Category: Culture

Commentary: Woke Norwegians Try to Replace Christian Holidays with Liberal Festivities

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When I moved to Norway from the U.S. in 1999, one of the new pieces of information that most surprised me had to do with its national holidays.

In the U.S., all but one of our 11 federal holidays could be described as secular or civic commemorations: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day, and Thanksgiving. Even though America is probably the most churchgoing country in the developed world, only one of our federal holidays, Christmas, is a religious festival.

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Commentary: FBI Agents in Catholic Churches

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It never stops getting worse, does it? Just when you think the progressive Left has torpedoed our culture and country to rock bottom, a new hitherto-inconceivable outrage explodes.

Until the Trump years, the law-abiding universally loved the FBI. They protected our country and us, we thought. They investigated domestic threats to America, we thought. They were politically nonpartisan, like the military, we thought. Respect for them was so universal that ABC had a show titled The F.B.I., starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., which depicted FBI heroism week after week.

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Pro-Life Activists Warn Ohio Ballot Initiative Would Eliminate Health and Safety Regulations and Parental Consent for Minor Abortions

Susan Berry, PhD

A ballot measure that would amend the Ohio state Constitution to remove current health and safety protections for women and girls seeking abortion and parental consent requirements for minors seeking the procedure has advanced following certification by the state attorney general’s office.

Pro-life organizations are rallying to oppose the “The Right to Reproductive Freedom With Protections for Health and Safety” initiative that they say will endanger the lives of women and girls seeking abortions.

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Commentary: Monumental Disappointments in Our Public Spaces

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Monuments and memorials by nature long have stood, quite literally, in the public square. But within a few short years, radicalized Americans have turned on these taciturn forebears like Moses on the golden calf.

The year 2020 witnessed great anguish on this subject among part of the U.S. population. Realizing that our nation was dotted with monuments commemorating sinful men rather than angels, it was imperative for these iconoclasts that the likenesses of bronze and marble be cast down from their pedestals.

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Commentary: Thomas Jefferson’s Meaning of ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’

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The idea of the “pursuit of happiness” is in our societal DNA. Yet, this “unalienable right,” immortalized in the Declaration of Independence, has often puzzled people. What exactly did Jefferson mean?

Most people think of happiness as feeling good, but that is not what Jefferson meant. Pleasure and happiness are not the same. Our happiness does not depend upon everything going right in our life or getting what we want.

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AG Merrick Garland’s Reason Why DOJ Has Prosecuted Few Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Firebombers: They Are Bombing at Night

Susan Berry, PhD

Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland told Republican senators Wednesday his Department of Justice (DOJ) has prosecuted more pro-life Americans for peaceful protests at abortion clinics than enraged anti-life terrorists firebombing pregnancy care centers and vandalizing churches because pro-life people conduct their activities during the day while the domestic terrorists are doing their bombing at night.

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AG Merrick Garland Faces Republicans on Senate Judiciary Committee Over Weaponization of DOJ Against Parents, Catholics, and Pro-Life Activists

Susan Berry, PhD

Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to face tough questions from Republican senators Wednesday regarding what many in the nation say has been the purposeful weaponization of the Department of Justice against parents of schoolchildren, Catholics who live their faith in the public square, and activists who fight for the vulnerable unborn.

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Tennessee Right to Life Urges Lawmakers to Vote Against Bills Introducing ‘Exceptions’ to Human Life Protection Act

Susan Berry, PhD

Tennessee Right to Life is calling upon state lawmakers to vote against legislation that would rewrite the Human Life Protection Act by introducing “exceptions” which, the group says, would make the law “unenforceable.”

Senate Bill 745/House Bill 883 is slated to be heard in the state Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, February 28. Its companion bill in the state House will be heard in that chamber’s Health Committee Wednesday, March 1.

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California Christian Teacher Allegedly Fired for Refusal to Comply with District Gender Policies: ‘The District Cannot Accommodate Your Religious Beliefs’

Susan Berry, PhD

A California Christian physical education teacher was allegedly fired for refusing to lie to parents about their children’s gender identities at school and reject having males in female locker rooms – both policies that violate her faith beliefs, Fox News Digital reported Wednesday.

Jessica Tapias apparently shared with Fox News Digital the notice she received from the office of Jurupa Unified School District Superintendent Trenton Hansen.

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Leaked FBI Memo Citing Southern Poverty Law Center Warning ‘White Supremacy’ Embedded in ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology’ Rescinded

Susan Berry, PhD

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Richmond Division has reportedly rescinded a leaked memo that cited the discredited radical Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) warning that “white supremacy” has “found a home” in traditionalist Catholics.

Former FBI special agent Kyle Seraphin revealed Wednesday at UnCoverdc.com that the federal agency’s Richmond Division released a “finished intelligence product dated January 23, 2023” that cited the disgraced leftist SPLC to warn Virginians about Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists” (RMVE) and “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics.”

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Tennessee Gov. Lee Pitches Plan to Expand Support for Pregnancy Care Centers to $100 Million

Susan Berry, PhD

Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) announced Monday during his State of the State address he would propose boosting support for women in unplanned pregnancies through various programs, including an expansion in funding for crisis pregnancy care centers to $100 million, widening Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women and parents, and granting additional paid family leave time for state employees.

Tennessee’s “trigger” law that bans abortion, titled the Human Life Protection Act, took effect August 25, two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

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Republican Attorneys General Warn CVS and Walgreens Against Mailing and Distributing Abortion-Inducing Drugs

Susan Berry, PhD

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey led 19 other Republican state attorneys general (AGs) in a warning letter to CVS and Walgreens that asserts federal law forbids using the mail to send or receive drugs that are intended to be used to produce an abortion.

Bailey and the coalition of attorneys general wrote to the two drugstore chains, informing them that their announced plan to use the mail to distribute abortion pills is both unsafe and illegal.

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Minnesota Democrats Celebrate New Law Enshrining Abortion at Anytime During Pregnancy

Susan Berry, PhD

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) signed legislation Tuesday that has been condemned by the pro-life community as the most extreme abortion measure in the nation, one that creates a “fundamental right” to abortion at any time during pregnancy, and denies parents the right to know if their minor daughter undergoes an abortion.

Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act to enshrine in state statute a “fundamental right” to abortion, without any restrictions, and to contraception, sterilization, fertility treatment.

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Bishop E.W. Jackson: ‘Al Sharpton Preaching Tyre Nichols Funeral Makes Mockery of the Tragedy’

Susan Berry, PhD

Bishop E.W. Jackson said in a statement released Monday that Al Sharpton, whom Jackson referred to as “one of the most divisive figures in America,” should not be allowed to preach the eulogy for Tyre Nichols who, police charge, was beaten to death by five, now former, Memphis police officers.

“If the facts as we now know them are proved in a court of law, the former police officers deserve life in prison for their callousness and depraved indifference to human life,” Jackson said in a press statement, adding the current situation does not concern a racial issue, but one of “humanity,” which should be a source of unity rather than division.

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New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith at March for Life: ‘Pro-Abortion Culture’ Is a ‘Modern-Day Flat Earth Society’

Susan Berry, PhD

The co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus told thousands of advocates for life on the National Mall in Washington, DC, that the “pro-abortion culture of denial” is a “modern-day flat earth society” that “continues to deny, devalue, and disrespect unborn baby girls and boys and trivialize the harm suffered by women.”

On Friday, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) spoke at the 50th annual March for Life – the first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

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Why We March: Historic 50th March for Life, First in Post-Roe Era

Susan Berry, PhD

Thousands of pro-life Americans and advocates from other nations will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Friday to celebrate the 50th March for Life, the first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The March for Life Education and Defense Fund says the theme for the world’s largest annual human rights demonstration is “Next Steps: Marching into a Post-Roe America,” one that calls pro-life advocates to continue their work in defense of the unborn and their mothers on both the state and federal level, including advocacy for “a minimum federal standard to protect innocent life against radical pro-abortion legislation.”

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House Democrats Oppose Resolution Condemning Violence Against Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

Susan Berry, PhD

Nearly all House Democrats opposed a resolution Wednesday condemning the political violence against pro-life pregnancy centers and their supportive allies that occurred in the aftermath of the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The House voted, 222-209, to approve the resolution, introduced by Representative Mike Johnson (R-LA) that states since the leak of the draft opinion, “individuals professing anti-life views have targeted, destroyed, or vandalized numerous pro-life facilities, groups, and even churches to further their radical cause.”

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Catholic Leaders Mourn Death of Cardinal Pell, Victim of Anti-Catholic Hate

Susan Berry, PhD

A fearless defender of the Catholic faith, Australian Cardinal George Pell is being mourned as a victim of “anti-Catholicism” that drove him to be convicted of sexual abuse in 2018 and sentenced to solitary confinement, until finally he was acquitted by the full bench of the Australian High Court in 2020.

Pell, who died Tuesday at the age of 81, had recently undergone successful hip surgery, but then suffered cardiac arrest.

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Tennessee Lawmakers Consider Adding ‘Health of the Mother’ Exception to Abortion Limit Law

Susan Berry, PhD

Tennessee lawmakers will reportedly consider whether to add “exceptions” to the state’s abortion ban, including the “health of the mother,” a phrase that pro-life leaders say has been used by abortionists and their supporters for decades to prop up the entire abortion industry.

Tennessee’s “trigger” law that bans abortion, titled the Human Life Protection Act, took effect August 25, two months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

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‘THE CHOSEN’ Star to Keynote First ‘Post-Roe’ March for Life in Nation’s Capital

Susan Berry, PhD

Jonathan Roumie, who plays the role of “Jesus” in the groundbreaking series THE CHOSEN, will keynote the 50th annual March for Life – the first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – in Washington, DC, the pro-life organization announced Thursday.

In a press release, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund announced actor, director, producer and voice-over artist Jonathan Roumie, who portrays “Jesus” in the fan-supported free streaming series THE CHOSEN, a drama about the life of Jesus and the calling of his first disciples, will keynote the pro-life organization’s Rose Dinner Gala on January 20.

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Pro-Life Leaders Push Back on Trump’s ‘No Exceptions’ Blame for Midterm Losses

Susan Berry, PhD

Former President Donald Trump accepted no blame for Republicans’ failure to achieve the anticipated “red wave” results in the midterm elections, but, instead, pointed a finger at pro-life candidates who insisted on “No Exceptions” to abortion as the reason for the party’s losses.

“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday. “I was 233-20! It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.”

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American Catholic Leaders Celebrate Life of Pope Benedict, ‘Defender of Truth’ Who Taught Above All Else ‘God Is Love’

Susan Berry, PhD

American Catholic leaders are acclaiming the life and work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose scholarly writings emphasized the unity of faith and reason and, most fundamentally, the primary truth of the Catholic faith, which teaches God is Love.

Benedict, who was born Joseph Ratzinger, died Saturday at the age of 95. He became pope in April 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II, and served until his resignation in February 2013.

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‘Laicized’ Pro-Life Priest Father Frank Pavone: Pope Francis ‘Definitely Signed Off on This’

Susan Berry, PhD

Prominent international pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone said Monday Pope Francis “definitely signed off” on a letter that reportedly states the Vatican has laicized Pavone, for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.”

“I have received nothing,” Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, told The Star News Network during a telephone interview Monday. “And what’s worse, that has been the pattern for the last 20 years of abuse by church authorities.”

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Religious Liberty Christian Group: Same-Sex Marriage Bill Will ‘Create Perfect Scenario’ for Supreme Court to Overturn Obergefell Ruling

Susan Berry, PhD

President Joe Biden signed the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill amid fanfare and celebration, but an attorney-led Christian ministry that says it won nearly 50 cases defending marriage as between one man and one woman before the Obergefell decision asserts the passage of the legislation can now “actually create the perfect scenario to overturn” the Supreme Court’s 2015 5-4 ruling.

Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) Tuesday.

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House Democrats Block Religious Liberty Amendment to Same-Sex Marriage Bill to Assure Passage Before Republicans Take Over

Susan Berry, PhD

House Democrats have blocked an amendment that would have strengthened religious liberty protections to their legislation to codify same-sex marriage to ensure swift passage of the bill before Republicans take over leadership of the House in the new year.

“If we were to amend this, and it goes back to the Senate, for all intents and purposes it’s dead for the year,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), who rejected Representative Chip Roy’s (R-TX) amendment for advancement to the House floor.

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Hillary Clinton Compares America to Taliban in Afghanistan After Overturning Roe v. Wade

Susan Berry, PhD

Failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Friday America is now comparable to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Sudan after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, returning abortion decisions to the states.

“It’s so shocking to think that in any way we’re related to poor Afghanistan and Sudan,” Clinton said, according to Fox News, regarding abortion rights during the Women’s Voices Summit at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. “But as an advanced economy as we allegedly are, on this measure, we unfortunately are rightly put with them.”

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Sen. Mike Lee’s Amendment to Safeguard Religious Liberty for Americans Who Hold to Traditional Marriage Fails By One Vote

Susan Berry, PhD

Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) religious liberty amendment to the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill failed by just one vote, 48-49, an outcome that, if the legislation is signed into law, could give a green light to the federal government’s retaliation against nonprofit faith organizations, such as schools and businesses, whose religious beliefs are incompatible with gay marriage.

Senate Democrats voted Tuesday, 61-36, to codify same-sex marriage into federal law with the help of 12 Republicans, as the Senate Press Gallery noted.

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Senator Sounds Alarm for Same-Sex Marriage Bill as It Clears Another Hurdle with GOP Support, ‘Without Sufficient Protections for Religious Liberty’

Susan Berry, PhD

A bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage in federal law progressed further in the Senate Monday evening with significant Republican support, but without sufficient religious liberty protections, and is now headed to a vote on Tuesday.

The Senate voted, 61-35, with four senators not voting, to end debate on the House-passed bill, dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA), that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage in federal law as between one man and one woman.

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Newly Elected Catholic Bishops’ Conference President: Link Between Homosexuality and Sexual Abuse Crisis ‘Can’t Be Denied’

Susan Berry, PhD

The newly elected head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said last week following his election he maintains the assertion that a relationship exists between the clergy sex abuse scandal and homosexual priests ordained in the Church.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the Archbishop of the Military Services, said in a press conference he continues to stand by his 2018 statement in which he stated the issue of homosexual priests is “certainly an aspect of the sexual crisis that can’t be denied,” LifeSiteNews reported.

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Fan-Supported ‘The Chosen’ Season Three Tops Box Office with No. 3 Open

Susan Berry, PhD

The premiere of Season 3 of The Chosen, a free streaming series based on the life of Jesus, opened at a stunning No. 3 spot at the box office this past weekend.

The first two episodes of the premiere of The Chosen Season 3 has drawn a historic number of viewers, pushing its original five-day run in theaters to December 1, and grossing $8.7 million in the United States.

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Clinton Global Initiative Funded Energy Project for Raphael Warnock’s Church After His 2016 Campaign Efforts for Hillary Clinton

Susan Berry, PhD

Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D) church reportedly received key funding from the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) for a climate change-related project shortly after he campaigned for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016.

Warnock, who is facing a runoff election against Republican Herschel Walker, has served as pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which reportedly was the recipient of a $550,000 grant from CGI soon after he stumped for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign for president, Fox News reported Friday.

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Federal Lawsuit Calls FDA’s Approval of Abortion-Inducing Drugs ‘Politics Over Science’

Susan Berry, PhD

Worldwide religious freedom legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit Friday that challenges the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of chemical abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, claiming they present significant health risks to a pregnant woman as they also starve her unborn child to death.

“[T]he FDA failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States,” the lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, asserts. “And it has continued to fail them by repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with their use.”

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Faith Leaders Call upon Republicans to Vote Against Same-Sex Marriage Bill: ‘Corrosive’ to Religious Freedom

Susan Berry, PhD

Faith leaders are calling upon Republicans to uphold their party’s platform that declares “the union of one man and one woman” to be the “cornerstone of the family.”

The leaders are reacting to the fact that 12 Senate Republicans joined with Democrats Wednesday to advance legislation, dubbed by Democrats the Respect for Marriage Act, that would codify the Supreme Court‘s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal across all 50 states.

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Candace Cameron Bure: Christian Message of ‘Traditional Marriage’ at Core of Great American Family Channel

Susan Berry, PhD

Christian actress Candace Cameron Bure says in her new top-level role at the Great American Family Channel, she will place faith and “traditional marriage” at the core of its Christmas movies.

In April, Bure became chief creative officer at Great American Family, a channel that is aiming to become the faith and freedom alternative to Hallmark, where the actress once served as the chief representative of the romantic comedy Christmas channel.

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Navy Veteran Founds Classical Catholic School to Counter Woke Education

Susan Berry, PhD

A Navy veteran who rejects the secularist and woke education agendas prevalent in public schools and some parochial schools launched a classical Catholic school in Maryland.

“We’re a military family,” Lt. Commander Ali Ghaffari, founder of Divine Mercy Academy in Pasadena, Maryland, explained to Fox & Friends Weekend Sunday. “We’ve traveled around the country seeing lots of schools, and we settled at the Naval Academy, that was my last tour.

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Analysis: Herschel Walker’s Pro-Life Stance Points to His Victory in the Georgia Runoff

Susan Berry, PhD

Candidates at the state level embracing the pro-life cause were re-elected in the midterms this week, an outcome that points to the anticipated success of Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker in his runoff election against anti-life Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock.

The Walker-Warnock December 6 runoff could determine whether Republicans, most of whom are pro-life, take control of the Senate from Democrats, almost all of whom support Senator Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) legislation that would embed abortion on demand, at any time during pregnancy, into federal law, and make invalid most individual state pro-life laws.

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National Pro-Life Leader Celebrates Re-Election of Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio: ‘Courageous Pro-Life Leadership Is an Inspiration’

Susan Berry, PhD

The president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America celebrated the election victories of Florida Republicans Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio.

“Governor Ron DeSantis’ courageous pro-life leadership is an inspiration,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser. “He stands unflinchingly with the unborn and their mothers, and tonight Florida voters stood with him and rejected pro-abortion extremist Charlie Crist.”

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STAND America PAC Runs over 1,000 Ads Urging Black Voters to Abandon Democrats in the Midterm Elections

Susan Berry, PhD

A political action committee (PAC) associated with STAND America has purchased over 1,000 ads for U.S. Senate and House races on black radio stations to urge black voters to abandon the Democrat Party.

“Black and Latino voters are turning away from Democrats toward Republicans who share their commitment to faith, family, public safety and educational choice for their children,” Bishop E.W. Jackson, STAND America PAC (SAPAC) chairman, said in a press statement. “They are also feeling the ravages of inflation.” 

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Black and Hispanic Catholic School Students Outperformed Those in Government Schools on Nation’s Report Card Assessments

Susan Berry, PhD

Results of national education assessments released last week showed unprecedented drops in academic achievement in fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading scores, but black, Hispanic, and low-income Catholic school students outperformed their counterparts in national, charter, and public school averages.

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” revealed a dramatic decline in test scores from 2019, when students were last tested.

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Undercover Video Reveals Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly Campaign Strategy to ‘Play Both Sides’ of Abortion Issue to Deceive Voters

Susan Berry, PhD

A paid “Mark Kelly for Senate” staff member is heard revealing to an undercover Project Veritas Action (PVA) journalist Kelly’s campaign deception strategy to “play both sides” of the abortion issue by saying “Mark Kelly is pro-life” when, in reality, he is not, in order to win over ‘Independents’ and ‘Moderate Republicans’ in Arizona.

In the video released Tuesday, Evynn Bronson of the Mark Kelly for Senate campaign – a Mission for Arizona field organizer – is recorded explaining to the undercover PVA journalist how to win votes from Independents and “moderate Republicans” for the Democrat senator by deceiving Arizonans on the issue of abortion.

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Hillsdale College Academy Scientist: Government’s Handling of COVID Pandemic a ‘Disaster’ That Ruined Public Health and Science

Susan Berry, PhD

Epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D. told attendees at Hillsdale College’s Blake Center for Faith and Freedom in Connecticut Thursday evening that government health agencies that forced lockdowns and mass vaccinations to manage the COVID-19 pandemic have thrown the basic principles of public health “out the window.”

Swedish native Kulldorff, who is on leave from Harvard University and is a founding fellow of Hillsdale’s Academy for Science and Freedom, is also a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document published in October 2020 that has since been translated into 44 languages and signed by nearly one million scientists, physicians, and citizens.

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Pittsburgh Public Schools Board Adopts ‘Culturally Relevant’ Sex Ed Policy Based on National Standards

Susan Berry, PhD

The Pittsburgh Public Schools Board unanimously adopted changes to the district’s sex education policy that is aligned with national standards, shifting the focus away from abstaining from sex and including “culturally relevant” information related to gender identity.

Rather than emphasize “sexual abstinence as the expected norm,” the new policy “stresses that abstinence from sexual activity is the only completely reliable means of preventing sexually transmitted infections and HIV when transmitted sexually,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday.

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