Lee Ardis

Democrat elected to Congress will be sworn in on a copy of ‘Superman #1,’ worth about $5.3 million

A Democrat who was elected to U.S. Congress in 2020 will be sworn in on various documents, including a copy of the first “Superman” comic book, which is worth about $5.3 million.

A journalist spotted the classic comic book among the many religious books and other documents over which members of Congress had chosen to take their oaths.

When the journalist inquired about the identity of the member, a congressional aide refused to say.

The mystery was solved when Robert Garcia, a Democrat from Long Beach, California, tweeted that he was the person who would be sworn in on the comic book.

“Will be proudly sworn-in to Congress on the U.S. Constitution. Underneath the Constitution will be 3 items that mean a lot to me personally,” Garcia tweeted.

Christian graves desecrated in historic Jerusalem cemetery

More than 30 graves at a historic Christian cemetery in Jerusalem were found toppled and vandalized, the diocese said Wednesday, jolting the Christian minority in the contested city.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the attack an “immoral act” and “an affront to religion.” Jerusalem’s Anglican Archbishop Hosam Naoum called it a “clear hate crime.” The British consulate said it was just the latest in a string of assaults on the Christian community in the holy city of Jerusalem.

Police officers were sent to the Protestant Cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion to investigate the profanation. Mount Zion, associated in Christian tradition with the site of the Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples the night before his crucifixion, is also sacred to Jews and Muslims and has been at the center of competing religious claims throughout the decadeslong Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Widely shared security camera footage on Sunday showed two young men — both wearing a Jewish skullcap and tzitzit, the knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews — breaking into the cemetery, knocking over stone crosses and smashing and stomping on tombstones, leaving a trail of debris and broken headstones.

Among the destroyed tombs was one containing a 19th century bust of Samuel Gobat, the second Protestant Bishop in Jerusalem who died in 1879, the Episcopal diocese said. The graves of three police officers, British citizens serving in the police force of what was then British-ruled Palestine, were also vandalized.

Scientists successfully reverse human aging process in breakthrough study

The fountain of youth may be made of air, not water.

Scientists say they’ve successfully reversed the aging process of elderly people through “oxygen therapy” in a first-of-its-kind study.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University used hyperbaric oxygen chambers to target specific cells and DNA linked to shorter lifespans — and found the “Holy Grail” of staying young, according to a press release about the discovery.

During the study, researchers investigated whether the therapy — which involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment — could reverse the effects of aging in 35 people over age 64, according to the study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Aging.

They placed elderly participants in the chamber for 90 minutes a day, five days a week for three months and studied its impact on senescent cells, which are associated with tissue and organ deterioration. They also measured the length of each person’s telomere, a molecule linked to premature cellular aging.

Biblical Prophecy Is Unfolding as the World Turns Against Israel

Christians across the globe believe they are living in the End Times. And evidence continues to pile up in that belief’s corner.

The world is currently enduring a conglomeration of events that are all predicted to occur in the Bible, wars and rumors of wars overlap historic droughts and decaying morality within society. Men call evil good and good evil, and have replaced God with false idols.

Perhaps the most telling sign of the times is the changing attitude toward Israel. Across the world, Jews are enduring an increase of anti-Semitism, including from countries that were once staunch allies.

The most glaring and hypocritical source of anti-Semitism in the world however comes from the closest thing to a one-world government in the world at the moment: the United Nations.

Israel has been targeted and attacked constantly by unelected bureaucrats within the U.N.

About four-in-ten U.S. adults believe humanity is ‘living in the end times’

Periods of catastrophe and anxiety, such as the coronavirus pandemic, have historically led some people to anticipate that the destruction of the world as we know it – the “end times” – is near. This thinking often has a religious component that draws on sacred scripture. In Christianity, for example, these beliefs include expectations that Jesus will return to Earth after or amid a time of great turmoil.

In the United States, 39% of adults say they believe “we are living in the end times,” while 58% say they do not believe we are living in the end times, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Christians are divided on this question, with 47% saying we are living in the end times, including majorities in the historically Black (76%) and evangelical (63%) Protestant traditions. Meanwhile, 49% of Christians say we are not living in the end times, including 70% of Catholics and 65% of mainline Protestants who say this. Viewed more broadly, the share of Protestants who say we are living in the end times is greater than the corresponding share among Catholics (55% vs. 27%).

About three-in-ten or fewer people from non-Christian religions (29%) and those with no religious affiliation (23%) say we are living in the end times. (Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other smaller non-Christian religious groups are included in the survey and represented in the “other religions” category, but there were not enough respondents in these groups to analyze separately.)

Wave of Volcanoes around the world: Pre-Messiah Shake-and-bake?

“Mountains shall be overthrown, cliffs shall topple, and every wall shall crumble to the ground.” EZEKIEL 38: 20 (THE ISRAEL BIBLE)

A wave of over 27 volcanic eruptions have scientists and end-of-days experts concerned

This week, Volcano Discovery reported that 27 different volcanoes are erupting at this moment and many others are showing signs of waking up. Several of these eruptions have experts concerned.

The two biggest volcanoes in Hawaii erupted simultaneously two weeks ago. Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, erupted for the first time since 1984 while the smaller but more active Kilauea also erupted. Both are located on the archipelago’s Big Island. Dual eruptions haven’t taken place since 1984.

On Sunday, the Stromboli volcano off the coast of Sicily erupted, spewing dark ash and generating volcanic lightning. Stromboli is considered one of the most active volcanoes on Earth and has continuously erupted since 1932.

Meanwhile, Mount Semeru in Indonesia just erupted as well. Authorities raised the volcano’s warning status to the highest level and called for the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people. People have been urged to keep at least 5 miles away, as “hot avalanches” of lava poured from Semeru. Videos of the event showed the sky turning black as a massive plume of ash blocked the sunlight. Japan issued a tsunami warning for its southernmost islands after the eruption.

‘Largest Satanic Gathering in History’ to Take Place in Boston

The Satanic Temple is promoting an upcoming convention as the “largest Satanic gathering in history.”

The gathering, called SatanCon, will be taking place in Boston from April 28 – 30th, 2023.

The convention will be celebrating the Satanic Temple’s tenth anniversary.

The Satanic Temple promises on its website that the convention will be “a weekend of blasphemy and remembrance in Boston.”

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Galatians 6:7-8

Suicide Among The Most Common Causes Of Death In The US

Homicide as well as suicide are common causes of death for young age groups in the United States, second only to accidents for those between the ages of 15 and 34.

After that age, cancer, heart disease and more recently Covid-19 become bigger killers.

Even for children aged 5-9, homicide is a big danger and was the fourth most common cause of death for the age group in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For those 10 to 14 years old, both homicide and suicide are among the top 4 killers.

According to a study published this week in scientific journal Jama Pediatrics, homicide rates in children have been rising in recent years, increasing by as much as 50 percent for Black children and those between the ages of 16 and 17 just between 2018 and 2020.

They also shot up for adults in 2020 and 2021. Suicide rates also increased for those under the age of 45 in the past decade, including very young children from the age of 5.

South Carolina Supreme Court rules fetal heartbeat law ‘unconstitutional’

Court found that banning abortion after six weeks’ pregnancy ‘is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy’

A South Carolina state law that would have restricted abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected was declared unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court.

In a 3-2 decision Thursday, the South Carolina Supreme Court said the Fetal Heartbeat Act illegally infringes on a woman’s right to privacy. The act was signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster in 2021 and prohibited abortion once a fetus’s heartbeat can be detected, which usually occurs around six weeks of pregnancy.

Writing for the majority, Justice Kaye Hearn said, “We hold that the decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable, and implicates a woman’s right to privacy. While this right is not absolute and must be balanced against the State’s interest in protecting unborn life, this Act, which severely limits — and in many instances completely forecloses — abortion, is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy, and is therefore unconstitutional.”

Top Podcasts On Apple, Spotify Are About The Bible, Christianity

Some of the top podcasts in the United States so far in 2023 on streaming sites like Apple and Spotify discuss things like faith, the Bible, and Christianity, beating out ones from The New York Times, NBC, and more.

In a tweet on Wednesday from Ascension Press, it shared that the number one podcast on Apple is the Catholic media’s “The Catechism in a Year podcast” (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) [CIY].

“You people are crushing it with your CIY & BIY listens!” the outlet tweeted. “Nearly a WEEK at the top of the charts and still going strong!”