April 17, 2026

04a Faith

Blurb:

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A coalition of 47 conservative organizations is launching a campaign to challenge the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which the groups claim redefined marriage to emphasize the desires of adults over the needs of children.

The “Greater Than” campaign focuses on one message, which a handful of conservative leaders state clearly in a launch video: “Children are greater than equal, and it’s time we fought for their rights.”

The messaging responds to the LGBTQ activist narrative that redefining marriage as between two people, rather than between a man and a woman, involves “equality.”

Blurb:

The story of the Canadian woman, known as Mrs. B, who was killed by euthanasia after her spouse experienced care-giver distress, even though she had requested palliative care, has been reported by several media reports.

To provide greater context I went to the original MDRC committee report of the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario titled: Navigating Complex Issues within Same Day and Next Day MAiD Provisions. This was the MDRC 2024 – Fourth report.

When examining Same Day or Next Day euthanasia provisions the MDRC report states:

A small proportion (4.8%) of all Track 1 MAiD deaths occurred on the same day or next day of a request for MAiD. In 2023, 65 MAiD provisions (1.4% of Track 1 MAiD deaths) occurred on the same day of a request and 154 MAiD provisions (3.4% of Track 1 MAiD deaths) occurred on the next day of a request.

Blurb:

 

A woman called police to tell them that she had drowned her 7-month-old baby in a bathtub, and police confirmed the horrific claim when they went to her home.

Tierra Scott-Franklin, 23, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon by Gainesville police at her residence in the Sweetwater Square Apartments.

‘She did what she did, but we stand behind her. She is loved. She is valued.’

Blurb:

Another major hospital is throwing in the towel and ceasing to “transition” gender-confused minors thanks to conditions on federal funding, this time in the heart of pro-LGBT territory.

Fox 5 KUSI reports that Rady Children’s Hospital (RCH) in San Diego has confirmed it will stop offering so-called “gender-affirming care” in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown. “[W]e were recently referred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General for Investigation,” the hospital said. “Taken together, these developments affect our role and responsibilities as a provider participating in federal programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.”

The state of French politics has helped defeat an end-of-life bill in their Senate that would have allowed doctors to euthanize patients. The bill was essentially allowed to die in the Senate after it had passed the National Assembly. Unfortunately, the euthanizers still have hope of bringing the bill back to the Senate if the National Assembly can fix the concern by some that, as written, it was too permissive.

Blurb:

France Senate Kills Horrible Euthanasia Bill – Life News

I have great news. The political deadlock in France has resulted in France’s euthanasia bill, that had passed in the French National Assembly on May 27, 2025 was essentially rejected by the French Senate on January 21, 2026.

Thomas Mangin reported for Euroactiv on January 21 that:

France’s end-of-life bill has become mired in political deadlock, exposing deep ideological divisions over whether doctors should be allowed to provide patients with the means to end their lives, or assist them in doing so.

The impasse deepened on Wednesday evening, when the French Senate rejected Article 4 of the bill, which sought to define the conditions under which patients could access medical aid in dying. In an unusual alignment, conservatives and socialists voted together, albeit for sharply different reasons.

Blurb:

Virginia Democrats want to teach schoolchildren to “affirm” gay and “transgender” propaganda as part of their new “inclusive history” proposal.

A bill proposal from Democrat Del. Sam Rasoul would require history and social studies courses taught at public schools would be required to push the “contributions, perspectives, and experiences of historically marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities; immigrants and refugees; women; individuals with disabilities; individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+); individuals from various socioeconomic statuses; individuals from various religious backgrounds; and any other group of individuals that the Board of Education deems appropriate.”

Blurb:

“White evangelical Christianity is a cancer. These are the worst of our country.”

Far-left podcaster Jennifer Welch has said that “white Evangelical Christianity” is a cancer. While making the comments, she named people such as Erika Kirk and cited the Christian’s tendency to vote for Trump as a reason to oppose them and claimed Christians are not getting persecuted.

“So when you think about the Erika Kirk, the Life Church, the Joel Olsteen of it all, and their desire to accumulate wealth while hood-winking their flock into thinking they’re super moral, this is a cancer. White evangelical Christianity is a cancer. These are the worst of our country,” Welch said.

“These are the worst people in our country because they use their religion in two ways, as a weapon and as a shield. They weaponize it whenever they want to, and say, ‘We’re on the moral high ground. You’re a lesbian. You deserve to die. You’re a lesbian. The cops shouldn’t have revived you. Oh, your parents are Mexicans, and they brought you over here. Yeah, you should go to jail and eat worm food.’ And then when you call them out on it, ‘Oh, my God, they’re after the Christians. How dare they, how dare they. We’re so oppressed,'” Welch added, mocking those who are Christian.

“White Christians are so oppressed in this country, and they want it both ways, because in the religion that duplicity is taught, you can be morally duplicitous. You thrive in cognitive dissonance. And so this is just a massive, massive problem. And it should come as no surprise to anyone that of this cult that I’m talking about, white evangelicals over 80 percent went and voted triple Trumped.”

Blurb:

I don’t expect much from the Episcopal Church, but it still speaks volumes when a bishop refuses to condemn the invasion of a church service.

Last weekend, a group of agitators invaded Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, taking over the sanctuary, terrifying children, and chanting, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!”

It wasn’t a peaceful protest. It wasn’t a demonstration. It was a horde of vandals entering the sanctuary and coopting it for their political agenda.

Blurb:

Speaking to CNN host Jake Tapper, a Minneapolis bookstore owner compared deportation centers with Nazi concentration camps, and went as far as to claim, “I’m not saying they are putting people in ovens — yet.”

Jamie Schwesnedl, owner of Moon Palace Books, joined Tapper to discuss the “economic blackout” to protest ICE. The craziest part is not that he said what he said, it’s that it was so extreme that even Tapper appeared physically uncomfortable by it.

According to Schwesnedl, “we can’t do business as usual right now anyway because our city has been invaded by masked gunmen kidnapping family members and friends and neighbors of ours to send them to concentration camps. Additionally, there are a lot of businesses in our area that have staff or customers or owners who are afraid to come to work, afraid to come in and shop. People are closing down today, and we felt like it wouldn’t be kind or fair for us to stay open. So we’re closing in solidarity to help send a message.”

Blurb:

Anti-ICE agitators who stormed a Minneapolis-area church in January terrorized worshippers, blocked parents from reaching their children and forced congregants to flee during a Sunday service, according to a newly filed federal affidavit.

The affidavit, submitted last week by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, details the Jan. 18 invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, where a left-wing mob disrupted services while protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

According to the filing, the agitators “intimidated, harassed, oppressed, and terrorized the parishioners, including young children,” turning a worship service into what witnesses described as a frightening and chaotic scene.

Blurb:

In case you aren’t familiar, Canada has a federal program called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Here’s more about it:

Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is a process that allows someone who is found eligible to be able to receive assistance from a medical practitioner in ending their life. The federal Criminal Code of Canada permits this to take place only under very specific circumstances and rules. Anyone requesting this service must meet specific eligibility criteria to receive medical assistance in dying. Any medical practitioner who administers an assisted death to someone must satisfy certain safeguards first.

Only medical practitioners are permitted to conduct assessments and to provide medical assistance in dying. This can be a physician or a nurse practitioner, where provinces and territories allow.

 

More Nigerian Christians were attacked by Islamists who appear to have the protection of a government that forbids allowing Christians to defend themselves from these attacks. This time, 172 Christians were kidnapped when their church was overrun by Islamists in Northern Nigeria. The Nigerian government has failed to respond to this latest assault.

Blurb:

… As Reuters reported this week, more than 170 Christians were kidnapped during church services in Kaduna, with over 160 still missing. Armed Muslim gangs stormed churches, abducted worshippers en masse, and vanished—part of a long-running campaign of terror concentrated in northern Nigeria. The Nigerian government continues to deny systematic persecution, even as churches are emptied and entire Christian communities disappear.

Only when Donald Trump publicly condemned the persecution—and ordered strikes against Islamic State targets on Christmas Day—did the issue briefly pierce the fog of indifference. Otherwise, the killings continue in near-total silence.

Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration has revealed that abortion has declined in the state by 45% since 2021. Operation Rescue Chief Operating Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, said of the news, “With the permanent closure of just nine clinics, the state of Florida saw a 45% reduction in the number of babies killed. This is a state with the third highest number of abortion clinics in the nation, right after California and New York.

The work is far from over, but more lives are saved every time a clinic closes its door for good. This is why our team works so diligently to expose abortion abuses and to call for the equal enforcement of safety and health regulations at the shoddy abortion businesses we constantly find breaking the law.”

Blurb:

Abortions Down 45% in Florida, Babies Saved as Abortion Centers Close – Lifenews

Operation Rescue has stated again and again: When abortion clinics close, babies are saved. And the state of Florida is currently proving that point.

Chief Operating Officer Sarah Neely was recently invited to speak at the Florida March for the Preborn, a grassroots effort organized by Defending Life Alliance of Florida and sponsored by Operation Rescue. The event was well-attended and included other national speakers like Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Lianna Rebolledo of Loving Life, Kimberly Bird of Live Action, and others.

Speaking to hundreds of Florida citizens, Neely stated, “Operation Rescue conducts a survey every year of every abortion clinic in America. This helps us track abortion trends like cost, gestational limits, wait times, and it also helps us track closures and openings — the number of abortion clinics. In the last 5 years, we have seen the number of clinics in Florida decrease by 16%. That might seem a small number, but small numbers add up over time.”

Blurb:

This will no doubt be paid for by taxpayers. The left sure has it good.

Washington bill would require universities to provide abortion pills

Washington could soon join a handful of states that require public colleges and universities to offer abortion pills on campus.

Lawmakers in the state House listened to testimonies for and against Senate Bill 5826 during a hearing Thursday, The News Tribune reports.

Blurb:

Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari couched a chilling prediction within a warning at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland: Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon control not only most of the world’s legal, education, and healthcare systems, “AI will take over religion.” 

“This is particularly true of religions based on books, like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism,” the homosexual atheist claimed.  

“Anything made of words will be taken over by AI,” said Harari, so, “What happens to a religion of the book when the greatest expert on the holy book is an AI?”

Blurb:

The more you pull the thread on the chaos and corruption currently overtaking Minnesota, the more you see clearly the ways that the Democrat Party is both the beast and the feeder of the beast.

Take, for instance, Jamael Lundy. Lundy is a top aide to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty; he serves as her intergovernmental affairs coordinator, which means his job is to interact with local, state, and federal officials. Lundy also runs a company called, “Homes for Homies Property Management LLC,” which claims to “provid[e] affordable housing for those struggling with credit and criminal backgrounds.”

Oh, and Lundy is married to St. Paul City Council member Anika Bowie. He’s got the perfect progressive resume, including stints with Minnesota House Rep. Carlos Mariani (D), the Democrat House Caucus Campaign, Democrat Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04), and the state teachers’ union.

After nearly 10 years of fighting and winning a SCOTUS decision, Christian organizations have finally officially won their fight to stop forcing religious organizations to fund abortions. New York has officially settled with the Christian organizations, guaranteeing they will no longer be forced to fund abortions.

One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Lori Windham, said of the settlement, “For nearly a decade, New York bureaucrats tried to strong-arm nuns into paying for abortions because they serve all those in need. At long last, the state has given up its disgraceful campaign. This victory confirms that the government cannot punish religious ministries for living out their faith by serving everyone. The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that religious groups shouldn’t be bullied for staying true to their faith.”

Blurb:

Christian organizations spent nearly a decade fighting New York’s requirement that they pay for abortions. They came out victorious on Friday, thanks in part to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.

In January 2017, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the Empire State would require employers to not only pay for contraceptive drugs and devices but for “all medically necessary abortion services.”

Cuomo, a Catholic, said that the mandate was one of a number of regulatory actions that would “help ensure that whatever happens at the federal level, women in our state will have cost-free access to reproductive health care.”

Blurb:

I really do try to write about other issues. But the awfulness keeps on coming.

Yesterday, I called attention to the Canadian bioethicist who claimed that lethal jabs are no different than hip replacements. Today, I came across an awful story out of Australia in which Tony Lewis, age 71 and experiencing Motor Neurone Disease — what we call ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease — has asked for euthanasia because he was denied sufficient financial support for his disability. From the Hello Care report:

A Queensland man with Motor Neurone Disease has chosen to access voluntary assisted dying after being denied support through the National Disability Insurance Scheme because of his age, reigniting concerns about Australia’s two-tier approach to disability and aged care.

Tony Lewis is 71. Diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease last year, he falls outside the eligibility criteria for the NDIS, which excludes people diagnosed after the age of 65. Instead, he must rely on the aged care system, where funding levels and response times are widely acknowledged as inadequate for fast progressing neurological conditions.

As Colorado continues to plunge into anti-American leftist dogma, its schools continue to harass American children and their families, especially whites and Christians. As a result, more and more families are pulling their kids out of the child terrorizing schools. In just one year, the schools saw almost a 2% drop in enrollment as parents continue to pull their kids from the government schools.

Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova claimed, “Colorado continues to experience enrollment trends shaped by a declining school-aged population, increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and shifts toward part-time and online learning. These changes require thoughtful adaptation, and our schools are working diligently to continue serving students effectively across the state.”

Blurb:

Public schools are simply not producing the results they once did. How can you blame parents for this?

FOX News reports:

Colorado public school enrollment drops by 10,000 while homeschooling increases statewide

More Colorado parents are opting for homeschooling, pulling their children from public schools, state data shows.

The Colorado Department of Education on Tuesday released state data based on fall’s student count. The state reported a 1.2% drop in enrollment compared to last fall, with a total of 870,793 pre-K-12th grade students enrolled.

Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova attributed the enrollment drop to several factors, including a decline in the school-aged population.

Blurb:

A little over a year ago, the Democratic Party decided that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was the kind of person we needed to be one heartbeat or one maleficent act away from the Oval Office.

Today, he’s not even running for a third term as governor of Minnesota because his state is mired in a welfare fraud scandal of gargantuan proportions. Worse, when the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice showed up at his doorstep to do what he could not — enforce the law, particularly as it pertains to the immigrant communities where the massive fraud was centered — he threw numerous hissy fits of abundant verbosity about that fact. He egged on activists taking to the streets in those good ol’ Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests™.

Blurb:

 

 

An Episcopal Bishop in New Hampshire says we are entering a new martyr era, where Christians may be called upon to martyr themselves. No, not in the name of God. In the name of protecting criminals and sex offenders in this country illegally. Not even American-born criminals and sex offenders. Just the ones that ICE wants to deport.

Granted, I am the least religious person here at Louder with Crowder and the Louder with Crowder Dot Com website. So if someone else can quote the scripture back to me that validates Episcopal Bishop Robert Hirschfeld preaching at a Renee Good vigil (obviously) that Christians best be prepared to die in the name of politics, I’d be curious about the passage

I have told the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness. And I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written, because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies, to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.

Blurb:

The Sunday invasion of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minneapolis, brings Christians in America to another inflection point: Will Christian leaders and pastors stand up for believers’ freedom to worship or cower in the face of the leftist pro-illegal immigration onslaught? Worse yet, will they join in it?

Prominent Christian leaders and pastors (legitimate and otherwise) have often advocated vigorously for immigrants, both legal and illegal. In some cases, leaders affirm a commitment to rule of law but place such a heavy emphasis on compassion and kindness that actual enforcement of the law seems impossible in their framework. More often than not, these leaders present illegal immigrants as law-abiding, religiously faithful victims. In other cases, leaders support the violation of immigration law or its nullification. At the same time, religious groups have incentivized and supported illegal immigration while shuttling millions to migrants and migrant services.

Dilbert cartoon creator and political philosopher Scott Adams died at the age of 68 of cancer. Just before his death, Adams made a public declaration of belief in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. While the media chose to slander him after his death, his fans celebrated his life, mourned his passing, and welcomed his acceptance of Christ as his savior.

Adams wrote, “If you are reading this, things did not go well for me. I have a few things to say before I go. My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this January 1st, 2026…. So here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and look forward to spending an eternity with Him…”

Blurb:

Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 68 after a battle with metastatic prostate cancer.

He died just before the broadcast of his daily YouTube show, “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” was set to begin, according to his ex-wife, Shelly Miles.

“He waited until just before the show started,” Miles lamented. “He’s not with us anymore.”

With a trembling voice, she read the farewell message he had prepared on New Year’s Day, confirming to his listeners that he had converted to Christianity. He had announced during a livestream on January 4 that he planned to convert to Christianity despite not being a believer.

“If you are reading this, things did not go well for me. I have a few things to say before I go. My body failed before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this January 1st, 2026,” she read.

Adams noted in his letter that many of his Christian friends had urged him to “find Jesus” before he passed away, and while he wasn’t a believer, he had decided the risk-reward calculation to being a believer “looked so attractive” to him.

“So here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and look forward to spending an eternity with Him,” Adams wrote. “The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven,” he added.

 

Blurb:

To understand what leftists really mean, you always have to think in terms of opposites. They often say the exact opposite of what they mean or intend. This is to disarm you into potentially supporting them. This is the case in the naming of Senate Bill 26-018 in Colorado, dubbed the “Legal Protections for Dignity of Minors” bill.

The four Democrat sponsors of the bill are state senators Katie Wallace and Chris Kolker, and state representatives Meg Froelich and Lorena Garcia.

Their bill, if passed into state law, would allow a child to change his or her name, suppress records documenting a name change, and allow the court to strip away parents’ rights if they do not “affirm” their child’s name change.

Blurb:

[UPDATE] Thomas More Society has filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court on behalf of its clients, California teachers and parents, to block state law that requires teachers to hide students’ gender confusion from their parents.

The appeal was filed on January 8 after a panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stayed an injunction blocking the laws.

Paul M. Jonna, special counsel for Thomas More Society and a partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, argued,

“Right now, California’s parental deception scheme is keeping families in the dark and causing irreparable harm. That’s why we’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene immediately. The state is inserting itself unconstitutionally between parents and children, forcing schools to deceive families, and punishing teachers who tell the truth.”

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September 2025, church attendance and public proclamations of Christ have surged. Now, data reported by the Wall Street Journal reveals bible sales following his assassination increased by 36% in September. The news follows overall trends towards increased bible sales, as well as printed book sales in general.

Blurb:

Sales of Bibles have jumped over the past year, according to The New York Times.

Bible sales in 2025 have surged about 12 percent over last year, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. The report comes after sales of Bibles in the U.S. were also up in 2024, rising 22 percent through the end of October that year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, total print sales hit around 707 million units during 2025 through mid-December, The New York Times reported, citing recent data from Circana BookScan. By comparison, that number is just three million less than the pandemic-era peak in 2021, and 57 million copies more than in 2019, per The New York Times.

“The [book] industry itself is in transformation, which is always very challenging,” Dominique Raccah, the publisher of Sourcebooks, told the outlet.

Moreover, sales of romance books have also continued to rise during 2025, according to The New York Times. Romance sales have increased about 5 percent this year, the outlet reported, citing data from BookScan.

Blurb:

Scott Adams, whose popular comic strip Dilbert captured the frustration of beleaguered, white-collar cubicle workers and satirised the ridiculousness of modern office culture until he was abruptly dropped from syndication in 2023 for racist remarks, has died. He was 68.

His first ex-wife, Shelly Miles, announced the death Tuesday (Jan 13) on a livestream posted on Adams’ social media accounts. “He’s not with us right anymore,” she said. Adams revealed in 2025 that he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Miles had said he was in hospice care in his Northern California home on Monday.

“I had an amazing life,” the statement said in part. “I gave it everything I had.”

At its height, Dilbert, with its mouthless, bespectacled hero in a white short-sleeved shirt and a perpetually curled red tie, appeared in 2,000 newspapers worldwide in at least 70 countries and 25 languages.