The Faithful Watchman

Americans Who Believe in God, Marriage More Likely to be ‘Very Happy’: Survey

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.”

Pagan conferences return with more attendees, more magick after pandemic hiatus

‘Everybody is here. There are lots of hugs. We are back.’

A spirit of reunion permeated Sacred Space, a pagan conference held annually in early April. After a three-year hiatus, the event in Hunt Valley, Maryland, welcomed more than double its pre-pandemic attendance and, despite the host hotel’s broken air conditioning, was a huge success, said organizers.

“It was such an extraordinary blessing to be in the physical presence of our beloved community of magickal peers again. I know we all felt that,” said Gwendolyn Reece, president of the Sacred Space Foundation, the event’s host organization.

The indoor event is one of several traditionally held throughout the year to support the pagan community. After struggling through cancellations, lockdowns and low attendance, these events are back and, according to organizers, are bigger than ever.

“There was some critically important magick done during this conference,” Reece added, magick that hadn’t been done since 2019 — the last year Sacred Space was held, after being canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then again in 2021 and 2022 as waves of new virus variants made hosting a large conference questionable.

“I am grateful that we have such a strong-hearted, dynamic, spiritually courageous magickal community,” said Reece.

The event shared space with another, smaller conference, Between the Worlds, which is hosted periodically as defined by astrological timing. While the smaller event does increase attendance, it only does so by 30%, according to both organizations. This year, Sacred Space welcomed 625 attendees, up from 310 in 2019, according to Michael Smith, the event’s registrar.

World’s Largest Baptist University Hosts ‘Queer Sex Ed’ Night

Society is in an aggressive state of change, and that includes the arena of Christian education.

Baylor University is the world’s largest Baptist college. The 16,000-student institution was founded in 1845, making it the oldest perpetually-operating university in Texas. Even so, don’t assume it’s old-fashioned.

On March 23rd, the school hosted an event certifying its contemporary credentials. As advertised on Instagram, the extravaganza was called “Queer Sex Ed.” An accompanying caption read, “Secret is out. See you tomorrow!! You can still DM us to become a member and join our Queer Sex Ed!!!”

The ad didn’t detail what was involved, but featured in the post was the Planned Parenthood logo.

Queer Sex Ed was sponsored by Prism at Baylor. On its social media page and across multiple posts, the alliance defines itself:

Prism At Baylor

Reflecting diversity, belonging, and opportunity in the LGBTQ+ community.

Goals:

Enhance learning and education for students, faculty, staff and alumni to create a safe and respectful environment for (the) LGBTQ+ community.
Provide a space for the LGBTQ+ community to come together to engage, participate, and celebrate their individual identities and identity as a group.
Provide resources to navigate essential services including physical, mental, or spiritual well-being at Baylor and beyond.
Help students gain deeper understanding of their own and others’ complex and intersectional identities, including gender and sexuality and spirituality.

From transgendered to ‘transabled’: Now people are ‘choosing’ to identify as handicapped

Some with ‘body integrity identity disorder’ even desire amputation or other impairments — experts weigh in

A troubling societal issue called “transableism” is attracting attention these days.

Transableism is a newer term for BIID, or “Body Integrity Identity Disorder,” in which a person actually “identifies” as handicapped.

BIID has been relabeled to transableism to align with today’s trans community, according to some.

The point of “changing the identifier” from a psychiatric condition (BIID) to an advocacy term (transableism) is to “harness the stunning cultural power of gender ideology” to the cause of allowing doctors to “treat” BIID patients by “amputating healthy limbs, snipping spinal cords or destroying eyesight,” according to Evolution News and Science Today (EN), which reports on and analyzes evolution, neuroscience, bioethics, intelligent design and other science-related issues.

Culturally, transableism is “the next abyss,” that site also notes.

Boston SatanCon-goers shred Bible, pro-cop flag during opening ritual: ‘Hail Satan!’

One of the Satanist leaders also took a hammer to a keyboard

A group of Satanists cheered as two leaders opened SatanCon 2023 on Friday with a formal ceremony renouncing “symbols of oppression” by ripping up a Bible and a “Thin Blue Line” flag representing police.

“We stand here today in defiance of their siege and destroy their symbols of oppression,” a female leader told the crowd before ripping pages out of the Bible and throwing them on the floor, video showed.

A male leader joined her in then tearing a “Thin Blue Line” flag in two, which they also tossed on the floor while the crowd cheered. Satanists in attendance later picked some of the ripped pages off the floor and posed with them for pictures.

“We must build true community outside of the virtual,” the male leader also said before taking a hammer to a keyboard. “Rebelling comes in many forms to each and their own within their own capabilities and their own situation. For some of us, merely existing one more day is victory, but for those of us who can, we must stand up for those who cannot.”

Countdown is on: 1 year away until the Great North American Solar Eclipse

The countdown clock stands at less than one year until large parts of North America are cast in the complete shadow of the moon on April 8, 2024, when the Great North American Solar Eclipse traverses the sky.

The event only happens when the moon’s orbit is close to Earth, and the celestial body blocks out the view of the sun, creating a shadow on Earth’s surface.

Solar eclipses happen about twice a year, but finding yourself under the totality of one is rare.

The American Astronomical Society says that any given spot on the planet only sees temporary darkness from the moon’s shadow once every 400 years.

The event in 2024 will take place during the afternoon as the eclipse will travel over Mexico, into Texas and 14 other states before exiting through Canada.

Florida Grand Jury: Biden Regime is Facilitating Sex Trafficking of Foreign Children

A Florida grand jury has explicitly accused the Biden administration of facilitating “forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children” through its criminally negligent immigration policies.

After a five-month investigation conducted at the request of Governor Ron DeSantis, the Statewide Prosecutors’ Office released a scathing 46-page report that denounces the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for leaving thousands of vulnerable migrant children with unvetted “sponsors”—and then failing to conduct oversight of their welfare.

The Statewide Grand Jury, which is a branch of Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office, released its third presentment regarding unaccompanied alien children (UAC) on Thursday. The report accused the Biden regime of encouraging children “to undertake and/or be subjected to a harrowing trek to our border,” and then ultimately abandoning them. The federal government has lost track of more than 20,000 children, the grand jury found.

“This process exposes children to horrifying health conditions, constant criminal threat, labor and sex trafficking, robbery, rape and other experiences not done justice by mere words,” the presentment states.

The grand jury found that more than 250,000 unaccompanied minors have entered the United States since Joe Biden took office.

World On Cusp Of Woke Totalitarianism As Governments Act To End Freedom Of Speech

Media blackout as politicians in EU, US, UK, Brazil, Ireland, Canada, and Australia seek to jail citizens for wrongthink under the cover of a Big Lie about “hate speech”

The key area of action is the European Union. It is seeking sweeping new powers to regulate social media companies. And if it acts, it may change how social media companies operate worldwide, given the EU’s economic power and influence globally.

Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, large tech companies must share their data with “vetted researchers” from non-profits and academia, which would cede content moderation to NGOs and their state sponsors.

The US’s RESTRICT Act, sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), threatens 20 years in prison or a $250,000 fine for accessing blacklisted websites through “virtual private networks,” or VPNs, which are ways to create a private connection between a computer or phone and the Internet.

The Ring of Fire Around Israel is Tightening

Hamas has been strengthening its cooperation with the Iran-Hezbollah axis for years and the process only seems to be accelerating. The result is the formation of six fronts of aggression against Israel—a “ring of fire” composed of radical Sunni and Shiite axes.

Previous signs of this cooperation could be found in how the Palestinian Sunni Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah helped one another upgrade their capabilities. Hezbollah began digging cross-border tunnels into Israel from Lebanon (though these were demolished by the IDF in 2018), just as Hamas did for years from Gaza.

“They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” Psalm 83:4

Hamas learned from Hezbollah how to overcome its military inferiority and set up rocket bases in civilian areas. Both terror armies have set up elite cross-border ground infiltration units—Hamas’ Nuhba force and Hezbollah’s Radwan force.

The relationship grew even closer after Saleh Al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was expelled from Turkey and relocated to Lebanon several years ago. He began building a Hamas headquarters in Lebanon, from which he both orchestrates terrorism in Judea and Samaria and oversees a growing Hamas presence in Lebanon.

FDA approves 1st pill made from human poop

0The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first pill manufactured from donated human poop, the agency announced Wednesday (April 26). It’s the second human poop-derived treatment ever approved; the first was an enema-based treatment cleared for use in December 2022.

Previously, such “fecal microbiota transplants” were considered investigational treatments and were therefore harder for patients to access and often not covered by insurance.

Like the approved enema treatment, the newly approved pill, called Vowst, also contains live bacteria and has been approved for use in people ages 18 and older as a preventive treatment for recurrent infections with the bacterium Clostridioides difficile . Called C. diff for short, this infection is often acquired in health care settings after patients have taken antibiotics for a different infection.

Antibiotics can disrupt the balance of bacteria that normally populate the gut, and this gives C. diff the opportunity to proliferate. The rapidly replicating bacteria secrete toxins that can lead to diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and colitis (inflammation of the colon) and, in some cases, organ failure and death. C. diff infections are associated with about 15,000 to 30,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to the FDA.

Those who recover from C. diff have a roughly 1 in 6 chance of developing the infection again within two to eight weeks of recovery, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The risk of these recurrent infections increases each time a person gets C. diff , in part because the antibiotics used to treat them further disrupt the gut microbiome, the community of microorganisms in the lower digestive tract.