More than 20 states have joined lawsuits against the administration.

In a major blow to the Biden administration’s new Title IX guidelines forcing public schools to allow trans-identifying males in girls’ bathrooms and sports, a federal judge on Thursday blocked the rules in four states.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the rules, calling them an “abuse of power” by federal agencies and a “threat to democracy.”

Read more at: dailywire.com

A Gallup survey reported in 2024 found that Americans who attended religious services regularly were more likely to say they were very satisfied with their personal lives than those who seldom or never attended. The archived report cited figures of 56 percent for weekly attendees and 41 percent for infrequent or nonattendees. The findings describe an association, not proof that attending church causes greater happiness. Gallup also reported differences by income, marital status, age, and other characteristics.

Read more at www.faithwire.com

Law enforcement authorities released information about a massive operation targeting human traffickers that led to more than 500 arrests.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a media briefing Monday that police had arrested 539 people in the criminal operation.

“Human trafficking and child exploitation are devastating crimes that prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” the sheriff said.

Police rescued 54 adults and 11 children from exploitation during the action dubbed Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, he added. 40 of the arrested were suspected “sexual traffickers or exploiters” while another 271 arrested were suspected “sex buyers.” Among those rescued was a 14-year-old girl.

He went on to say that the operation was in its tenth year and ended in January, known as human trafficking awareness month, but that police worked all year to arrest human traffickers.

Joining Luna at the media briefing was controversial Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who won his position with financial help from left-wing billionaire George Soros. Residents of Los Angeles have vehemently criticized Soros over soft prosecutorial policies that they say have led to an increase in crime.

The operation included more than 95 local, state, and federal agencies, including the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force.

Alan Smyth, the CEO of human trafficking advocacy group Saving Innocence, said that his group saw an uptick in human trafficking ahead of the World Series baseball championships in Los Angeles in 2020, and they expected to see the same ahead of the NFL Super Bowl.

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the purpose of the operation was to “send a message to pimps, exploiters and buyers that it is unacceptable to buy another human being for sexual purposes.”

Read more: theblaze.com

Harbingers Daily reported that a Christian teacher in Britain reached a settlement after an employment dispute involving his street preaching outside work. The report describes allegations that his employer pressured him to renounce aspects of his religious activity and that his public remarks drew complaints. The case raised questions about religious expression, employment rights and the distinction between personal speech and professional duties. The original article provides details of the dispute and its resolution; the precise legal terms should be confirmed against the settlement or court record.

Read more at harbingersdaily.com

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that an emergency airlift that he ordered brought home another 200 Americans from Israel following the unprecedented terrorist attacks that occurred in the country last weekend, which killed more than 30 Americans.

The announcement from the Republican presidential candidate comes after he signed an executive order directing Florida resources to help bring Americans home. He welcomed two flights earlier this week that brought home nearly 300 Americans.

“I’m happy to report we had another flight bringing Floridians back from Israel land in the wee hours of the morning,” DeSantis said in a video posted to X. “We’ve been able to help hundreds of people get back from the war zone safely to the United States, to the state of Florida.”

DeSantis highlighted the supplies that Florida donated to Israel, which the country received yesterday.

“And we’ve got another flight coming most likely tomorrow morning,” he added. “So, the federal government dragged its feet, a lot of those folks didn’t have any options. We stepped up, showed the leadership, and are delivering results.”

DeSantis announced on Tuesday that his administration sent two large planes containing 85 pallets of donated supplies.

Medical supplies that were donated included 735 ace bandages, approximately 5,000 hospital gowns, 84 IV kits, 30,000+ needles, 30,000+ syringes, 57 ventilators, and 10,000+ boxes of surgical gloves.

Read more at: dailywire.com

For as far as back as he can remember, Rickey Hill knew God was calling him to play professional baseball. The only problem? He was born with a defect that required him to wear braces on his legs — and his father, a stern Baptist preacher, wanted him to enter the ministry, not professional sports.

But his faith, combined with a fierce belief that miracles are possible, compelled Hill to persevere and realize his dream.

“I always believed that I should be a professional ballplayer,” Hill told The Christian Post. “I’ve never, ever wavered from my faith, period. Never did, which would be easy to do when your father’s kind of against what you’re doing. I still never wavered from my faith at all. It’s the same still today.”

Hill’s remarkable story is the subject of a new film titled “The Hill,” starring Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn, Colin Ford, Randy Houser and Joelle Carter. It showcases how Hill, who possessed a natural ability to hit a baseball despite his disability, overcame multiple obstacles to make it to the minor leagues, eventually leading the 1978 Grays Harbor Loggers to a Northwest League championship. He was the team’s top home run hitter.

“God gives you the talent; either have it or you don’t,” Hill said. “It’s just a matter of what you do with it. You can take that talent, and you can work. Scripture says that faith without works is dead. You can have all the faith in the world, but if you don’t have that work that goes along beside that faith, it’s dead. So I always looked at that Scripture my whole life, knowing that I had to work to make it happen. And I did, every day.”

The narrative of “The Hill” revolves heavily around Hill’s relationship with his father, a well-meaning yet stern pastor (Quaid). Both roles pulled at Hill — the passionate preacher’s son who once mimicked his father’s sermons and the dedicated athlete who knew he had a higher calling on the baseball field.

The film captures how Hill managed to bridge these worlds, eventually realizing, “You can serve in ministry anywhere.” Throughout his life, he’s been guided by Philippians 4:13: “I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.”

“I wanted to be in the ministry, but I also wanted to play baseball at the same time, so [my father and I] kind of battled it out there a little bit and came to the conclusion that I can serve in the ministry while I’m playing ball,” he said.

“My father let me decide on my own, and when I told him that I would do both, he understood it,” he continued. “In the end, he loved every bit of it. God kept the spirit going in me, and I never stepped away from it.”

Read more at: www.christianpost.com

As the nation celebrates the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision returning abortion to democratic control, national leaders celebrated the birth of tens, or hundreds, of thousands of unborn children saved by pro-life laws.

Although precise estimates vary, “the best guess that we have is about 200,000 children were born this year that would not have been born” apart from the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, said Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) at a news conference Tuesday. “That’s 200,000 kids. That’s 200,000 smiling faces on playgrounds. That’s 200,000 silly songs, starting in kindergarten. That’s 200,000 families that will be blessed with looking in the eyes of a child.”

The Dobbs decision, which took the shackles off voters and lawmakers to enact life-saving protections for the unborn, eliminated 96% of abortions in the 13 states that enacted pro-life protections between the June 24 decision and year’s end, The Daily Caller found. Although abortion rates had risen early in 2022, state pro-life laws prevented 32,260 abortions in the first six months following the ruling, according to the WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning released in April. A total of 25 states have since enacted some pro-life protections, since they “now have an opportunity in the United States to see this message in the hands of lawmakers and the people,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told Newsmax on Friday.

Saving 200,000 babies — the upper end of an estimate analysis from Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America — would be enough people to fill a city the size of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Vancouver, Washington; or Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Republicans and Democrats had starkly different reactions to the one-year anniversary, much as they did to the landmark pro-life ruling.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) led 20 fellow Republican senators in introducing a resolution praising the Dobbs decision. “[M]odern science has illuminated our understanding of the humanity of unborn life,” the resolution reads. Their motion “celebrates the millions of lives that will be saved as a result of the ruling in Dobbs” and “commits to proclaiming the humanity of the unborn, consistent with the findings of modern science and the unswerving demands of justice.”

“Thank God Almighty for the Dobbs decision!” Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference Friday. In an online ad, Scott highlighted Biden administration Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying the Dobbs decision would prove “very damaging” for the U.S. economy. “That’s unconscionable,” Scott replies in the 60-second spot. “As a black man born to a woman living at the poverty line, I’m so thankful my mama chose life.”

The “Gospel truth” is “the foundation of this nation,” he says.

By contrast, Democrats seethed, cursed, and vowed to remove the voters’ newfound right of democratic consultation in the life-or-death issue.

Read more at: www.lifenews.com

In an age of rapidly declining happiness and rising anxiety, those who embrace the biblical values of faith and family are far more likely to thrive, a new secular survey has found.

Faith in God almost perfectly predicts Americans’ level of happiness, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll taken in March: 68% of “very happy” Americans say they believe in God, compared with 47% who say they are “pretty happy” and 42% who are “not happy.”

The role faith plays in enhancing personal tranquility seems worth studying, given the massive plunge in the number of U.S. citizens reporting positive mental health. Only 12% of Americans describe themselves as “very happy,” a massive fall from the historic norms of 28% to 38% since the survey began asking the question 51 years ago. “The 12% was the smallest share of ‘very happy’ people ever recorded in NORC’s General Social Survey, dating to 1972,” reported the Wall Street Journal — down from 32% just five years ago.

Part of the higher rates of well-being may come from the fact that Americans who regularly read the Bible have greater resilience in the face of trials, a separate poll recently concluded. “Scripture engaged” Christians — meaning those who regularly read or listen to the Bible and say its teachings guide their lives — are more determined to persevere through difficulties and seek successful outcomes than “Bible-disengaged” Americans.

“In dealing with the struggles of life, people who engage with the Bible have far more hope than others,” concluded the American Bible Society.

The survey’s results came as no surprise to Bible-believing Christians. “A recent study showed that Americans who read the Bible have ‘far more hope’ than those who don’t. That’s absolutely right. It is ‘a lamp to our feet and a light to our path’ (Psalm 119:105),” said Rev. Franklin Graham, the founder of Samaritan’s Purse. “I encourage you to read and meditate on the truth of the Word of God. I don’t understand it all, but I believe it all — and it can change your life today.”

Read more at: washingtonstand.com

Bob Unruh – June 21, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled the state of Maine cannot discriminate against religious schools by excluding them from a state program that lets parents use vouchers to pay tuition for their children.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 6-3 majority opinion that explained Maine’s tuition program, which blocked the funds from being used at religious schools, cannot stand.

The ruling echoes a similar ruling from just a few years ago involving religious schools in Montana.

In the Maine case, a family argued that by excluding religious schools from the voucher program, the state was actively discriminating against religion.

Michael Bindas, an attorney for the nonprofit legal group Institute for Justice, argued the case on behalf of the plaintiffs.

“Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” Roberts wrote in the case of Carson v. Maykin.

“Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”

Christopher Taub, the chief deputy attorney general for Maine, had claimed that the state shouldn’t be funding anything that instills religious beliefs, and that providing money for secular private schools does not do that, but that money going to religious schools does.

The state of Maine provides such vouchers to families of students who live where is no local public school to attend – but insisted that the vouchers not be used at religious or “sectarian” schools.

Roberts, during oral arguments, wondered openly about the state’s demands.

“You’re discriminating among religions based on their beliefs,” he said.

https://www.wnd.com

Amy Mek – May 25, 2022

“While today this is about a view found in the Bible, tomorrow it will be about any other opinion.”

Evangelical Pastor Olaf Latzel has been acquitted of hate speech against homosexuals by a German court after they had previously found him guilty in 2020. The charges stem from statements the 54-year-old conservative pastor of the Bremen St. Martini congregation made during a November 2019 marriage seminar at his Church. A video of the seminar was posted months later on his Youtube channel and then deleted. The LGBTQ community accused him of sedition for speaking God’s word.

A court in Bremen, Germany, has previously condemned the pastor for hate speech against homosexuals in 2020. He was fined 8,100 euros and vowed to appeal the sentence.

The court said the pastor promoted hate against homosexuals and violated their dignity in the marriage seminar in which he addressed the activities of what he called the “homolobby.”

Speaking to around 30 couples, he said at one point: “All around walk the criminals of the Christopher Street Day [the Berlin Pride March]. All this gender crap is an attack against God’s order of creation; it is demonic and satanic”.

The pastor claimed that homosexuality is “a ‘degenerative form’ of society.” Latzel warned that the “whole gender crap is an attack on God’s order of creation.”

In the process, the defense of Latzel said these views were based on the Bible and referred to homosexuality and violent LGBT activists and not to homosexual people.

The judge dismissed it, considering that “the homosexual orientation of a person is a part of its personality.”

Latzel’s lawyer said the sentence is a “catastrophe.” He described it as “the opening of a door to restrict freedom of speech” and added that “while today this is about a view found in the Bible, tomorrow it will be about any other opinion.”

https://rairfoundation.com