crist recalled. “It was the first time in my life that people knew everything about me, and they still chose to love me.”
- Caregiving is So Expensive, Even AARP’s Expert Filed for Bankruptcy
From the Wall Street Journal:
Family caregivers are the backbone of the nation’s long-term care system and provide an estimated $470 billion worth of free care—often at great personal cost.
On average, caregivers spend 26% of their personal income on caregiving expenses, according to a 2021 AARP study, with most personal spending going to housing, including home modifications. A third of caregivers dip into their personal savings, like bank accounts, to cover costs, and 12% take out a loan or borrow from family or friends.
“I don’t think people understand how expensive caregiving is,” says Jean Chatzky, founder of HerMoney.com, a digital media company focused on women and personal finance.
Ms. Chatzky and others say family members incorrectly assume Medicare will pay for long-term care in nursing homes or in-home help, only to be surprised when a relative falls ill or needs that kind of care. Private long-term-care insurance picks up some of those costs, but the amount varies depending on the plan.
Caregiving is becoming more expensive because people are living longer with more complicated medical needs and hiring help costs more. The median annual cost of in-home care rose to $54,912 in 2020, an 18.5% increase from 2016, according to Genworth, a long-term-care insurance company.
The financial strain is widespread. Although the average caregiver is 49, about 23% percent are millennials, who have had less time in the workforce to build financial security. Concerns about the toll on family caregivers led to a recently introduced bipartisan Credit for Caring Act that would provide a tax credit of up to $5,000 to eligible working caregivers.
- Kentucky’s D’Corey Johnson stuns with ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ before NASCAR’s Daytona 500
On this President’s Day … from Fox News:
One of the sweetest renditions you’ll ever hear of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung on Sunday morning, Feb. 20, 2022, ahead of NASCAR’s Daytona 500.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday, D’Corey Johnson, just 9 years old, performed the national anthem several hours before the Sunday race kickoff at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Johnson previously appeared on Fox Nation’s “Patriot Awards” and sung the anthem there as well, in November 2021.
He’s sung it on many other occasions as well.
That includes on a weekday morning at his own elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky.
“No stress,” Johnson said on Sunday’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” program, in response to the hosts’ warm welcome as he joined them after the performance.
“When I was little, 6 years old, I started singing in the choir. I was in the choir … [And] I really got to know my voice,” said Johnson about his early realization that he had singing talent.
