Good Morning!
Today’s top stories bring to mind the chilling words of the apostle Paul, from Romans 1:28:
“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper…”
- Woke Insanity: Hawley States Only Women Can Get Pregnant. UC Prof, Abortion Rights Advocate, Calls Him ‘Transphobic’
From the Daily Wire:
In a contentious exchange in which an abortion rights advocate and law professor acted patronizingly toward Missouri GOP Senator Josh Hawley, who asked whether her phrase “people with a capacity for pregnancy” simply meant women, the professor accused him of being “transphobic.”
University of California at Berkeley Law professor Khiara Bridges appeared at a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine legal concerns following the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v Wade.
“Professor Bridges, you’ve said several times; you’ve used a phrase; I just want to make sure I understand what you mean by it. You’ve referred to ‘people with a capacity for pregnancy,’” Hawley pointed out, then asked bluntly. “Would that be women?”
“Many women, cis women, have the capacity for pregnancy; many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy,” Bridges asserted. “There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as non-binary people who are capable of pregnancy.”
“So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue,” Hawley commented. “It’s a what?”
“So your view is that the Court — this right, then, is about what?” Hawley asked.
“So I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic,” Bridges charged, then laughed haughtily before continuing, “and it opens up trans people to violence by not recognizing them —”
“Wow, you’re saying that I’m opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women are the only folks who can have pregnancies?” Hawley reacted.
Bridges deflected, “So I wanna note that one out of five transgender persons has attempted suicide. So I think it’s important —”
“Because of my line of questioning? So we can’t talk about it?” Hawley asked.
RELATED:
Pennsylvania Governor Vetoes Bill Protecting Women’s Sports from Male Competitors
From the Daily Citizen:
A bill passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly that would prevent males from competing in women’s sports in the state’s public schools and universities hit a roadblock on July 8 in the form of a veto by Governor Tom Wolf.
House Bill 972 (HB 972), known as the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” requires that athletic teams or sports designated for females in the state’s public primary, high schools, public colleges and universities be open only to students of the female sex.
If the bill had been signed into law, Pennsylvania would have joined a movement of 18 other states that have already protected women’s sports from unfair competition from men who claim to be women.
Gov. Wolf told reporters that the state’s legislators who passed the bill should be ashamed of themselves.
But what about the rights of women, who for 50 years since the passage of Title IX by Congress have themselves been protected from discrimination in education, particularly in sports?
The Pennsylvania Family Institute (PA Family) is a leading advocate for families across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and an ally of Focus on the Family. In a press release, the organization decried the governor’s veto.
“Governor Wolf’s veto is a massive slap in the face to the women and girls of Pennsylvania and their ability to fairly compete in sports,” said Emily Kreps, Legal Assistant at PA Family. “Women will be left to race for second and face serious injuries in many sports, all because the Governor has put ideology above basic realities about biology.
“In high schools and colleges in Pennsylvania, males identifying as female (like swimmer Lia Thomas from Penn) are competing on women’s teams. By his veto, Governor Wolf is allowing this unfair practice to continue,” she added.
- Pride Month and Public Decency
From First Things:
During a recent appearance on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed, “It’s my honor to be here, to say to all of you how proud we are of you…your freedom of expression of yourselves in drag is what America is all about.”
Pelosi’s assertion might strike many Americans as absurd—even if they hesitate to say so and are unsure how to say it. Is our “sweet land of liberty” really all about grown men dressing up as hyper-sexualized caricatures of women, taking over the public square, and insisting that society celebrate them? Surely Pelosi’s version of America is one that the pilgrims, and our fathers and grandfathers, would find shameful.
After years of increasing aggression from the LGBT lobby, many Americans have had enough. Some have gone to the parades, libraries, and drag shows to protest. The citizens who show up rarely succeed in shutting down the events. But it shouldn’t be left to private individuals to act as “public decency” vigilantes in the first place. Ensuring public decency, no less than public health, is a duty of legislators.
Nancy Pelosi didn’t just celebrate dressing up in drag. She encouraged her audience to act: “It’s very important for people to make their voices and their vote heard.” I agree. It’s very important for the people to make their voices and their vote heard. Until they do, year by year, every town, city, and county in the nation will drift closer to Pelosi’s twisted idea of “what America is all about.”
3.Five Lies the Abortion Industry is Pushing and How to Respond
From the Daily Citizen:
Here are five lies the pro-abortion lobby is spreading now that Roe has been overturned and how you should respond:
1.Women with life-threatening conditions will be forced to carry a baby even if it means they die.
FALSE. States with pro-life laws in place banning or restricting abortion all include exceptions for the life of the mother. It is still lawful for a woman to receive an abortion in all fifty states to save her life.
- Women won’t be able to receive treatment for ectopic pregnancies.FALSE. Abortion is not the treatment for an ectopic pregnancy, and all fifty states already recognize this scientific truth.
3.Women won’t be able to receive care for miscarriages.
FALSE. The abortion lobby likes to equate the unexpected death of a baby in the womb with the intentional killing of a baby in the womb. They are certainly not the same and it’s dishonest to imply that they are.
4. Pro-life pregnancy resource centers hurt women and should be shut down.
FALSE. Pregnancy resource centers empower women to make informed decisions regarding their lives and their babies’ lives. Abortion sellers like to convince women that their only real option is to get an abortion because that’s their business model.
5. Roe v. Wade’s reversal violates the separation of church and state.
FALSE. Roe’s reversal did not violate the so-called separation of church and state. In fact, there were no religious arguments even made before the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. None.
RELATED:
Ohio AG throws cold water on viral story that Biden promoted of alleged child rape resulting in cross-state abortion
From TheBlaze:
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) disclosed Monday that his office has not been notified of any 10-year-old rape victims, another red flag suggesting a story promoted by President Joe Biden is not true.
At a press conference last week, Biden spoke about a 10-year-old girl from Ohio who allegedly had to travel to a different state to receive an abortion.
“Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life,” Biden said.
Not only are fact-checkers unable to verify the story, but not a single law enforcement agency has released information corroborating the story.
This is an important detail because Ohio law requires mandatory reporters, like physicians, to report cases of child abuse to law enforcement. The rape of a 10-year-old child, resulting in a pregnancy, should have been immediately reported to law enforcement, who presumably would have opened a criminal investigation into the case.
- Lawless West Coast States Create ‘Safe Haven’ for Out-of-State Abortion Seekers, Not Their Own Residents
From Townhall:
Democratic leadership in crime-ridden California, Oregon, and Washington have pledged to make West Coast states “a safe haven” for out-of-state abortion seekers and abortionists, while they fail to take care of their own law-abiding residents. Urban plagues like violent crime and rampant substance abuse have long consumed the deep-blue strongholds whose unpopular Democrat governors continue to prioritize progressive pandering over addressing grave issues in their own backyards that directly affect their exceedingly fed-up constituents.
The multi-state commitment to “reproductive freedom” and “standing united on protecting abortion access” was deliberately issued on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. A dozen of Republican-led states had enacted trigger laws in the event Roe got struck down that immediately, or pending action, would take effect and enforce certain abortion restrictions, thereby criminalizing the act with some exceptions and costing abortion providers thousands of dollars via fines, jail time, and their medical license.
“We will not stand on the sidelines as these attacks mount,” the trio of governors vowed, assuring the so-called “West Coast offense” will work against judicial and local law enforcement cooperation with investigations, inquiries, and arrests from across state lines regarding the aiding and abetting of abortions outlawed in other jurisdictions that are otherwise legal in the coastal states. They’ll also refuse “non-fugitive extradition of individuals for criminal prosecution” related to alleged abortion offenses and charge their state judiciaries with not issuing subpoenas or summons in cases where prosecution is pending—or where a grand jury investigation has commenced or is about to commence—for a civil or criminal violation of abortion law from another state.
5. An Open Letter Denouncing the Attacks on Justice Clarence Thomas
From Glenn Loury and Robert Woodson, Sr., in RCP:
We, the undersigned, condemn the barrage of racist, vicious, and ugly personal attacks that we are witnessing on Clarence Thomas – a sitting Supreme Court justice. Whether it is calling him a racist slur, an “Uncle Tom” or questioning his “blackness” over his jurisprudence, the disparagement of this man, of his faith and of his character, is abominable.
Regardless of where one stands on Justice Thomas’ personal or legal opinions, he is among the pantheon of black trailblazers throughout American history and is a model of integrity, scholarship, steadfastness, resilience, and commitment to the Constitution of the United States of America. For three decades Justice Thomas has served as a model for our children. He has long been honored and celebrated by black people in this country and his attackers do not speak for the majority of blacks.
He is entirely undeserving of the vitriol directed at him. Character assassination has become too convenient a tool for eviscerating those who dare dissent from the prevailing agenda, especially when it is a black man who is dissenting.
This is not about the content of the court’s decisions or Justice Thomas’ personal views; some of the undersigned agree with his judicial decisions and some do not. We speak out – as black people and Americans – to condemn these attacks and support Justice Thomas, because to remain silent would be to implicitly endorse these poisonous schemes as well as his destruction.
- The Pursuit of ‘Social Justice’ Is Getting People Killed
Jason Riley writes in the Wall Street Journal:
t’s difficult to keep track of all the public policies being advocated in the name of “social justice,” but the damage is mounting. And no one is harmed more than the people in whose name the policies are promoted.
Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its front page that the City Council president wants “to revisit stop-and-frisk,” a police tactic that involves officers’ stopping, questioning and sometimes searching pedestrians engaged in suspicious behavior. For decades, police departments around the country have used stop and frisk to remove illegal guns from the street and reduce crime rates. But social-justice activists—who, ironically, support gun control—have decried the practice because blacks and Hispanics are stopped more often than other groups.
For critics, the racial imbalance in stops is evidence of racial bias, rather than a reflection of higher violent crime rates among blacks and Hispanics versus other racial and ethnic groups. Men are also stopped more often than women. Is that evidence of sexism? In big cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis and Baltimore, violent crime is highly concentrated, not only among certain groups but also geographically. “A small sliver of blocks—just 4 percent in Chicago, for example—can account for a majority of shootings in a city or a county,” the New York Times reported recently.
Yet in their efforts to correct racial disparities in policing, social-justice activists play down or ignore the racial disparities in crime victimization. When Michael Nutter was mayor of Philadelphia, from 2008 to 2016, he supported stop and frisk, and “its use—combined with other law-enforcement strategies—coincided with the city’s lowest murder rate in 50 years,” according to the Inquirer. Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union and other activists, however, the current mayor curtailed the practice, the number of stops plummeted, and violent crime spiked.
7. Why Christian Teens Have an Identity Crisis
From the Gospel Coalition:
Gen Z is facing an unprecedented identity crisis. Every time I ask youth pastors or Christian leaders what they think is the biggest struggle for teens today, the answer is the same: identity. Teens are struggling to know who they are and if they matter. I hear their questions and, as an early-20s Gen Z, I can relate.
Who am I? What determines my identity? What is the purpose of life?
Teens (and adults) do need to know who they are. If we disregard the important truths that we’re loved, chosen, redeemed, and forgiven, we have a truncated theology of identity. But when our default responses to important questions of identity focus more on us than on God, we settle for answers that mimic the world’s self-focused approach.
“Identity in Christ” cannot be separated from Christ and all that comes within the message of the gospel—God’s holiness, mankind’s rebellion, and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. If our teaching of identity glosses over these foundational truths, “identity in Christ” simply becomes a Christian catchphrase that leaves the hearers wondering how to find identity in God when all they’ve been told is more about themselves.
- News engagement plummets as Americans tune out
From Axios:
Details: Engagement with news content across all platforms declined significantly in the first half of 2022.
- Cable viewership across the three major cable news networks — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — is, on average, down 19% in prime time for the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2021. Those losses skew heavily toward CNN and MSNBC, which are down 47% and 33%, respectively. Fox’s ratings are up 12% in that six-month span.
- News app sessions for the top 12 mainstream most-trafficked publishers dropped 16% in the first half of 2022, according to data from Apptopia.
- Website visits for the top 5 news websites in the U.S. by unique visits tracked by Similarweb dropped 18% in the first half of 2022.
- Engagement on social media with news articles cratered over the past six months, dropping 50% since the first half of last year, despite more articles published, according to data from Newswhip. Engagement is measured by interactions with articles posted, which includes likes, comments and shares.
Yes, but: The steep drop-off in social media engagement with news was likely influenced by Facebook’s de-emphasizing news in the News Feed as it seeks to move news consumption to its News Tab.
9. Homebuyers are canceling deals at the highest rate since the start of the pandemic
From CNBC:
Americans are canceling deals to buy homes at the highest rate since the start of the Covid pandemic.
The share of sale agreements on existing homes canceled in June was just under 15% of all homes that went under contract, according to a new report from Redfin. That is the highest share since early 2020, when homebuying paused immediately, albeit briefly. Cancelations were at about 11% one year ago.
Higher mortgage rates and surging inflation are causing many potential homebuyers to reconsider their purchases.
The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage started this year around 3% and then began rising steadily. It briefly shot above 6% in mid-June before settling in a narrow range around 5.75% now, according to Mortgage News Daily.
10. NASA’s Deep Field Images Point to the Majesty of God
From the Daily Citizen:
It’s called “Galaxy Cluster SMACS 0723,” and according to NASA, it’s an image that includes thousands of galaxies deep into space. Incredibly, according to space agency officials, the image is “the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length, a tiny sliver of the vast universe.”
Officials are heralding the finding as a great advancement, suggesting images from the James Webb Space Telescope will lead to information previously unknown.
The wonders and expanse of space was a popular theme of the Psalmists, who also wrote:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (8:3-4)
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. (19:1)
He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names. (147:4).
As Christians, we can and should join the chorus of those celebrating these images – but here is the best news of all:
However awesome and remarkable the photographs from the telescope prove to be, we know that whatever we see with our own eyes this side of eternity will pale in comparison to what we will see on the other side.
We read in Isaiah (64:4) and again in Paul’s first letter to the Church at Corinth, that “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Cor. 2:9).
