Paul Random

Elon Musk’s Free Speech Legacy

Elon Musk formally departed the Trump administration on Friday to conclude his high profile and controversial tenure as a special government employee heading up the newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).

On Thursday, President Trump posted on Truth Social:

“This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific!”

Musk responded in kind:

As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.

Although somewhat critical of one another during President Trump’s first administration, Musk and the 47th chief executive forged a strong bond during the last campaign. Both contrarian and countercultural at heart, the relationship strengthened significantly after the Tesla founder purchased Twitter and reinstated Trump to the forum. After the president survived the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt, Musk endorsed his candidacy. 

“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his full recovery,” wrote Musk on X just minutes after last year’s shooting.

While originally skeptical of Elon Musk, many conservatives have warmed to the tech entrepreneur. Bold, brash and willing to confront the establishment, it’s easy to see why. At the same time, Musk’s uneven personal life has made many evangelical and socially conservative Christians uncomfortable.

Reports suggest the tech mogul has 14 children with four women. Back in 2022, Musk tweeted:

Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.

Musk will find no disagreement from us on the latter observation. The increasing population dirth represents an existential crisis. One of the most befuddling and frustrating facts today is how many people, especially culture’s elites, think and believe the exact opposite. They contend the world is overpopulated and that we run the risk of depleting resources and exterminating ourselves if we keep welcoming children into the world. They’re absolutely wrong. God has provided plenty of resources and continues to command us to populate the earth.

But separating children from marriage is a major part of the problem. The success and strength of cultures rise and fall on the marital union. Advocating for more children outside of marriage won’t solve the problem but only exacerbate it.

Yet, as he heads back to Tesla and X, Musk’s lasting legacy will not be cutting government waste, normalizing or popularizing the electric car, or even commercializing space travel. Instead, Elon Musk has done his greatest work in helping rescue free speech.

After purchasing Twitter for $44 billion, the tech giant posted, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”

He is right.

At a time when conservative Christians were being silenced by the big tech social media titans, Musk stepped in and wrestled the reigns of Twitter back from the brink of a dictatorial stranglehold.

Prior to Musk’s purchase, the satirical site The Babylon Bee was banned from Twitter, specifically for noting the exclusivity of two genders.

“We refused to censor ourselves and lost access to this platform because of it,” reflected the Babylon Bee’s Seth Dillon. “The only reason we’re back is because Elon shared our belief that you can’t put a price on freedom.”

Dillion, who plays a prominent role in Focus on the Family’s forthcoming documentary, Truth Rising, has said, “We should be allowed to tell jokes, especially jokes that tell the truth.”

Elon Musk has described himself as a “cultural Christian” and “a big believer in the principles of Christianity.” To be sure, only the Lord knows where he’s at regarding a personal relationship with Him. But as he departs the White House and DOGE, we wish him well, pray for him, and extend our thanks to him for the critical role he’s played in preserving our First Amendment rights. 

Image from Getty.

Where is Ava Moore’s Due Process?

It’s a heartbreaking story that is becoming all-too familiar.

Over this past weekend, 18-year-old Ava Moore, an Air Force Academy cadet candidate, was killed by an illegal alien from Venezuela.

Ava was kayaking on Grapevine Lake, Texas this past Memorial Day weekend when Daikerlyn Alejandra Gonzalez, who was driving a jet ski at a high speed, collided with the incoming Air Force cadet.

Gonzalez has been charged with second-degree felony manslaughter. Maikel Coello Perozo, who she was with, was charged with collision involving damage to a vehicle and with hindering apprehension after fleeing the scene.

In a statement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “Ava Moore’s senseless death was caused by an illegal alien who should have never been in our country in the first place. My heart breaks for Ava’s family and friends, and my prayers are with them as they face this tragedy.”

Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have confirmed that both individuals were here illegally. Previously apprehended at the border, they were released and instructed to return for processing. They never did.

According to the House Committee on Oversight, “The Biden Administration failed to detain most illegal aliens during removal proceedings, releasing over 75 percent of illegal aliens encountered by Border Patrol in December 2023. In addition, the Administration failed to remove most of the illegal aliens encountered during Joe Biden’s presidency.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have reported there were nearly 11 million “encounters” at the borders during the Biden years compared with 3 million during President Trump’s first term.

Nobody is alleging that the individuals here illegally deliberately targeted Moore, but if they had been properly processed in the first place, Ava would still be alive.

Moore had just graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School and was expected to play basketball for the Falcons this coming season.

Her would-be school mourned her passing in a statement from Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind:

We lost an exemplary teammate this weekend — Cadet Candidate Ava Moore, whose passion for leadership and service left an impact on everyone she met. Ava’s constant happiness and attitude helped her squadron get through the challenges of the Prep School, and her drive to excel was on display as she sought out leadership positions to improve herself and her team.

In recent months, legal and political battles have unfolded over the deportation of illegal aliens just like these individuals now charged in the death of Ava Moore. In March, the Trump administration deported 238 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and 23 members of MS-13, an international gang. In an effort to simplify and expedite the process, officials invoked the Alien Enemies Act – a 1798 law that gives the president broad powers to remove individuals who pose a threat to the country.

Critics and some courts and judges have pushed back citing the need for “due process” – which is principle broadly understood to ensure fundamental fairness.

Without diving into the details or individual cases, an obvious and heart-wrenching question must be posed: Who was protecting the fundamental rights of Ava Moore this past weekend to enjoy a kayak ride on a holiday weekend?

Earlier this month, Homeland Security released a video remembering Americans killed by illegal immigrants driving under the influence.

Ivory Smith was seven years old. Maverick Martzen was eight. Alex “AJ” Wise Jr. was ten.

And Ava Moore was eighteen.

In a remarkable gesture, Ava’s family released a statement following her death, pointing to a foundation of faith:

This is a difficult time for all involved, but also an opportunity for our beautiful girl to continue to impact our community. Out of this tragedy, God will make good — and that only can be accomplished through forgiveness.

We urge prayers for all those grieving the loss of this young woman.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

‘Torches of Freedom’ Cigarettes, Abortion and Lies Women are Sold

It was the Greek philosopher Epictetus who once suggested, “Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world.”

Christians can certainly reconcile that observation with man’s fallen nature. The serpent in the Garden of Eden assured Eve she wouldn’t die from eating the forbidden fruit, and that by consuming it would become like God Himself (Genesis 3:4-5).

It was the first lie ever told, and deceit and deception have been flowing ever since.

This proclivity came to mind recently when I came across the name of Edward Bernays, otherwise known as the “Father of Public Relations.”

The pioneering publicist hailed from a prominent family. His uncle was Sigmund Freud. Bernays’ best-known campaign was a massively successful effort to publicize the tobacco industry and specifically, convince women to smoke cigarettes out in the open.

In the early 1900s, it was considered impolite and unladylike for women to smoke in public. The act was often associated with prostitutes. But the industry recognized that if they could rebrand and reframe the habit, they’d be able to exponentially increase sales.

Enter Edward Bernays.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society,” reflected the PR guru.

So, to reverse the stigma of women and cigarettes, Bernays began referring to the tobacco in advertisements as “Torches of Freedom” and correlated women smoking outdoors with liberating and unshackling them from a male dominated culture. They also suggested smoking after dinner was healthier than having dessert.

The high point of the public campaign was inviting women to march down New York City’s Fifth Avenue during the 1929 Easter Parade and smoke cigarettes while advocating for women’s equality. Headlined The New York Times the next day:

Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of “Freedom”

A photographer from Vogue magazine was invited to join the throng. The stunt was successful. Images in other newspapers of prominent women smoking in public made their way across the country. The message was clear: a liberated woman should feel free to smoke wherever a man was inclined to light up.

In reality, smoking didn’t liberate women – it caused many to get sick, thicken their lungs, develop emphysema and heart disease, suffer an increase in strokes and other respiratory illness – and eventually die of cancer.

So much for liberation. The so-called “Torches of Freedom” actually torched their health, dignity and enslaved them to an addictive and bad habit, often for a lifetime.

Sound familiar?

Abortion advocates regularly tout the freedom to kill a preborn child as a foundational right for women.

“Abortion is liberating” proclaims the ACLU in an advertisement selling a ballcap with the words “Abortion Power” embroidered on it.

Planned Parenthood and other radical activists have echoed a similar perspective for decades. According to their distorted logic, abortion ensures women of autonomy over their own bodies. Their innocent child is simply a necessary casualty in pursuit of this freedom.

In fact, abortion not only kills the innocent child, it also enslaves the mother to a lifetime of misery and regret. They’re burdened by the equivalent of countless side effects – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

“When you can get women to despise their own child in the womb, you know you’ve pulled off a wicked and evil campaign,” said Focus on the Family president Jim Daly.

Years later, Bernays wrote of his “Torches of Freedom” campaign:

“Age-old customs, I learned, could be broken down by a dramatic appeal, disseminated by the network of media. Of course, the taboo was not destroyed completely. But a beginning had been made, one I regret today.”

Similarly, willing allies in the media have aided the abortion propogandists, working overtime for the last half-century to break down taboos.

Let’s hope and pray the conniving actors and spiritually blind who are behind this evil effort come acknowledge their regrets sooner than later.

Image credit: American Tobacco Co., 1929

Live Like Phil Robertson: Be as Bold as the Bible

Condolences and tributes have been pouring in since the death of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson was announced on Saturday night.

In a statement released on social media, Phil’s son Willie and daughter-in-law Korie wrote on behalf of the entire family:

“We celebrate today that our father, husband, and grandfather, Phil Robertson, is now with the Lord. We are grateful for his life on earth and will continue the legacy of love for God and love for others until we see him again.”

Nearly 12,000 friends of Focus on the Family commented on the ministry’s post from President Jim Daly lauding the founder of Duck Commander, the hunting supplier. 

“We mourn his passing but celebrate his liberation from this world and all its challenges, including his Alzheimer’s disease,” Daly wrote. “Phil helped build a sporting empire and ‘dynasty’ that seemed to focus on duck calls and other hunting products. In reality, Phil was more interested in calling all of us sinners to forge a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He saw the family of faith in the Lord as the one true dynasty that would never falter or fail.”

Fans and friends have reacted with sadness and reflection, but in a recently unearthed video clip, Phil Robertson made clear he didn’t want or expect tears over his passing.

“When I die, don’t cry. Dance, sing — but don’t cry when I die. When I die, you say, ‘He made it, because I watched him as he walked through the years’ — don’t cry.”

The affection and outpouring for Phil was driven by a variety of factors, including his steadfast faith and unapologetic profession of the Gospel, along with his willingness to speak truth in a woefully confused culture. 

Back in 2013, Phil was “suspended” by the A&E Network for remarks he made in an interview with GQ magazine. 

“What, in your mind, is sinful?” asked the reporter. Robertson replied:

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men. Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

Of course, Phil was simply quoting the apostle Paul’s admonition to believers in Corinth.

A&E’s decision to shelve the reality television star was entirely symbolic. All of the show’s episodes for the season had already been filmed. It was the equivalent of suspending a Major League Baseball player for the month of December. Two weeks later, the network lifted the ceremonial ban after getting inundated with complaints and after Phil Robertson said what every Christian already knew.

“I don’t worry too much about people hating or insulting me,” he later said. “I’m a sinful man, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. People have reason to hate me. All I did was quote a passage of Scripture from antiquity. They’re mad at me, but I’m really just quoting what God said, so He’s the one they have a problem with.”

Phil’s sustained popularity can be attributed to his willingness to speak up and not back down in the face of criticism. He didn’t care what other people thought of him, so long as he was living in a manner that pleased and brought honor and glory to God.

The weak and wobbly of culture put a lot of stock in what other people think of them. Some might even believe the Lord needs better public relations and so they set out to soften what they believe are His sharp edges. It’s unnecessary and a fool’s errand.

Phil Robertson’s bluntness and courage will be missed, but his witness can still teach long after his departure. Phil’s life demonstrated that change is possible. Addicted, unfaithful, and miserable, the founder of Duck Commander turned his life over to the Lord in his late 20s. Because he was willing to change, everything began changing for him.

The arc of Phil’s 79-year life also reminds us that Christians can be as bold as the Bible and as a courageous as Christ.

Kelsey Grammer: ‘The Abortion of My Son Eats Away at My Soul’

It’s been almost fifty years since Karen Elisa Grammer, the sister of actor Kelsey Grammer, was raped and murdered here in Colorado Springs.

At the time, Karen was an 18-year-old waitress working at a local Red Lobster restaurant.

Kelsey Grammer has spoken at length about the horror, especially when the convicted murderer comes up for parole. At a 2009 hearing, the Cheers and Frasier star was blunt when describing the incarcerated individual.

This is a butcher. This is a monster. Is it possible for him to live on the outside without returning to his old ways? She was abducted by a group of animals, raped by them, savaged by them and then finally butchered by them … She was my best friend and the best person I knew … I loved my sister Karen. I miss her. I miss her in my bones. I was her big brother. I was supposed to protect her – I could not. I was supposed to save her. I’ve never gotten over it. It very nearly destroyed me.

The actor has more to share about his lasting love for Karen, his personal pain in grieving her loss and his difficult life journey stemming from several tragedies – including the 1968 murder of his father.

But Grammer also pulls back the curtain on his own regrets that stick with him to this day.

His new memoir, Karen: A Brother Remembers, delves into those key chapters of his life with his sister, but also his heartbreaking involvement in two separate abortions.

“I know that many people do not have a problem with abortion, and though I have supported it in the past, the abortion of my son eats away at my soul,” writes Grammer.

Kelsey was 19 years old when his girlfriend announced she was pregnant and expressed plans to get an abortion. Although he says he was willing to parent the child, he also says, “I did not plead with her to save his life.”

Curiously, Grammer explains he didn’t try to persuade his girlfriend, because he believed “a woman has a right to do what she wants with her own body.” The actor then adds, “I still do. But it’s hard for me. Still is.”

So ingrained are abortion’s lies and talking points that an actor who has been tortured by the memory of the killing of his son still doesn’t seem quite ready to note that while a woman may have license over her own body, the child inside her is a separate and vulnerable person in need of protection.

Grammer then speaks with moral clarity.

“I volunteered to have my son’s body vacuumed out of his mother’s. I regret it … The doctor, or so-called doctors, who have executed generations of children in this manner — I have no idea how they call themselves doctors. Something about the ‘first, do no harm’ thing. But I offer no controversy.”

The actor, who famously played the finicky Frasier Crane, also shares the painful story of he and his wife, Kayte, who was carrying twins, being faced with a life-or-death predicament.

One of the baby’s amniotic fluid sac had ruptured. “Doctors advised us his continued growth without the safety of his amniotic fluid would surely kill him and probably take Faith (their preborn daughter) too,” Kelsey recalled. “It did not repair.”

He writes, “We killed our son so Faith might live. We wept as we watched his heart stop. It is the greatest pain I have ever known. Kayte’s scream was enough to make a man mourn a lifetime.”

Abortion advocates are more often women than men, but the lifetime of regret and pain that follows abortion touches both mothers and fathers.

Kelsey Grammer’s candid and wrought writing is difficult to read, but perhaps his vulnerability will help change the mind of men and even women and convince them to think again before going through with an abortion.

Image from Getty.