Steve Bannon Calls Out Leftist Author Jim Wallis for Infusing the New Testament with Social Justice Politics by Pointedly Ignoring the Gospel of Mark

Jesus Two Dads Poster

Matt Giffin, a reporter at The Tennessee Star, and Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Star, discussed a recent segment from Steve Bannon’s War Room where host Bannon explained how leftist Christians deceptively cherry-pick elements from the Gospel to push a socialist agenda.

Bannon specifically used Jim Wallis, founder of the non-profit, faith-based organization Sojourners and author of The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Re-founding Democracy, as an example of those using selective elements from the Gospel to paint Jesus as a social justice warrior.

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Most Believe in Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, New Poll Finds

Jesus Christ

Nearly 70% of registered voters believe that Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead, and more than 70% plan to celebrate Easter this year, a new poll finds.

A Scott Rasmussen National Survey poll, conducted March 20 and 21 among 1,000 registered voters, found that 73% of respondents will celebrate Easter this year. When asked whether they would celebrate the holiday primarily as a religious holiday or as a secular holiday, 56% of participants responded with religious, 16% said secular, and 27% said both secular and religious equally.

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Commentary: The Resurrection of Jesus Is the Most Important Event in History

Jesus Christ

Christians around the world will commemorate the most important event in our faith’s history this Sunday, but the Resurrection of Jesus isn’t just important to those who believe a Nazarene who walked the earth 2,000 years ago is the Son of God. The secular world’s history also turns on this pivotal event, which inspired so much progress that we take for granted today.

Christianity turned the values of the Pagan Roman world upside-down. The Romans considered the early Christians subversives—many called them “atheists” because they didn’t worship any pagan gods—and put them to death for refusing to worship the emperor. After some emperors adopted the faith, Emperor Julian attempted to revive paganism, but lamented that the Christian ethic had transformed the empire.

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Commentary: The Myth of the Pagan Origins of Easter

Jesus Christ

You may not get any chocolate bunnies this Easter, but you’re bound to stumble across an article or meme suggesting that the story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead is just a reincarnation of some pagan myth. Whether it’s Ishtar, Osiris, or Attis, these claims are tantalizing but devoid of scholarly content–much like the sugar rush of the chocolate bunny, with its deficit of actual nourishment.

Claims like these are at least as old as James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, published in 1890. However, they circulate routinely in new packaging. Unfortunately, the public tends to remain ignorant of the results of alternative scholarship. Sensationalism (like sex) sells. So does controversy. And when the sensation or the controversy revolves around beliefs that millions believe in whole-heartedly, sorting fact from fiction becomes increasingly difficult.

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Commentary: The Meaning of Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is—oddly perhaps—a day I have long associated with bushfires, better known in the American hemisphere as wildfires.

I come from the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, where on Ash Wednesday in 1983, catastrophic bushfires, driven by 70-mph winds and fueled by years of drought-ravaged eucalyptus forest, tragically claimed 28 lives. In the neighboring state of Victoria, even more lives were lost under similar conditions. In total, 75 Australians perished and 3,000 homes were destroyed in what were the nation’s deadliest bushfires up to that point.

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Commentary: 100 Canadian Churches Torched or Damaged Following Indian Residential School Graves Hoax

St Jean Baptiste

To its credit, the London-based tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail recently carried a story most corporate news outlets have been avoiding: The Indian Residential School Graves hoax.

The paper, whose article titles are characteristically long and descriptive, leaves little mystery in the scandalous story’s headline: “Nearly ONE HUNDRED churches across Canada have been torched or damaged after activists lied that 200 indigenous children were buried under Catholic schools.”

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Commentary: The Gift of Christmas Is Hope Through Sacrifice

Jesus Christ Birth

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)

We thought about and were well on the way to drafting a much different column for this Christmas – Biden Outdoes The Grinch seemed apropos to this season of economic distress and discontent. But in looking through past Christmas columns we ran across one of our columns from 2019, entitled “The Gift of Christmas is Fulfilled at Easter” and we were brought back to the recognition that no Christian should be bitter on Christmas, because if there is one day of the year that is to be dedicated to hope it is Christmas and the anniversary of the birth of Our Savior.

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Commentary: Far-Left Drives 44 Percent Hate Crime Increase Against European Christians

Anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe have risen by 44 percent in just one year, with far-left groups behind a majority of the attacks, according to a shocking new report.

Published in October, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe’s Annual Report detailed a wave of violent attacks, church arson, and rising extremism battering Europe’s historic Christian communities.

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Democrat Tennessee State Senator Says Christians Use Faith to Justify ‘Hatred and Racial Terror’

A Tennessee state senator said on X, formerly known as Twitter, Saturday that Christians use their faith to justify racial terror.

“Never forget that hatred and racial terror was – and still is – justified in the name of Christianity,” said State Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville), whose biography on the Tennessee General Assembly website curiously lists her as a Christian. 

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Pence Battles Boos, Tucker Carlson’s Tough Questions at Iowa Family Leadership Summit

Former Vice President Mike Pence has long been a standard bearer for the evangelical Christian movement in American politics.

On Friday, before a gathering of hundreds of Christian faithful at the 12th Annual Family Leadership Summit in downtown Des Moines, it felt, to some degree, that the GOP candidate for president had lost a good portion of that faithful base.

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GOP Rep Demands State Department Rescue Chinese and American Christians Detained in Thailand

A Republican congressman is calling on the State Department to intervene on behalf of Chinese and American Christians detained by Thai police currently facing imprisonment in China, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Thai police arrested 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church, for overstaying their visas during an early morning raid in Pattaya, Thailand, on Thursday. They are now preparing to deport the Chinese congregants, along with two women from Texas who’d been visiting church members, back to China, where they face imprisonment and likely torture, ChinaAid, a Christian human rights group, told the DCNF.

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Commentary: The Bitter Fruit of Madness that has Poisoned a Generation

After the horrific massacre in Nashville, the Democratic Party is hellbent on feeding the malignant narcissism of the “trans community,” in which they see a reliable, perpetually aggrieved voter base and a tool with which to terrorize society.

This isn’t “Christian nationalism.” Virtually every institution is sending a message that murderous violence toward Christians is acceptable, or at least less bad than exposing the “trans community” to obloquy. Law enforcement is obstructing the release of the manifesto. Merrick Garland won’t call it a hate crime, and neither will Joe Biden, who apparently thinks this is all a big joke.

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63 Christians Face Deportation Back to China

Influential members of Congress and top human rights advocates in Washington are urging the Biden administration to take immediate action to ensure the safety of a group of Chinese Christian dissidents and two Americans detained by Thai authorities Thursday.

The group of refugees, including 35 children and 28 adults, fled China in 2019 to escape persecution. They initially sought refuge in South Korea and then Thailand while seeking emergency asylum in the United States. But the U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security have declined to grant the church members emergency asylum, as it has done for many others, including tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing their war-ravaged countries, and the first group of Afghans airlifted into the United States amid the chaotic U.S. evacuation in August 2021.

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Holy Week Starts Off with Lots of Palms – but Palm Sunday’s Donkey Is Just as Important to the Story

For the Catholic Church and many other Christian denominations, the Sunday before Easter marks the beginning of the most important week of the year – “Holy Week,” when Christians reflect on central mysteries of their faith: Christ’s Last Supper, crucifixion and resurrection from the dead.

Palm Sunday commemorates the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem shortly before the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to the Christian Gospels, people lined the streets to greet him, waving palm branches and shouting words of praise.

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Communist China Cracked Down on Christians in 2022, Report Says

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censored, fined, politically indoctrinated and forcibly disappeared Chinese Christians in 2022, according to a new report from the nonprofit ChinaAid Tuesday.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) reportedly employed a range of new methods to persecute Chinese Christians in 2022 including fabricating charges of fraud as well as criminalizing the legal international travel of church leaders, the report states. China’s crackdown on Christianity reportedly intensified in the run-up to the CCP’s 20th Party Congress in October 2022, during which time General Secretary Xi Jinping secured a third term as the communist nation’s supreme leader, according to ChinaAid.

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Christians Face Genocide amid Rise in Persecution in at Least 18 Countries, Report Warns

Christians are facing genocide in several countries as the persecution of followers of the religion has increased in at least 18 nations, according to recent research. 

The Catholic group Aid to the Church In Need released a report earlier this year titled, “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report On Christians Oppressed For Their Faith 2020-22,” which highlighted “human rights violations” against Christians in 24 countries.

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Commentary: Nativity Sets Around the World Show Each Culture’s Take on the Christmas Story

For many Christians around the world, celebrating the Nativity, or the birth of Jesus Christ, is the most important part of the Christmas season.

Among the most common Christmas traditions are small sets of figures depicting Joseph, Mary and Jesus that are displayed in individual homes, and live reenactments of the manger scene in communities and churches. While Nativity sets focus on the holy family, they can also include an angel, the three wise men bringing gifts, shepherds or some barnyard animals.

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Commentary: Nicaragua’s Brutal Catholic Crackdown

For millions of Christians around the world, the official religious Christmas season kicked off this week with a renewed sense of normalcy – an abundance of colorful lights, parades and processions, family and church gatherings, and even fireworks in some areas.

Many believers in countries where Christians are religious minorities such as China and India are embracing the festivities with new enthusiasm. Early December marks the first time annual public and private advent gatherings have been allowed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Commentary: Getting Young People Back in the Pews

Only 54 percent of Christians aged 18–35 attend church once a month or more. Meanwhile, Christianity is rapidly declining in the American population, especially in the younger generations.

The secularization of society is evident wherever we turn, and it will only worsen as young people continue to turn away from Christianity. To survive, the church needs to continue through the generations and get young people back in the pews.

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Commentary: Saying Christians Fuel ‘Martyr Dreams of Being Ostracized’ During Christmas Ignores International Persecution

An opinion piece published in The Battalion, a student-operated newspaper at Texas A&M University, recently argued that the Christmas season is a time when conservative Christians “perpetuate their martyr dreams of being ostracized.”

“Winter is Coming,” penned by Abbie Beckley, is an opinion piece that takes a deeper drive into Christmas’ purported true meaning.

According to the author, the commercialization of the holiday is not necessarily a bad thing as she attributes that trend to the expansion of inclusivity.

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Commentary: Christianity Did Not Cause the Fall of the Roman Empire

In The Devil’s Dictionary, the writer Ambrose Bierce offered this definition of History: “An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.”

Before you dismiss Bierce’s cynical perspective, remember that historians are mortals. Some are very good at what they do, others are quite bad at it, and most fall somewhere in between. Even the best of them may find their way to the wrong conclusions. They may over-emphasize some factors while under-emphasizing others or allow their personal biases to color what they write.

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Facebook Courts Religious Groups, Religious Leaders Remain Skeptical

Facebook has been courting partnerships with religious groups in hopes of becoming their virtual home, the New York Times reported in late July. Experts and religious leaders told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the social media platform’s interest in shaping the future of religious experience should be closely monitored to protect religious freedom.

Though it is unlikely that a virtual religious experience will replace in-person religious services, the Times acknowledged, Facebook’s partnerships with religious groups expose Facebook’s plans to shape the future of the religious experience — as it has done with both political and social life.

“I just want people to know that Facebook is a place where, when they do feel discouraged or depressed or isolated, that they could go to Facebook and they could immediately connect with a group of people that care about them,” Nona Jones, a nondenominational minister and Facebook’s director for global faith partnerships, told the Times.

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‘Anti-Racism’ Advocates Come for the Books

The University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School hosted a panel event called “Decolonizing the Stacks,” which provided examples of eliminating bias and discrimination from its library systems.

The event was part of Penn Carey Law’s thirteenth annual public interest week, dubbed “Reforming the Nation: Working Towards Racial Justice.”

Amanda Runyon — moderator of the panel and Associate Dean and Director of Biddle Law Library — opened the discussion by defining “decolonizing libraries” as “the process of de-centering whiteness and being more inclusive to voices of color and voices representing diverse perspectives.” She encouraged fellow librarians to consider the impact of their “centering of White, Western norms.”

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Supreme Court Sides with Student Whose Christian Beliefs Were Suppressed by Georgia College Campus

In a rare nearly-unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with a Christian college student whose right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion were initially silenced by his college campus in Georgia, as reported by ABC News.

The 8-1 decision was led by Justice Clarence Thomas, with Chief Justice John Roberts being the sole dissenting vote. Writing for the majority, Justice Thomas said that Chike Uzuegbunam, an African-American Evangelical Christian, can seek nominal damages from Georgia Gwinnett College, after officials at the school told him he was not allowed to hand out Christian literature on the campus’s “free speech zone.” This comes even after the school reversed course from its initial restrictions, and after Uzuegbunam ultimately graduated.

“It is undisputed that he experienced a complete violation of his constitutional rights when respondents enforced their speech policies against him,” Thomas wrote. “Because ‘every violation [of a right] imports damage,’ nominal damages can redress Uzuegbunam’s injury even if he cannot or chooses not to qualify that harm in economic terms.”

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Commentary: The Intolerant, Ingrate Left Wants Christians to Stop Helping COVID-19 Victims

Just as soon as the Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse came to the aid of overwhelmed New York City officials and sick residents struggling to combat the effects of COVID-19, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson decided the diverse, “tolerant,” progressive city had enough of its assistance, due to its Christian foundation, and effectively kicked the charity out.

While it’s usually Christians who are scolded for their so-called intolerant beliefs that are rooted in centuries-old religious traditions, here it seems like it’s progressives who aren’t so tolerant of other people embracing views that are different than theirs—even if those very views inform their acts of charity and medical care.

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Commentary: Pete Buttigieg and the Left’s False Piety

by Matthew Boose   When South Bend, Indiana Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg accused Vice President Mike Pence of having a problem with his sexual orientation, the openly gay Episcopalian was employing a tired, but increasingly common, progressive sleight of hand. “If you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me—your quarrel, sir, is with my creator,” Buttigieg said. This was a political stunt steeped in prejudice against Pence’s religious beliefs. Of course, not only has Pence not attacked Buttigieg, but it would seem he has had nothing but nice things to say about him. Buttigieg’s “gotcha” exemplifies a common strategy of on the Left to shame others into accepting their ideas. Leftists, while loudly championing infanticide, have taken to co-opting a religion they don’t actually believe in to push their own agenda. Buttigieg’s message is predictable and banal, but it’s the kind of thing that impresses progressives who find TED talks edifying and consult “the data” to settle moral questions: Pence and all evangelicals who support Trump are hypocrites. If they were real Christians, they’d follow the Left’s interpretation of the Gospel, which is really just secular liberalism in faux-Christian garb. One…

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Commentary: Liberals’ Real Problem Is That Christian Schools Exist at All

by Tony Perkins   It was supposed to be a day celebrating religious freedom in America. Instead, liberals decided to show everyone just how much our First Freedom is at risk. For Christians, who have tried to warn people that these past several years were about a lot more than marriage, the attacks on second lady Karen Pence certainly seem to prove their point. Three years after Obergefell v. Hodges, all of the lies about “love” and “tolerance” have been eclipsed by the court cases, articles, and editorials demonizing people of faith. What Americans see now is the truth: The left is coming for our freedom, and they have no intention of letting up. Like former Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Karen Pence spent years in the classroom. When Vice President Mike Pence was in Congress, she taught art at Immanuel Christian School in Virginia, and no one batted an eye. Of course, that was back in the early 2000s, when the left’s charm offensive on same-sex marriage was still in full swing. We’ll be accommodating, they said. We just want to coexist, they said. Our relationships won’t affect you, they said. A handful of years later, “affected” doesn’t begin…

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DOJ Says University of Iowa Violated First Amendment By De-Registering a Christian Group

by Neetu Chandak   The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday the University of Iowa violated First Amendment rights after deregistering a student Christian group. Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) stopped receiving recognition from the public university in November 2017 due to the organization’s statement of faith, which the university found “unwelcoming,” according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen Friday. BLinC was created by the students in the university’s Tippie College of Business. The purpose of the group was to provide a space for Christian students to network, hold group discussions and “keep Christ first in the fast-paced business world,” the DOJ’s statement of interest said. Leaders in the Christian group were required to sign and follow the statement of faith, which included a belief that sexual relations should only occur “between a man and a wife in the lifelong covenant of marriage,” and “every person should embrace, not reject, their God-given sex.” The university deregistered the group over the faith statement and it claimed it made LGBT people unwelcome and therefore was exclusive, a DOJ news release reported. BLinC filed a lawsuit against the university in December 2017. “The University of Iowa in this case de-registered Business Leaders in Christ because university…

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What a Turn Off: NFL Fans, MSM, and Hollywood Viewers Tune Out Politically Biased Programming

On Monday’s Gill Report – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 1510 WLAC weekdays at 7:30 am – Star News Digital Media National Political Editor Steve Gill talked about the recent decline in ratings due to the political agenda of the NFL, MSM outlets, and Hollywood award shows. He was saddened that it hits the small businesses in the pocket book, however gleeful that this will hopefully be a lesson to the big corporations’ continuous mistake at making almost everything political.  Gill observed, “But viewers are paying attention, and tuning them out!” He continued: Does it make me a bad person that I like seeing the ratings absolutely crater for CNN when they engage in their left-wing propaganda on a constant basis and their ratings are slipping behind the cooking channel on cable? Of course, having their host out standing in ditches trying to make the flood waters look worse show that they’ll even lie about weather so why should we be surprised when they lie about politics or business or anything else that comes along. And then you’ve had the NFL with their Monday night football ratings reaching a new low. The second week of Monday night football, some of…

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Chinese Officials Are Reportedly Burning Bibles And Crosses, Forcing Christians To Renounce Their Faith

by Anders Hagstrom   Chinese pastors claim officials are closing churches, burning bibles and crosses, and forcing pastors and congregations to sign papers claiming they’ve renounced their faith, The Associated Press reported Monday. Chinese pastors and the U.S.-based group China Aid report that Chinese Communist Party officials forcibly shut several churches in central Henan province and Beijing in recent weeks, according to The AP. The escalation is part of the officially atheist Communist Party’s efforts to “sinicize” Christianity, or make it more culturally Chinese. “The international community should be alarmed and outraged for this blatant violation of freedom of religion and belief,” Bob Fu of China Aid told The AP. Fu also cited video footage showing what seemed to be bibles aflame with forms allowing believers to renounce their faith nearby, The AP reported. Fu said the forms marked the first time since freedom of religion was written into the Chinese Constitution in 1982 and since Mao’s Cultural Revolution of 1976 that Christians had been compelled to renounce their faith. One Chinese pastor who asked not to be identified told The AP that officials entered his church at 5 a.m. and began removing items and burning bibles, crosses and furniture. China has…

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Bredesen Fundraiser Features Anti-Trumper Who Condemns Christians That Support the President

Phil Bredesen, Jason Isbell, Ben Folds

Despite his claims to be a different kind of Democrat who will work with President Donald Trump when it helps Tennessee and oppose the partisanship that divides Washington DC along political lines, Phil Bredesen continues to align himself with the most partisan and extremist elements of the Democratic Party. Bredesen has accepted donations from Tom Steyer, a California billionaire who is spending $100 million in an effort to impeach President Trump. And he has made over $460,000 in contributions himself to liberal Democratic candidates across the country, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Yet, his campaign continues to promote him as an example of bi-partisanship and working across the political divide. Monday evening Bredesen is holding a fundraiser featuring singer-songwriters Jason Isbell and Ben Folds at the Marathon Music Works in Nashville in what is billed as outreach to Tennesseans of “all political stripes.” Neither of the headliners for the event have any history of political activism that is not limited to liberal and progressive causes. Folds endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.  Clinton trounced Sanders in the Tennessee presidential primary contest; she was then soundly defeated by Trump by a…

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Commentary: President Trump Brings Home Christians Held By North Korea

by CHQ Staff   The establishment media has done its best to ignore or step on the story of the magnificent work President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did to gain the release of three American Christians grabbed-up as hostages by North Korea. In a statement as they traveled to the United States, the prisoners said that they wanted to give their “deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and the people of the Trump KoreaUnited States for bringing us home.” “We thank God and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return,” they said. Tony Kim (who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk), Kim Hak-song and Kim Dong-chul are the three Korean-Americans who were arrested and imprisoned by North Korean authorities – and who were sentenced to 10 years to life at hard labor – but no one in the establishment media seems to want to talk about exactly why they were arrested. But the “why” of their arrest is essential to understanding their individual stories and the importance of their release. Tony Kim, who taught at North Korea’s only privately funded college, Pyongyang University…

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Richard Viguerie Commentary: The Democrats’ War To Drive Christians Out Of Government

  by Richard A Viguerie ConservativeHQ.com Chairman When the Democratic Party scrubbed the mention of God from its platform and delegates to the Democratic National Convention booed any mention of God it was clear to most movement conservatives that Democrats had become the official party of the anti-religious Left. What was not clear then, but is crystal clear now, is just how vicious and deeply personal the Democrats’ war on professing Christians, Christian values and Christianity in general would become.* The clearest evidence of this Democratic Party war on Christianity is the very well-organized campaign now going on to prevent professing Christians from serving in the federal government or holding Senate-confirmed federal appointments. This campaign has already claimed one victim: Dr. Mark Green, a West Point grad, decorated Army flight surgeon and Tennessee State Senator, who was widely assumed to be the frontrunner to be the next Governor of Tennessee, but who suspended his campaign for Governor when President Donald Trump tapped him to be the next Secretary of the Army. My friends at the Tennessee Star did a great job of documenting the lies and smears leveled at state Senator Green, but the most interesting fact revealed in their…

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Mike Pence: ISIS Is Guilty of Genocide Against Christians

Mike Pence

The Trump administration is raising alarms about the Islamic State committing genocide against Christians, a conclusion that President Obama’s team reached reluctantly only last year. In a speech Thursday that didn’t receive much press attention in Washington, Vice President Mike Pence told the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians that atrocities are being committed against…

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Franklin Graham: ‘We Need to Protect Christians’ Here and Abroad

Christians who do not support the LGBT agenda in this country face persecution, evangelical leader Franklin Graham said this week. The head of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association and the humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, Graham spoke on the radio program “Washington Watch” hosted by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “They are being forced out…

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