Good Morning!
Focus on the Family president Jim Daly has warned that “The ongoing war on children regularly plays up the adult to the detriment of the innocent child.”
“It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes,” wrote Alexander Solzhenitsyn. “We make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions – especially selfish ones.”
We begin today with a series of stories featuring adults forcing their warped beliefs on children:
- Judge blocks Alabama law banning puberty blockers for kids, upholds ban on sex-change surgeries
From The Christian Post:
A judge has blocked the enforcement of an Alabama law that would criminally punish anyone who dispenses experimental drugs such as puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to a child suffering from gender confusion, which could lead to sterility.
U.S. District Judge Liles Burke, who former President Donald Trump appointed, ruled last Friday to block the experimental drugs ban. However, he allowed the ban on sex-change surgeries that include such operations as an elective mastectomy to remove girls’ breast tissue or an orchidectomy to remove both testicles or a vaginoplasty in which the penis is also removed.
In his injunction, Burke argued that the plaintiffs were “likely to show that they have a fundamental right to treat their children with transitioning medications subject to medically accepted standards.”
- Eighth graders using the wrong pronouns is now considered sexual harassment
From The Washington Examiner:
The insanity of transgender ideology doesn’t stop with encouraging children to undergo damaging, irreversible procedures that involve mutilating or poisoning their bodies. Now, children who don’t butcher the English language at the behest of gender-dysphoric students must be investigated for sexual harassment.
This is playing out in Kiel, Wisconsin, where the school district has filed a Title IX complaint against three eighth graders. Their high crime was their failure to use grammatically incorrect plural pronouns “they/them” to refer to a single student. This even though school officials apparently have failed to do the same, according to the attorneys representing the students.
Even if the student in question had chosen grammatically correct pronouns, it wouldn’t matter. The reality is that students don’t have to adhere to any pronoun demands. But the school district has decided to make an example of them. It wants to be able to compel students to use language they don’t want to use, even if it defies science and is an offense against the English language. Otherwise, it’s “sexual harassment.”
This deranged view of “tolerance” and “inclusivity” calls for all dissent to be forcibly shut down, even if it comes from 13-year-olds. Books that don’t adhere to transgender dogma must be removed . Media outlets that publish opinion pieces about the differences between men and women must be shamed into altering them. Sexual assaults in schools must be covered up if the perpetrator is “gender-fluid.” States that try to prevent irreversible chemical and physical alterations to children who suffer from gender dysphoria must be targeted by the Justice Department.
And, yes, eighth graders must be investigated for sexual harassment for saying “she” instead of “they.”
- Navigating ‘LGBT Pride Month’ – How Should Parents Respond?
From The Daily Citizen:
It’s the middle of May, yet activist corporations are already falling all over themselves in anticipation of June’s “LGBT Pride Month.”
Mattel’s Fisher Price touted the release of a RuPaul Little People toy package, saying, “RuPaul is a pop-culture icon who has been hailed as the best-dressed queen on TV and is coming to life in a whole new way for lip-syncing, runway-slaying fans.”
Entertainment Weekly breathlessly gushed, “The classic toy brand’s new Little People Collector RuPaul package features three figurines that shrink RuPaul down to widdle-pill size, with the three-inch statuettes honoring Mama Ru’s Drag Race outfits both in and out of drag.”
Oreo, produced by Nabisco, announced “a limited edition OREO Pride Pack which acts as a canvas for allies to share their words of pride.” The package has “loving words of support sourced from real allies,” along with a “a writable space that gives the opportunity for everyone to add their own words of allyship.”
For $5.79, you get about 30 cookies, each stamped with the word “Proud.” Ground shipping costs an additional $9.95, bringing the cost of the package to almost 16 bucks. Expedited ($29.95) and warm weather ($18.50) shipping bump up the price even more.
Marvel Comics recently revealed a new “transgender mutant superhero,” named Shela Sexton, in its upcoming Marvel’s Voices: Pride (2022) #1. The story is written by transgender-identified Charlie Jane Anders. The anthology of comic stories includes other gay- and transgender-identified characters.
Then there’s Pixar, which is releasing the animated feature film Lightyear on June 17, telling the backstory for Buzz Lightyear. The film includes a kiss between two women who are in a “meaningful relationship.”
- Schoolyard Cancel-Culture Bullies Come for Daniel Boone
From the Wall Street Journal:
A plan is afoot to change the name of a Chicago grammar school I attended. Daniel Boone, under the reign of self-righteous political correctness, is now a problem. The old pioneer apparently kept seven slaves and took over lands belonging to (as we now say) indigenous people. (His daughter Jemima was also kidnapped by a Cherokee-Shawnee raiding party, but let that pass.) For these sins the Chicago Public Schools Office of Equity has decided Boone is a “historically egregious figure” and can’t be allowed to have a school named after him.
What is in it for those intent on taking down statues and changing names of institutions? A feeling of high virtue, through redressing injustices of the past by canceling its heroes. They have at their disposal a powerful weapon: the right to call anyone who disagrees a racist.
And so heroic figures of the past—Columbus, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, now Boone and others doubtless to follow—must be shuffled off the stage because they held views or acted in a manner incongruent with the high moral standards of today’s self-righteous.
Some 20 years ago, in a book on snobbery, I defined the “virtucrat” as “any man or woman who is certain that his or her political views are not merely correct but deeply, morally righteous in the bargain.” At the time I thought such people little more than moral snobs. I had no notion their growing tribe would have so pervasive an effect on the culture. Think of all the associate provosts, deans and other university administrators whose job is ensuring what they deem proper diversity, inclusivity and equity. Such jobs are now beginning to be found in large corporations. Will they one day become presidential cabinet offices?
The effect of the virtucrats has been profound. At the university, equality has replaced intellectual achievement as the goal. They have lowered the standard of culture, and everywhere narrowed the range of artistic possibilities. Today a white writer is no longer permitted to write about blacks, a man about women, or a heterosexual about homosexuals.
The virtucrats have all but crushed humor. They have radically altered language, down to its use of pronouns. They have made it impossible to talk candidly about crime at a time when candor is desperately needed. They have made life, guided by their own self-righteousness, more inhibited, constricted, unpleasant all round.
The virtucrat is a moral bully, and like all bullies must be stood up to and stopped.
- Starbucks to Pay for Employees’ Travel Expenses for Abortions and ‘Sex-Change’ Procedures
From The Daily Citizen:
The next time you consider pulling up to the Starbucks’ drive through line, ready to place your order for a tall black coffee or grande caffe latte, you may want to pause and give it a second thought.
That’s because the world’s largest coffeehouse chain announced on Monday that it will begin covering travel expenses for employees seeking abortions or so-called sex change procedures.
In a memo sent to employees on Monday, the corporation said it will reimburse U.S. employees for travel expenses if they travel more than 100 miles to abort their preborn baby.
“Like many of you, I’m deeply concerned by the draft Supreme Court opinion related to the constitutional right to abortion that was first established by Roe v. Wade,” Sara Kelly, a human resources executive, wrote in the memo.
The move from Starbucks comes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade, thereby granting states the authority to further restrict or prohibit abortion prior to a preborn baby’s viability.
- 5 Pro-Life Strategies for Post-Roe America
From The Daily Signal:
In December, I returned home to Florida from Washington, D.C., after watching the oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in that case, especially in light of the recent leaked draft opinion, is likely to significantly undermine or even completely overturn Roe v. Wade in June.
Only days later, I was in the office of Florida’s incoming speaker of the House. I was there to discuss our 2022 pro-life legislative priorities. Moments after the introductory niceties, he directly asked this hypothetical: “The year is 2023. The Dobbs case has been decided. Roe is overturned. What are you going to ask me to do?”
I was stunned at the frankness of this question coming from the second-most powerful political figure in our state.
I fumbled around and discussed some policy options for him to consider, but I lacked conviction and focus. I should have had a well-thought-out response and should have immediately cast a clear vision for how we can and should end abortion in our state. But I didn’t.
After the meeting, my vague and meandering response to his question haunted me for months.
That experience helped me to see one thing clearly: I was not prepared to discuss a specific action plan for the very scenario I worked my entire adult life to see come to pass.
I also realized I wasn’t alone. Many leaders in the pro-life movement—much less many elected officials—are not ready to seriously think about a nation free from the ugly shadow of Roe v. Wade.
If Roe is overturned, this isn’t the end of the pro-life movement; it’s only the beginning. To prepare for that beginning, there are five areas we can address for what, God willing, will be the single most historic moment in the pro-life movement.
- Care for Women and Children
- Law and Public Policy
- Elections
- Education
- Direct Action
7.America more interested in Depp-Heard trial than abortion
Sigh. From Axios:
The defamation trial between actors and former spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has quickly amassed more online attention than some of the country’s biggest and most pressing news stories, including the leaked Supreme Court decision and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
While political America hangs on an impending Supreme Court verdict on abortion, many more eyeballs are focused on developments in the Depp-Heard trial.
News articles about the trial, which began April 12, have generated more total social media interactions (likes, comments, shares) than coverage about abortion and the Supreme Court or inflation, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip.
On a per-article basis, the trial has dwarfed all other major topics in the news (see chart above).
There have been double the Google searches for Amber Heard than for Elon Musk over the last month, according to Google Trends data. There have been nearly 4x more searches for her name than for abortion or the Supreme Court.
8.Judge Strikes Down California Law Mandating Women on Boards
From The Wall Street Journal:
A state judge struck down a California law requiring companies in the state put female directors on their boards, the second legal setback in as many months for efforts to mandate board diversity.
Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis of the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles ruled that the 2018 law was unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clause of the state’s constitution, according to a copy of the verdict.
9. Be a Faithful Citizen, Not a Lone Ranger
From the Gospel Coalition:
We need community. When we don’t have it, we’ll feel an emptiness, a longing, a craving, one that isn’t rooted in discontentment but in our very design. Just like God created us to require oxygen and water and food to live, he’s created us to need one another. It is not good that man should be alone, and it never was. So God made the church.
Individual Salvation, Corporate Citizenship
In Western culture, the high regard for autonomy and obsession with individualism has come at a cost: community. This lack of community (coupled with other factors) has contributed to rising loneliness, affecting our physical and mental well-being. In the church, it’s affecting our spiritual health too.
When cultural Christianity was the norm, many who grew up in or around church inherited a false assurance of salvation. Mounting concerns over this problem harkened a new focus on personal relationships with Jesus. This wasn’t entirely ill-founded. God loves us as individuals and calls us as individuals to follow him. Going to church doesn’t save you. Having Christian parents doesn’t save you. Living in the Bible Belt doesn’t save you. Jesus does, indeed, require personal allegiance.
However, well-intentioned efforts to emphasize the importance of a personal relationship with God have inadvertently diminished the importance of our corporate relationship. It doesn’t end with just “Jesus and me.” God has saved us individually to become a people:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Pet. 2:9–10)
10.Heroic Passenger Turned Pilot Credits God with Successful Emergency Landing
From The Daily Citizen:
By now you’ve heard of Darren Harrison, the 39-year-old interior designer who somehow successfully landed a single-engine Cessna plane en route from the Bahamas after its pilot fell unconscious.
“I’ve got a serious situation here, my pilot has gone incoherent,” Harrison told air-traffic controllers. “I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”
In an exclusive interview with Today show host Savannah Guthrie, the married father-to-be shared the harrowing train of events, including having to pull the plane out of a steep dose with the ocean quickly approaching.
Eventually, Harrison was able to land the aircraft at Palm Beach International Airport – a nearby site selected because of its long wide, long runways. After coming to a stop, the passenger-turned pilot described his first act:
“I said thank you for everything, and I threw the headset on the dash and said the biggest prayer I’ve ever said in my life. That’s when all the emotions set in.”
Harrison’s first prayers were of thanksgiving to have made it – and for the incapacitated pilot still unconscious behind him on the floor. Although not expected to live, he’s due to be released from the hospital today.
NBC’s Guthrie than asked Harrison, “What enabled you to manage in a crisis a life-or-death emergency and stay so calm?” He replied with one word:
“God.”
“The hand of God was on that plane,” he said.
“And on you,” Guthrie interjected.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Harrison agreed.
Guthrie went on to say that the heroic-passenger had previously struggled with being a “hot-head” and has been going to church and bible study to work on his temper.
