Paul

May 23 2025

The Best Way to Honor the Dead on Memorial Day is to Reject Radical Ideologues

Memorial Day is a holiday you don’t celebrate but commemorate – a distinction that marketers and many event organizers don’t fully appreciate or subscribe to.

The unofficial start to summer, this extended weekend is marked by road trips, ball games, retail sales, barbecues and extended time with family and friends.

These are good things but shouldn’t be the only things filling these next few days. Memorial Day parades, patriotic prayer services and ceremonies at national cemeteries are all appropriate ways to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their life in the service of their country.

Speaking at Arlington National Cemetery in 1982, President Reagan reflected, “The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery.” He then added, “I can’t claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don’t know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as our does. Does that flag still wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Speaking at Fort McHenry (where the “Star Spangled Banner” was written) on Memorial Day in 2020, President Trump declared:

In every generation, these intrepid souls kissed goodbye to their families and loved ones. They took flight in planes, set sail in ships, and marched into battle with our flag, fighting for our country, defending our people.

When the cause of liberty was in jeopardy, American warriors carried that flag through ice and snow to victory at Trenton. They hoisted it up the masts of great battleships in Manila Bay. They fought through hell to raise it high atop a remote island in the Pacific Ocean called Iwo Jima. From the Philippine Sea to Fallujah, from New Orleans to Normandy, from Saratoga to Saipan, from the Battle of Baltimore to the Battle of the Bulge, Americans gave their lives to carry that flag through piercing waves, blazing fires, sweltering deserts, and storms of bullets and shrapnel. They climbed atop enemy tanks, jumped out of burning airplanes, and leapt on live grenades. Their love was boundless. Their devotion was without limit. Their courage was beyond measure.

We can and should commemorate that courage this weekend in special ceremonies, but we can and should also honor it by pushing back against those who strive to corrupt or destroy it in any number of formats and forums.

World wars have been fought to preserve liberty and freedom. Our brave members of the military battled the enemy halfway across the world in the hope they’d never come to our shores and take up residence in America. They courageously confronted aggressors who wanted to brainwash children in their homes, control hearts and minds in schools and universities, infringe upon free speech, seize free enterprise and replace God with government.

Over a million U.S. military personnel have died in wars since the American Revolution to stop any of that from happening. Their sacrifice made the difference.

Yet, many of those same threats successfully resisted from the outside are now percolating inside our country.

Radical, fringe actors are determined to redefine the family, expand the definition of marriage, obliterate the obvious distinctions between male and female, destroy girl sports, control the major institutions of influence in America (business, education, media, entertainment and government) and silence anyone who resists the revolution.

On this Memorial Day weekend – and every day beyond – the very best way we can pay tribute those in uniform who gave their lives protecting and preserving those freedom would be to push back against the ideologues who want to wrestle it away.

“To every parent who weeps for a child, to every child who mourns for a parent, and to every husband or wife whose heart has been torn in two: Today we ask God to comfort your pain, to ease your sorrow, and to wipe away your tears,” said President Trump on Memorial Day in 2018. “This is a very special day. And today, our whole country thanks you, embraces you, and pledges to you: We will never forget our heroes.”

The very best way to never forget them is to fight back against forces determined to undo what they fought so valiantly to protect.

Image from Getty.

May 22 2025

Supreme Court Tie on Charter School Hurts Oklahoma Students

On Thursday, an equally divided United States Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion in St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond – a case that would have allowed the state of Oklahoma to use government funds to run a faith-based school.

A “per curiam opinion” is a decision issued “by the court” and doesn’t identify how specific judges ruled in the particular case.

Given the current makeup of the High Court, it’s likely that Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh voted in favor of allowing the state-sponsored charter school and Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson voted against it.

Justice Barrett recused herself from the case. While she didn’t offer an explanation at the time, it’s assumed she did so because of her close friendship with Nicole Stelle Garnett, a former fellow professor at Notre Dame Law School and a legal advisor for St. Isidore.

Unfortunately, the 4-4 split means the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision blocking the school will stand. However, given the tie, it doesn’t set any national precedent, meaning it remains an open question whether government dollars can be used to help fund faith-based schools.

First Liberty Institute’s Executive Counsel Hiram Sasser, who represented the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, the State Board of Education, and the State Department of Education in the case, expressed frustration after the ruling.

“We are disappointed, but the result of this 4-4 decision with no opinion is that the fight against religious bigotry will continue in Oklahoma and across the country,” said Sasser. “We will not stop until we can bring an end to religious discrimination in education.”

Oklahoma’s Ryan Walters agreed.

“Allowing the exclusion of religious schools from our charter school program in the name of 19th century religious bigotry is wrong,” said Superintendent Walters. “As state superintendent, I will always stand with parents and families in opposition to religious discrimination and fight until all children in Oklahoma are free to choose the school that serves them best, religious or otherwise.”

Jim Campbell, who serves as Chief Legal Counsel for our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom, and who represented the Oklahoma Charter School Board, also weighed in.

“Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer … The U.S. Supreme Court has been clear that when the government creates programs and invites groups to participate, it can’t single out religious groups for exclusion, and we will continue our work to protect this vital freedom for parents and students.”

At a time when headlines across the country regularly herald the violence, bad behavior and poor educational outcomes in so many public schools, it’s a tragedy that a divided Supreme Court has either delayed or derailed altogether a heartfelt dose of help to Oklahoma families.

“Isidore of Seville,” who was born in 560 AD, was known as “The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages.” A prolific writer, he penned numerous books and encyclopedias, organized and helped start numerous seminaries, and believed well educated followers of Christ were also better citizens of the world.

“All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection,” he once wrote. “By reading we learn what we did not know; by reflection we retain what we have learned. The conscientious reader will be more concerned to carry out what he has read than merely to acquire knowledge of it. In reading we aim at knowing, but we must put into practice what we have learned in our course of study.”

Organizers behind St. Isidore have said from the beginning that their goal has been to serve “God and families by spiritually and academically preparing students, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, for lives of intellectual excellence, holiness, and service to others with the ultimate goal of eternal salvation by bringing quality, Catholic education to all parts of Oklahoma.”

Let’s continue to pray that men and women of faith won’t be disheartened by this latest ruling and continue to pursue the constitutionality of faith-based publicly funded charter schools.

Image from Shutterstock.

Mar 05 2025

17 Quotes from President Trump’s Address to Joint Session of Congress

President Donald J. Trump’s address on Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress lasted over 90 minutes, the longest such speech in over 60 years.

With a gallery full of guests, many of whom were mentioned during the message, the 47^th president paid tribute to a wide range of individuals and highlighted many of his administration’s top priorities.

Here are some of the top quotes from the president’s historic message:

“Our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.”
“I’ve stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.”
“We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender … You should be hired based on merit.”
“We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools, and I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female. I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports.”
“From now on, schools will kick the men off the girls’ team or they will lose all federal funding.”
“Just take a look at what happened in the women’s boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming or cycling, where a male recently finished a long-distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours — broke the record by five hours. It’s demeaning for women, and it’s very bad for our country. We’re not going to put up with it any longer.”
“By slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft we can find, we will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors and put more money in the pockets of American families.”
“If we truly care about protecting Americans’ children, no step is more crucial than securing America’s borders.”
“Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, one in 10,000 children have autism. One in 10,000. And now it’s one in 36. There’s something wrong. One in 36. Think of that.”
“My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl, teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns. They/them pronoun actually. All without telling January. She is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.”
“I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.”
“I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. Now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie. And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.”
“Our service members won’t be activists and ideologues, they will be fighters and warriors, they will fight for our country.”
“From the patriots of Lexington and Concord to the heroes of Gettysburg and Normandy, from the warriors who crossed the Delaware to the trailblazers who climbed the Rockies and from the legends who soared at Kitty Hawk to the astronauts who touched the moon, Americans have always been the people who defied all odds, transcended all dangers, made the most extraordinary sacrifices and did whatever it took to defend our children, our country and our freedom.”
“Our ancestors crossed a vast ocean, strode into an unknown wilderness and carved their fortunes from the rock and soil of a perilous and very dangerous frontier.”
“They chased our destiny across a boundless continent. They built the railroads, laid the highways and graced the world with American marvels like the Empire State Building, the mighty Hoover Dam, and the towering Golden Gate Bridge. They lit the world with electricity, broke free of the force of gravity, fired up the engines of American industry, vanquished the communists, fascists and Marxists all over the world, and gave us countless modern wonders sculpted out of iron, glass, and steel.”
“We stand on the shoulders of these pioneers who built the modern age. These workers who were there swept into the skylines of our cities, these warriors who shed their blood on fields of battle, gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom.”

President Trump is just six weeks into his second term, a tenure that is eliciting strong reaction from friends and foes alike. Regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, you’d be wise to buckle-up and pray for the president and all our elected leaders.

Image from Getty.

Feb 28 2025

Senate Set to Vote on Bill that Protects Women’s Sports

The Senate is expected to vote Monday on the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” legislation reintroduced last month by Senator Tommy Tuberville and designed to make permanent President Trump’s executive order banning men from competing in women’s sports.

The House of Representatives passed similar legislation in January; all Republicans voted for the bill, along with Texas Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez.

“Common sense should tell us that women and girls shouldn’t be forced to compete in sports or share a school locker room with biological males,” said Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. “Although the Biden Administration fought to erase biological differences, I want to uphold equal opportunity for the next generation of female athletes.”

Senator Tuberville echoed Senator Lankford, saying, “President Trump ran on the issue of saving women’s sports and won in a landslide.”

He added,

70% of Americans agree — men don’t belong in women’s sports or locker rooms. I have said many times that I think Title IX is one of the best things to come out of Washington. But in the last few years, it has been destroyed. While I’m glad that the Biden administration ultimately rescinded the proposed rule, Congress has to ensure this never happens again. I am welcoming my first granddaughter this spring and won’t stop fighting until her rights to fairly compete are protected. I hope every one of my colleagues will join me in standing up for our daughters, nieces, and granddaughters by voting for this critical bill.

Given the 53 Republican seats in the Senate and 60 votes needed to advance the bill for a final vote, the fate of Monday’s vote remains uncertain.

Regardless of what state you reside in, your senators need to hear from you. Please reach out to them and urge them to vote “yes” on the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” or S.9.

Opponents of the bill have wrongly suggested the legislation is dangerous and discriminatory. In reality, it helps to ensure the safety of women and rights a major wrong with females being unfairly targeted on various fields of competition. Over 900 women have lost trophies and awards to men pretending to be female.

Thankfully, the American people aren’t falling for the ruse. Wide majorities believe women shouldn’t have to be squaring off against men. It’s common sense. It shouldn’t be controversial.

Many have remarked on the powerful image of President Trump surrounded by girl and women athletes as he signed the executive order that officially (albeit temporarily) rescinded funding from any program that deprived female athletes of fair competition.

It’s tragic that common sense legislation like the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” is necessary. But what will be even more calamitous if an obstructionist minority of Senators refuse to protect our daughters from creeps, con artists and the mentally confused who are scamming girls sports.

Again, please contact your two senators and ask them to vote “YES” on the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” or S.9.

Image from Getty.

Feb 06 2025

President Trump: ‘Without Faith in God, There Would Be No American Story’

President Donald J. Trump participated in two separate prayer breakfast events in Washington, D.C., on Thursday – one at the Capitol and a second one at the Washington Hilton.

“We have to bring religion back,” the President told those gathered on Capitol Hill. “We have to bring it back much stronger. It’s one of the biggest problems that we’ve had over the last fairly long period of time. We have to bring it back.”

As one means to do so, the 47^th chief executive announced plans to establish a presidential commission on religious liberty.

Trump also told those gathered that new Attorney General Pam Bondi will be overseeing a task force designed to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” and weed out or prevent “all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government.”

President Trump pledged:

“While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares,” he said. “And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God.”

In the opening minutes of his address on Capitol Hill, Trump, speaking softly and slowly, referenced the harrowing Saturday back in July of 2024 when he narrowly escaped the would-be assassin’s bullet.

“It changed something in me,” he said. “I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.”

During his remarks, Trump referenced the various giants of the Christian faith who are memorialized in stone and statue not far from where he was speaking in the Capitol.

John Winthrop, who served twelve terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was a devout Puritan and worked tirelessly to cast a vision for a culture and country that held high Jesus Christ.

Ronald Reagan, whose birthday was February 6, often quoted Winthrop when declaring America was “a shining city on a hill.” That phrase came from the Puritan’s famous message, “A Model of Christian Charity.”

“We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body,” urged Winthrop. “So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.”

President Trump also mentioned the statue of Roger Williams, another Puritan, who is credited with founding the state of Rhode Island.

“How frequent, how constant ought we to be, like Christ Jesus our example, in doing good,” urged Williams. “Especially to the souls of men and especially to the household of faith (yea, even to our enemies), when we remember that this is our seed time, of which every minute is precious, and that as our sowing is, so shall be our eternal harvest.

President Trump rightly observed, “Without faith in God, there would be no American Story.”

Over the years, the National Prayer Breakfast has been a bipartisan gathering, though not always without some metaphorical fireworks.

Many of a certain age will never forget a stooped Mother Teresa addressing those gathered inside the Capitol, including President Clinton. It was February 3, 1994. The diminutive nun boldly and courageously raised the subject of abortion.

“I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself,” she said. “And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion?”

Mother Teresa was right.

Timothy Goeglein, Focus on the Family’s Vice President of External Relations who heads up the ministry’s Washington, D.C. office, has attended nearly every prayer breakfast over the last three decades, including this year’s gathering.

“The encouraging and heartening narrative of this year’s National Prayer Breakfast was a rededication to our fundamental religious liberty and conscience rights,” Goeglein reflected. “Over and again, religious freedom as foundational to our constitutional republic was being discussed by this year’s attendees, and after the regular breakfast, there were a number of breakout sessions and forums where religious liberty was being discussed and celebrated yet again.”

Goeglein concluded, “What a good thing, and what a refreshing subtext to this year’s gathering where there were 2500 of us praying for our nation, for our leaders, and for the next chapter of the American experience.”

Image from Getty.