A recent Wall Street Journal investigation offered a glimpse into the world that a minor when scrolling through Tik Tok, the most popular social media platform among America’s teenagers. It wasn’t pretty. The journalists set up 31 fake Tik Tok accounts posing as 13–15-year-old users and discovered that the algorithm very quickly started showing them sexually explicit content, sexual violence, and links to OnlyFans. The fact that the age set on each of the 31 accounts was set at 15 or younger made no difference as pornographic content and links made their way into each account’s feed.
It’s not just Tick Tock — in their book Treading Boldly Through a Pornographic World, Daniel Weiss and Joshua Glaser report that, while 18% of 13–17-year-olds report that they seek out pornographic content on a weekly basis, over 20% say that they come across it unintentionally on a weekly basis. We live in a pornified culture, and parents today are presented with the challenge of navigating a world in which most children will have been exposed to pornography by the time they turn 13 and a growing number of children are addicted to pornography. In light of this sobering reality, it is imperative that families and churches gain a clear understanding of this issue and respond wisely as we embrace beauty of God’s design for sexuality and reject the distortions that our culture offers.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his “husband” Chasten recently created a stir by announcing that they had adoptednewborns Penelope Roseand Joseph August.In a rather uncomfortable photo-op, the two men are pictured in a hospital bed as if one of them had just given birth,despite the glaringly obvious fact that neither of them ever have or ever will. Not pictured, somewhere, out of frame, Penelope and Joseph have a mother who recently brought them into the world. And they will grow up without her.
But what is the response coming from mainstream media and fawning twitter followers? “Beautiful!” “Wonderful” “Hope for the future!” If the future is children being raised without a mother (or without a father) in order to fulfill adults’ desires,then the future is not as rosy as people claim.
Placing the desires of adults over the needs of children should not be normalized and it certainly should not be celebrated. These two little ones will grow up with anything money can offer, but what they will be missing is something that money can never buy: a mother.
Even before the Pfizer vaccine received full FDA approval, public and private employers across the United States began to announce vaccine mandates for their employees. With the COVID-19 vaccine’s FDA approval, we will only see more of them. For many Christians, these mandates spark concerns about religious freedom as multiplestates have moved toward minimizing religious exemptions for vaccination requirements, and a growing number of employers, including here in Minnesota, have begun mandating COVID-19 vaccinations.
Vaccine mandates are a bad idea
Recently, one Minnesota employer expressed optimism that mandating vaccines would “help” any employees who were on the fence about the vaccine to change their minds. But coercion is not how “persuasion” works. Vaccine mandates show a deep disrespect for people’s ability to make rational decisions for themselves, and because of this, they remove the possibility of meaningful and respectful conversations about the vaccine. This kind of disrespect is on display in New York City right now, where anyone who wishes to dine indoors must present proof of vaccination. Recently, New York Mayor Bill de Blasioannounced that people may dine indoors immediately after receiving the first dose of the vaccine. Since immunity does not begin immediately upon receiving the first dose of the vaccine, there is good reason to suspect that this mandate has far less to do with preventing the spread of COVID-19 than it has to do with punishing those who choose not to get vaccinated.
Adams frets that today’s youngsters are “barren of the behavior, values and hopes from which human beings have traditionally found higher meaning … or even simple contentment.” Adams calls them “hollowed out,” a generation living solitary lives, hyperconnected to technology but unattached from their families, churches or communities. He cites statistics showing teen depression rose 63 percent from 2007 to 2017 while teen suicide grew 56 percent. Tragically, he writes, suicide has become the second leading cause of death for the young.
On the podcast, we discussed how we got to the current precarious situation in Afghanistan, and reiterated our appeal to let us help you contact congressional leaders if you’re aware of American citizens or Afghans who would qualify for US visas who need to leave the country.
This week on the podcast, we discuss Roseville’s Ryan Vernosh, principal of Brimhall Elementary School. Vernosh, a decorated educator, recently took to Facebook to call traditional views of male/female “bigoted bull****” after being confronted by a fellow Roseville citizen.
On the podcast this week, we discuss the chaos in the GOP following the revelation that major Minnesota Republican donor Anton “Tony” Lazzaro had been arrested and charged with several offenses, including sex trafficking of minors. His accomplice who was also arrested was the chair of the University of St. Thomas Republicans. After the resignation of MN GOP chair Jennifer Carnahan, what’s next for the party?
In May of 2018, a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) was called into the operating room to assist with a “surgery.” Upon arrival, she discoveredthat the “surgery” she had been called in to help with was in fact an abortion and that she had been lied to. Although she was on the hospital’s list of conscientious objectors who had made clear to the hospital that they were morally opposed to abortion and there were other nurses available who were not on the list, UVMMC staff refused to call in a replacement and she was faced with losing her job and possibly her license if she refused to participate.
In response to this clear violation of conscience rights, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in 2019 against the hospital, signaling their support for the religious freedom of healthcare workers. That changed in late July when the Biden administration quietly dropped the lawsuit, leaving the nurse with no further recourse.
If all goes as planned, the US military presence at Kabul International Airport will end on August 31, 2021. U.S. citizens and Afghan nationals who are eligible for transport out of the country have until that time (if they’re lucky enough to get through the Taliban cordon around the airport) to leave the country.
That’s why I'm sending out this urgent appeal. Do you know of any American citizens, for example missionaries, or Afghan citizens who are eligible for Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) to leave the country?
In this episode, Grace Evans interviews pastor Jeff Evans of the Church Ambassador Network (CAN). Pastor Jeff shares about CAN’s mission of bringing faithful pastors from around the state to visit the Capitol, meeting with legislators (regardless of party or policy), and praying for them along the lines of 1 Timothy 2:1-4. The beautiful truth is that the gospel builds bridges!
“Tying the knot sometimes means paying more in taxes,” warns the headline of an article cautioning newlyweds to be prepared for some potential surprises from the IRS when filing their taxes. But in many cases, policies that penalize marriage are more than simply an unpleasant surprise from the IRS. Marriage penalties, either in the form of increased taxes or loss of access to means-tested benefits, have harmful effects, especially on working-class families. Studies indicate that marriage penalties are associated with lower rates of marriage and higher rates of cohabitation. A 2016 report found that almost one-third of American adults knew someone who had not married for fear of losing means-tested benefits and that middle-class families with moderate education levels were the most likely to say that they knew someone who had not gotten married out of fear of losing welfare, Medicaid, or other benefits. Policies that penalize marriage are especially concerning as marriage rates have recently hit an all-time low and many couples are choosing cohabitation instead of marriage.
You have probably heard much about the so-called “infrastructure bill” over the past few weeks, culminating with its passage in the United States Senate just a couple of days ago. The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for a vote. But did you know that the infrastructure bill isn’t just about highways, railroads, and broadband?
That’s right – tucked away in the bill are hidden provisions known as “SOGI language.” SOGI stands for “sexual orientation and gender identity.” The infrastructure bill, which just passed the Senate, proposes to elevate the SOGI groups to federally protected classes, even though those classes are poorly defined.
Another mask mandate? MN 4th graders are being given required “equity surveys” with questions about gender identity? Biological males competing against female Olympians? There’s so much to keep up with this week! Tune in to get the facts & stand for truth with your hosts, Grace Evans and Moses Bratrud.
Another mask mandate? MN 4th graders are being given required “equity surveys” with questions about gender identity? Biological males competing against female Olympians? There’s so much to keep up with this week! Tune in to get the facts & stand for truth with your hosts, Grace Evans and Moses Bratrud.
Columnist Tanya Gold recently lambasted a young writer who criticized proposed legislation that would have allowed abortion on demand for any reason up until birth in the U.K. In her op-ed Mercy Muroki described her experience with unplanned pregnancy in her teens and her decision not to abort. Tanya responded with her own story, insisting that for her, anything other than abortion would have been “impossible.” Chillingly, Tanya acknowledges that her abortion killed not a “clump of cells” but her baby. She writes,
How many women, do you think, walk into an abortion clinic not knowing what they are doing, and why? It’s not really a baby, say some pro-choice activists. It’s an, er, embryo. Of course, it’s a baby, and those having to make the decision know that better than anyone. I know that from my own experience. I don’t need people to tell me what I have done. It is always with me.
Tanya knows that her abortion took the life of her child. The abortion industry’s lies could not conceal that fact. In the aftermath, she is parroting the abortion industry’s talking points even as she struggles to live with what she claims was a choice she “had to make.”
“When I was 22, I had an abortion,” explains Tanya. “I was very sick, with alcoholism, and I didn’t know who the father was. I had no job, no money and no home of my own.” Reading those words, my computer screen blurred in front of me as my eyes filled with tears as I thought of how my sister’s birth mom was in almost the exact same situation when she found out she was pregnant. Battling mental illness and addiction, unsure of who the father was, aware that the child she was caring wouldbe born with disabilities, and knowing that she would not be able to raise her child, she chose life. I am forever grateful for that she didand I cannot read Tanya’s insistence that her abortion was “necessary” without thinking of how different my life would have been if my sister was not part of it.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday True North Legal, a legal initiative of Minnesota Family Council, filed an amicus brief in the upcoming United States Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which will be argued this fall, urging the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
True North Legal’s General Counsel Renee Carlson co-authored the brief with Professor Teresa Collett of the University of St. Thomas School of Law and Director of the Law School’s Prolife Center. Several allied groups joined as parties to the brief, namely former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom, The Family Leader (Iowa), the Center for Political Renewal, Family Heritage Alliance, and Nebraska Family Alliance.
The brief makes the case that the harms to women and families caused by current abortion law, beginning with Roe v. Wade in 1973, have not been fully addressed by the Court. It points to the relationship between statutory rape and abortion, in which abortion gives rapists, handlers, and others who hold a position of power over young women a way to cover up their crimes. As the brief states, “Roe and its progeny are the catalyst to these social atrocities, protecting men who would otherwise be criminally charged. Roe has turned statutory rape laws designed to protect young women into a license to cover up crimes against them.“
Join Moses Bratrud and Grace Evans for the 2nd episode of Minnesota Family Council's Family Beacon podcast. We called an abortion clinic - listen to the podcast to hear how that went!
Make sure you subscribe for new episodes every Friday, so you can cut through the noise, get the facts, and stand for TRUTH in our culture.
Parents and school board members in Russell County, Virginia rejected the Virginia Department of Education’s radical transgender policies in a unanimous vote last Friday.The policies were enacted by the VDOE after the Virginia legislature passed a bill mandating the change.However, as the Family Foundation of Virginia has pointed out,the policies required by the legislature present an unconstitutional attack on freedom of religion, free speech, parental rights, and the privacy and safety of students. The Family Foundation is also part of a lawsuit challenging the VDOE’s unconstitutional policies.
VDOE’s model policy would allow students to access restrooms and locker rooms on the basis of their “gender identity” rather than their biological sex, require students, teachers, and staff to refer to students using their “preferred pronouns,” disregarding any religious objections they may have, and event encourages schools to conceal information from the parents of students who are struggling with gender dysphoria and help students “transition” behind their parents’ backs. At a Russell County Board of Education meeting last month, parents pointed out that these policies are not rooted in science but are “a mandatory promotion of a sexualized agenda.”
Whole Women’s Health was one of the largest providers of abortion in Minnesota, at least until 2020. For at least six months in 2020, the state of Minnesota’s abortion report showed that Whole Women’s Health committed zero abortions.
Eagle-eyed pro-life activists, including Pro-Life Action Ministry’s Brian Gibson, quickly realized that couldn’t be true. After all, pro-life activists were outside Whole Women’s Health every day last year - they knew women had entered the premises to receive abortions.
Abortion reporting is taken seriously in Minnesota, with the potential of financial penalties for a late or inaccurate report. So did Whole Women’s Health fail to report accurate numbers? Or did the state garble the report?
I wanted to get information straight from the source, so I called Whole Women’s Heath. After a long day, I was finally able to get Jackie Dilworth, Director of Marketing and Communications for the abortion chain, to pick up the phone.
Below is our response to the Star Tribune’s recent claims on critical race theory in Minnesota schools. The article in question remains unaltered as of this writing.
To the editor,
Critical race theory is controversial because it makes race and racial oppression the central fact of American identity, threatening to divide Americans by color just as profoundly as Jim Crow-era legislation once did. This is the root of its deep unpopularity in the American electorate, and the reason why GOP operatives are making it a “wedge issue” in advance of the 2022 elections.
Moreover, critical race theory is not only found in academia. It has made its way even to local schools. How then can Star Tribune’s Briana Bierschbach state in the July 18th issue of the paper that “Critical race theory is not being taught in Minnesota's K-12 classrooms?” (“GOP teeing up critical race theory for midterms in Minnesota, across the nation”, July 17, 2021) The paper must clarify or retract this statement to avoid creating a false impression in its readers.
