Author: Lee Ardis

The Realities of Pornography Use Today

Pornography is now more readily available and consumed by a larger audience than ever before. Here are some of the latest trends from Barna’s newest study of pornography use, Beyond the Porn Phenomenon, produced in partnership with Pure Desire Ministries.

Porn use remains a growing problem.
Since Barna’s 2015 study The Porn Phenomenon, the number of U.S. adults consuming pornography has continued to rise, with a 6-percentage point increase (from 55% in 2015 to 61% presently). There is also a notable uptick in the number of women accessing pornographic content (39% then vs. 44% now).

Read more at: barna.com

ABILENE, Texas (KTXS) — A youth leader at Abilene’s Beltway Park Church has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography.

A member of the church contacted Abilene Police with concerns regarding one of their youth leaders, according to court documents.

Documents state Charles Goff met with a fellow church member and admitted to struggling with pornography.

Goff specifically said he struggled with videos of teen girls 14-15 years old.

Read more at: wgme.com

“Cathy, what should I do about my social anxiety?”

An acronym for Churchy Answers That Help You, Cathy is a new AI chatbot that answers faith-based questions from the perspective of a friendly, knowledgeable Episcopalian. Despite its feminine name, the “priestbot,” as Cathy sometimes calls itself, is genderless. There are no ornate flowing robes or croziers, either. But like a wise cleric, Cathy jumped right in with an answer.

“Dealing with social anxiety can be challenging, but there are several approaches that might help,” the bot responded. “Practice relaxation techniques” and “challenge your negative thoughts,” Cathy suggested.

Read more at: msn.com

In schools across Northern Ireland, students are finding it more challenging to reveal their Christian faith than their sexual orientation, according to testimony provided during an ongoing inquiry into Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) at Stormont.

David Smyth, a representative of the Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland, told the Education Committee that some young people find it “much more difficult now to come out as an Evangelical Christian in school than it is to come out as LGBT,” according to the BBC.

Read more at: christianpost.com

In Canada, are some students “more equal than others”? A new medical school is opening in Toronto, Canada, and it will “reserve 75 percent [sic] of its seats for Indigenous, Black, and other ‘equity-deserving’ groups, including 2SLGBTQ+.” Yes, that means what you think it means—“able-bodied straight white students can’t apply for these seats.” It’s discrimination in the name of equity. So what’s “equity”?

Well, equity is a big tenet of critical race theory (CRT), the worldview dominating Western academia. Basically, equity, in this context, is equality of outcomes not equality of opportunity.

Read more at: harbingersdaily.com

ROME — Religiously motivated hate crimes against Christians in Europe jumped by a whopping 226 percent in just one year, according to a grim report by a prominent Christian persecution watchdog group.

On Friday, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) released its Annual Report 2024, which documents a startling rise in violent incidents and hostility against Christians, as well as in vandalism and arson attacks on churches.

Read more at: breitbart.com

The plan comes as the DOJ revealed on Friday that it thwarted a second Iranian assassination plot against Trump.

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly planning to ramp up the U.S. pressure campaign on Iran by enacting crippling sanctions on the Islamic regime immediately after taking office.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the plans include “drastically increasing sanctions” on the country and killing its oil industry as part of an “aggressive strategy to undercut Tehran’s support of violent Mideast proxies and its nuclear program.”

Read more at: dailywire.com

The FBI has arrested a Michigan man for allegedly threatening to murder conservative Christians if Donald Trump wins the election.

In a press release, the Justice Department said the FBI National Threat Operations Center received “an anonymous online threatening submission” on Nov. 2.

‘Sissel said that he hated conservative Christians, who he enjoyed threatening.’

Read more at: theblaze.com

A mom is raising awareness of ‘deceptive’ and ‘addictive’ artificial intelligence after claiming her son passed away after allegedly becoming emotionally attached to a chatbot.

In February earlier this year, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III from Orlando, Florida ended his own life.

His mom, Megan Garcia, has since filed a civil lawsuit against customizable role-play chatbot company Character.AI, accusing it of negligence, wrongful death and deceptive trade practices, claiming that Sewell interacted with a chatbot every night and had even ‘fallen in love’ with it prior to his passing.

Read more at: unilad.com

On Friday morning, September 27, I saw Bible prophecy being fulfilled before my very eyes as I watched Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on television address the General Assembly of the United Nations. It happened as he approached the podium to deliver his address. As he walked forward, two-thirds of the delegates got up from their seats and walked out. Netanyahu was left with an almost empty auditorium to speak to.

The specific Bible prophecy this event reminded me of was written by the Hebrew prophet Zechariah 2,500 years ago. Speaking of the end times, he prophesied that God will “make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12: 3, emphasis added)

Read more at: harbingersdaily.com