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The daughter of Minnesota Democrat governor and failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz declared that if Jesus Christ were living in the United States today, President Donald Trump’s administration would claim he was part of the deadly MS-13 gang and deport him.

Hope Walz, the 24-year-old daughter of Tim Walz, posted a controversial video on TikTok, where she alleged that the Trump administration would claim Jesus Christ was an MS-13 gang member as a way to deport him.

Hope called people who lean right ‘dumb’ and described President Trump as the ‘king felon in chief.’

“If Jesus were alive today and in the United States, this administration would have already taken him and removed him from this country without due process,” Hope Walz said.

Hope Walz added that the Trump administration would have “claimed he was a member of the MS-13 gang as a way to try to justify not giving him due process, as if there’s any justifiable reason for not giving anybody due process.”

“But yeah, people don’t want to talk about that,” Hope added. “Some people don’t want to talk about that. It truly is baffling how clear and laid out everything is, and there are still people standing by it.”

“I believe in the good of people and like humanity, humans, you know … deep down at our core. Like, we care about each other … but that’s really being tested,” the daughter of the Minnesota governor continued. “Because how anyone is okay with this is terrifying to me.”

Walz seemed to be referring to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal alien who was deported to El Salvador and is suspected of being a member of the violent MS-13 gang.

Democrats have been up in arms over Garcia’s deportation, arguing that the alleged gang member wasn’t provided with due process.

As Blaze News reported, four congressional Democrats arrived in El Salvador on Monday in an effort to pressure the return of Garcia to the United States.

Members of Trump’s administration have been ardently defending the polarizing deportation.

At a press conference at the White House earlier this month, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele proclaimed that he would not be returning Garcia.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a recent statement, “The mainstream media has peddled a sob story about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The facts are that he is an illegal alien from El Salvador, an MS-13 gang member, and has a history of violence.”

DHS records show that the Salvadoran national was suspected of human trafficking in 2022 and has been accused of domestic violence against his wife.

“Jennifer Vasquez, Garcia’s wife, petitioned for an order of protection against him,” the DHS said. “She claimed he punched her, scratched her, and ripped off her shirt, and bruised her.”

The Department of Homeland Security stated that two judges found that Garcia was a member of MS-13. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement noted the “extreme violence” committed by MS-13.

“One of the largest and most violent criminal organizations in the United States is MS-13, which has over 10,000 members in as many as 40 states,” ICE states. “The gang is known for its extreme violence, including its brutal initiation rituals and acts of intimidation and retaliation against rival gangs, law enforcement officials, and community members.:

In another recent TikTok video regarding deportations of illegal aliens, Hope Walz called people who lean right “dumb” and described President Trump as the “king felon in chief.”

Hope then claimed that if the government deported illegal immigrants, it could also round up American citizens.

Hope lashed out, “I understand that some people lack empathy, which is f**king terrible, but what’s bizarre to me is the fact that they’re doing this to some people right now means that they could do it to all people.”

“Okay, don’t care about another human being, your time of judgment will come regarding that, but care about your f**king self because this could happen to anybody.” Hope ranted. “And it’s f**king horrible!”

Hope Walz has nearly 440,000 followers and more than 5 million views on her TikTok account.

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The Democrats not only continue to block President Trump’s deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but are also ignoring the mountain of evidence revealing Garcia’s criminal history.

Garcia was suspected of potentially being on a terror watch list after being stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2022 before being released. He didn’t have documentation or a driver’s license, but that apparently didn’t matter.

In 2021, his wife filed a domestic violence protection order.

“She said back then he was hitting her, he was scratching her, he was detaining her. There was another police report that he ripped her shirt, he left bruising, very serious stuff. And now she’s publicly supporting him and raking in the GiveSendGo funds for her family,” Sara Gonzales of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” explains.

“And so you’ve got the fact that judges previously ruled that he was likely linked to MS-13, he was denied bond for posing a potential danger to the public, and despite that, he was allowed to remain in this country until Trump’s 2025 deportation,” she continues.

“The Democrats are like, ‘But, but, but what about due process?’ I don’t want to give it to him. If you’re here illegally, you don’t get due process. I think that’s only for American citizens,” she adds.

BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere notes that when Garcia was arrested, it was with an MS-13 gang member.

“I don’t know how many times that’s happened to you guys, probably a lot,” he jokes, adding, “I just hang out with a lot of people with facial tattoos. That’s just my thing.”

“It could happen that a source goes to the government and falsely names you as an MS-13 member,” he continues. “What we do know, because he’s admitted it, is that he was here illegally, and he was here for a very long time illegally.”

“He didn’t try to get asylum for many, many years, eventually got caught, and then claimed his mother’s pupusa stand back in El Salvador was being terrorized and he couldn’t go back there because he might get tortured,” he says, “but it doesn’t exist.”

“The idea that he was going to go back to El Salvador and get tortured for his mother’s pupusa stand that was not open — it’s a hell of a stretch to get him to stay in the country,” he adds.

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Christianity Today went viral over the Easter weekend for all the wrong reasons.

Last week, the Christian magazine asked a provocative question: Was Jesus crucified with nails?

— (@)

The query stemmed from a novel theory created by Bible scholar Jeffrey P. Arroyo García, who recently published a paper in an academic journal titled, “Nails or Knots — How Was Jesus Crucified?”

The theory goes like this: The Gospel accounts in the New Testament do not explicitly say that Jesus was affixed to the cross with nails, neither do the earliest accounts of Roman crucifixion mention nails, so Jesus could have been hung to the cross with rope, right? After all, being nailed to a cross is not what kills the condemned; death comes through suffocation, caused by suspension on the cross. And that passage in John’s Gospel about doubting Thomas? It was probably written in the late first century after crucifixion with nails had become more common — allegedly.

On Holy Saturday — the day between Good Friday, which marks the day Jesus died, and Easter Sunday, the day of His resurrection — Christianity Today posted its story on X.

By Monday, the post had more than 2.4 million views, it had been slapped with a community note, and it had drawn outrage from every corner of Christianity.

“Dear CT, there’s a grammatical error in paragraph 31 (‘the Romans use of nails’ requires a possessive apostrophe), and there’s a historical error from paragraphs 1-43,” Wheaton College professor John Dickson said.
“Guys, having read it, this whole piece is built upon the assumption the Gospel of John is an after-the-fact fabricated account.
Please remember, you are *Christianity* Today,” pastor Josh Howerton
replied.
“And Thomas said, ‘Unless I see the rope burns I will not believe,'” pastor Mike Stone mocked.
“Christianity Today has outdone our @TheBabylonBee writers once again. We really should just buy them to eliminate the competition,” Kyle Mann, editor in chief of the Babylon Bee, mocked.
“‘You can ignore the clear witness of the Christian Gospel of John today because we think it was written late.’ -Christianity Today,” Theologian Colin Smothers mocked.
“The Greek word for ‘nail’ can also mean ‘to affix’ or ‘to press firmly,’ leading some Greek scholars to suggest Jesus may have simply been adhered to the cross with first-century duct tape,” Andrew Walker, professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, mocked.

“Christianity Today could have avoided this embarrassment by reading their Bibles,” Lindsay said.

Biblical scholar Ben Gladd, though he didn’t directly cite Christianity Today, published an article on Good Friday explaining “why nails matter.”

Beyond the internal textual evidence and fulfillment of prophecies — citing Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 12 — Gladd explained that the instruments with which Jesus was affixed to the cross matter because they shine a light on the heart of the gospel.

Gladd wrote:

If you consult the cross-references in your Bible’s margins, you’ll see all four Gospels allude to Psalm 22 as they narrate the crucifixion (see Matt. 27:35, 39, 41, 42, 43; Mark 15:24, 29, 31; Luke 23:34, 35, 36; John 19:23, 24). Jesus even quotes verse 1 (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) in Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. Three of the four evangelists possibly allude to verse 16 as they describe Jesus being crucified between two criminals (Matt. 27:38; Luke 23:33; John 19:18). So when Jesus commands Thomas and the disciples to look at his “hands” and “feet” (Luke 24:39; John 20:20, 25), he could subtly be alluding to verse 16 since Psalm 22 features so prominently at the crucifixion.

The early church was convinced that Jesus was nailed to the cross (e.g., Justin Martyr, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen), and so are most contemporary commentators (e.g., Raymond Brown, I. Howard Marshall, Craig Keener, and Eckhard Schnabel). By preserving the details about nails that pierced Jesus’s hands and feet, we’re reminded that at the gospel’s heart lies One who is pierced, One who bore God’s wrath, so you and I can enjoy God’s favor.

Theologian Andrew Snyder, meanwhile, hit the nail on the head (pun intended).

Snyder observed that such a theory as this — that perhaps Jesus was affixed to the cross with rope, not nails, because the Gospels do not explicitly state that Jesus was nailed to the cross — arose out of a problem with the state of scholarship, namely that the pressure to publish new journal articles contributes to “innovation,” a desire that Snyder described as “antithetical to true scholarship.”

He added, “‘I want to say something true’ is always superior to ‘I want to say something new.'”

Amen.

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A Democrat judge in New Mexico resigned last month just days after a suspected member of the violent Tren de Aragua gang was arrested at his residence.

On March 3, Judge Jose “Joel” Cano, magistrate of Doña Ana County, sent a letter to various court staff, including 3rd Judicial District Chief Judge Conrad Perea, announcing that he would step down from his seat effective March 21.

“Working with each of you has been a very rewarding experience for which I will remain eternally grateful,” he wrote, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Just three days before Cano sent the resignation letter, on February 28, ICE agents conducted a search warrant on his home in connection with Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela and suspected TDA gangster who was living there.

Ortega-Lopez broke into the U.S. by scaling a barbed-wire fence near Eagle Pass, Texas, at the height of the Biden border crisis in December 2023, Breitbart reported, citing court documents. He spent three days at a detention facility in South Laredo before he was released because of overcrowding.

He then moved in with five other people in El Paso and began working in construction and doing other odd jobs. At some point, he crossed paths with Nancy Cano, wife of ex-Judge Cano, who offered Ortega-Lopez the chance to live in a casita behind the home the couple shares in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Ortega-Lopez apparently accepted the offer because last April, he filed a request for immigration relief and listed the judge’s address as his current residence. Breitbart indicated that the judge “allowed” him to do so.

Judge Damian Martinez initially opted to release him, reportedly stating that he did not believe Judge Cano ‘would just let anybody live in his property.’

Far from mere casual acquaintances, Ortega-Lopez and Cano apparently spent considerable time together. Prosecutors introduced photos and videos posted to social media that showed the two posing together.

What’s more, the photos and videos revealed that on at least one occasion, Ortega-Lopez and several other illegal aliens went to the local gun range, where they fired various firearms. One photo reportedly showed Ortega-Lopez double-fisting an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun, while in another photo, he allegedly handled another AR-style rifle outfitted with a suppressor.

Video footage also showed Ortega-Lopez firing the rifle until it ran out of bullets, according to Breitbart. He then reloaded the gun with a fresh magazine and proceeded to fire it again.

During their investigation, agents discovered a cache of weapons at the nearby home of April Cano, identified as Nancy Cano’s daughter. Prosecutors alleged that after meeting Ortega-Lopez, April Cano “allowed him to hold and sometimes shoot various firearms” she owns.

In some of the social media photos, Ortega-Lopez can be seen holding some of April Cano’s firearms, the Journal said. His TDA tattoos are reportedly visible in both the photos and videos.

Ortega-Lopez’s cell phone also contains images of decapitated and mutilated bodies, reported Breitbart, which claimed to have viewed the gruesome images.

Ortega-Lopez was arrested on February 28 and currently faces a federal charge of unlawful alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition. At a detention hearing on March 14, U.S. Magistrate Judge Damian Martinez initially opted to release him, reportedly stating that he did not believe Judge Cano “would just let anybody live in his property.”

Prosecutors immediately filed an appeal of his release and included the quotation from Judge Martinez in their motion.

Martinez also reportedly wanted to consider whether Mrs. Cano might be considered a third-party custodian of Ortega-Lopez.

For now, Ortega-Lopez remains in custody without bond at the Doña Ana County Detention Center for “violation [of] federal immigration laws,” jail records show.

Joel and Nancy Cano declined a request for comment from the Journal, claiming they did not want to jeopardize any of Ortega-Lopez’s pending legal cases. Whether any of the Canos will face charges on account of their association with Ortega-Lopez remains unclear.

Joel Cano is a former police officer who first ran for the county magistrate position as a Democrat in 2010. He then kept his seat by running unopposed in subsequent elections, including his most recent re-election in 2022.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government declared Tren de Aragua to be a foreign terrorist organization.

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A thief was able to steal the purse of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem while she dined at a downtown Washington, D.C., restaurant on Sunday evening.

The bag contained $3,000, Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, blank checks, a makeup bag, and her DHS access badge. A spokesperson for Noem confirmed the robbery in a statement to Blaze News.

The cash was intended to be used to purchase Easter presents and activities for Noem’s family, as well as the dinner.

Noem was also approached at the White House Easter Egg Roll and asked about the incident. She confirmed the report and said that the matter had not yet been resolved.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the Secret Service had reviewed security footage from the restaurant and saw a white male wearing a medical mask take the bag. The unknown male then left the restaurant.

The source added that the Secret Service was investigating any use of Noem’s financial instruments.

A DHS spokesperson said the cash was intended to be used to purchase Easter presents and activities for Noem’s family, as well as the dinner.

The incident was first reported by CNN.

Noem was the governor of South Dakota before she was tapped by President Donald Trump to head DHS. She has made his promise of mass deportations the focus of the department.

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An activist from Next Generation Action Network is not only representing accused teen killer Karmelo Anthony but has a lengthy rap sheet of his own.

Minister Dominique Alexander, the appointed spokesperson for the alleged teen murderer, has been convicted on child abuse charges and allegations of domestic violence, but served almost zero prison time.

While on probation, Alexander was indicted on felony forgery charges, then in 2017 on felony theft charges of property between $2,500 and $30,000.

“The guy’s been convicted of several crimes,” Jason Whitlock of “Fearless” comments. “He’s reinvented himself as some sort of black activist. That’s the first sign that hey, there’s a problem here. A career criminal is the face of, ‘Hey, I’m fighting for justice for Karmelo Anthony and his family.’”

“They’re looking for justice for Karmelo Anthony,” Whitlock continues. “Who would take on that job? ‘We gotta get justice for the guy that [allegedly] stabbed and killed a 17-year-old.’ Who would do that? And why?”

And the latest press conference for Anthony’s family, led by Alexander, revealed Alexander’s true colors when Jeff Metcalf, the father of the slain teenager Austin Metcalf, showed up at the press conference himself.

“The father being at this press conference … is a disrespect to the dignity of his son,” said Alexander.

“That was disrespectful and just shows you all the character — he was not invited, he knows that it’s inappropriate to be near this family, but he did it,” the Next Generation Action Network president added.

“So this press conference that went 30 minutes yesterday started out with Dominique Alexander, the career criminal, the baby Al Sharpton of Texas. Austin Metcalf’s father, who came to the press conference. He wanted to hear what Karmelo Anthony and his family and their spokesman had to say,” Whitlock says.

“And they booted Austin Metcalf’s dad out of the press conference, and then Dominique Alexander, the man with virtually no command of the English language, took a dump on Austin Metcalf’s father,” he continues, adding, “Who’s the real victim here?”

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Earlier this morning, Pope Francis passed away at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. He was 88 years old and riddled with health issues. His replacement will likely be decided in the next 15 to 20 days by a secret conclave of cardinals, who will vote until a candidate secures a two-thirds majority.

As the world braces to find out who’s next in line, Glenn Beck has a story to tell — one that mainstream media would never dare to touch.

He keenly recalls the day Francis was announced as the next pope following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI — a “staunch conservative,” who “stood for everything the modern world wanted the Church to abandon.”

Benedict “had moral clarity; he was a traditionalist and a spiritual authority,” Glenn reflects. However, it didn’t take him long to figure out that “Pope Francis was going to be none of these things.”

As the media speculated about who would be next in line, pundits brought up Francis, formerly known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and claimed they knew very little about him.

However, “Within 10 minutes [of the announcement], everybody on every network started talking about how great he was going to be” and that “he was practically Jesus,” says Glenn.

That’s when he could see the writing on the wall — “They like him,” which means “this guy is going to be a nightmare.”

Contrast their celebration of Francis with their contempt for Benedict, who “would not compromise on life” or “marriage” and had “no applause for the modern world.”

“The globalists hated him, the media called him rigid, progressives called him dangerous, and the machine went to work behind closed doors because that machine is in every government, and make no mistake — the Vatican is a government,” says Glenn.

Although it will never be admitted, Benedict didn’t resign; he was removed due to “a soft coup by the progressive faction inside the Church who was eager to align Rome with Davos.”

“We’ve seen it in Hollywood; we’ve seen it in the media — it’s the replacement of the immovable with those who are more malleable; the strong replaced by the inclusive, the faithful with the fashionable,” Glenn reflects.

Pope Francis is a case in point. He entered the picture and “immediately everything about the Church changed.” Suddenly, there was “global applause,” “doctrinal ambiguity,” and “climate change sermons.” Overnight, the Church became “less about salvation, more about sustainability and collective salvation; less moral compass, more moral relativism.”

The deep-state mentality is pervasive, Glenn explains. It “runs in institutions, and when those institutions start to resist the world’s direction, they’re infiltrated, they’re neutralized, and they’re repurposed.”

That’s what “happened at the Vatican,” says Glenn. “I saw it.”

To hear Glenn’s wild story about his chilling encounter with the very man who was leading the opposition to oust Benedict and hear his take on where the Catholic Church is headed, watch the episode above.

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The Mayo Clinic is rebranding its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as “belonging,” following President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting all such DEI-related programs.

On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an executive action “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” banning the “illegal and immoral discrimination programs” within the federal government. The administration warned it would pull federal funding, including grant awards, from entities that continue implementing DEI-related initiatives despite the ban.

‘In keeping with this focus and recent national events, we’re embracing an opportunity to accelerate Mayo Clinic’s belonging journey to reflect our culture of collaboration and respect and support positive patient experiences.’

Trump’s action appears to have prompted some companies, including the Mayo Clinic, to effectively cancel the acronym while potentially keeping the same goals under a new name.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) responded to the clinic’s actions.

“They aren’t fooling anyone! DEI is DOA [dead on arrival],” Mace declared in a post on X.

On Thursday, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the Mayo Clinic is undergoing a “renaming” effort, including changing its DEI office to the “Office of Belonging.” Additionally, staffers with DEI-related titles will be referred to as “Belonging” employees. It noted that the clinic’s website would also be updated to reflect these changes.

A webpage on the Mayo Clinic’s Office of Belonging states that its “vision is to create a global environment of empowered belonging.”

“This requires building an environment of psychological safety, making Mayo Clinic a place where people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences can access the best healthcare and where all staff can bring their authentic best selves,” it continues. “Equity is embodied in every aspect of Mayo Clinic, from the individuals who constitute it to the organization as a whole.”

The clinic admitted that the move was prompted by “recent national events.” Yet, Trump’s executive order banning DEI initiatives also clearly prohibits such rebranding and masking efforts.

It reads, “The Director of the Office of Management and Budget … shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”

While not under the federal government, the nonprofit medical group has received $500 million over the past two years from the National Institutes of Health. According to USASpending.gov, the federal government has provided more than $4.4 billion to the Mayo Clinic since 2008.

Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the medical group did not respond to questions concerning whether any jobs would be impacted, and it is unclear whether any functions will be changed.

Andrea Kalmanovitz, the Mayo Clinic’s director of media relations, told the news outlet, “Mayo Clinic’s commitment against racism remains.”

“Since 2020, Mayo Clinic has intentionally focused on belonging as a cornerstone of staff wellbeing,” Kalmanovitz stated. “In keeping with this focus and recent national events, we’re embracing an opportunity to accelerate Mayo Clinic’s belonging journey to reflect our culture of collaboration and respect and support positive patient experiences.”

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The Trump administration has frozen over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admission reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators.

“Harvard wants to have its cake and eat it too,” Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, tells Liz Wheeler on “The Liz Wheeler Show.” “It wants to allow anti-Semites on campus, their students, their faculty members, it wants to continue to implement DEI policies, which is against federal law.”

“But because Harvard is so special in the eyes of its own president, evidenced by his announcement yesterday, it also wants to continue to participate to the tune of billions of dollars in federal student loans and grants,” Roberts continues.

“My advice to my college president associate at Harvard University is you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Pick one or the other. Participate in the programs and abide by federal law, or decide that you don’t like what the federal government is telling you, and stop participating in those programs,” he adds.

The Trump administration is investigating Harvard further and considering freezing an additional $9 billion in student loans and research grants.

“You know, the ones that fund the labs and stuff that really the money that keeps Harvard open is what I would call it,” Wheeler says, adding, “They’d have to radically change if they lose this money.”

“For Harvard, the really big pot of money is the research grants,” Roberts chimes in. “I think the way that this is going to get resolved is that Harvard is going to be intransigent. They’re picking a fight with a president and a vice president and an administration that is ready for this fight.”

“I think the administration is going to prevail,” he adds.

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When I was a boy, my father would rouse my brothers and me — plus the dog — just after sunrise on Patriots Day. We’d walk to the bottom of our street to catch a glimpse of the men and boys marching down Strawberry Hill Road, bound for the Old North Bridge in Concord.

There were never more than a few dozen from Acton, but we heard the drums long before they appeared through the tall, thick trees that line the roads of our Massachusetts town. Now and then, a musket shot cracked the morning air. The dog hated it. He couldn’t grasp why we stood there, waiting for what sounded like an advancing army.

You can’t hold on to your inheritance if you don’t know where it came from — or what it cost.

But for us, it was unforgettable. It felt like history marching toward us. The thrill of a lifetime.

Two hundred and fifty years ago this past Saturday, there were no ceremonial shots. No crowd. No celebration. Just a grim and determined militia moving through the cold New England air, summoned by the alarm of church bells echoing across the countryside.

The British were coming. And the men of Acton walked out to meet them.

There were far fewer trees back then. As the sun rose, the men could see across the open farmland for miles.

Today, Concord is downright tony. But in April 1775, it was still rough country — 140 years old and carved from the wilderness by people who lived off the land. The forest wasn’t just scenery. It was essential for survival: fuel for fires, timber for homes, a barrier against the cold and the unknown.

Years later, the most despised man in town wasn’t a redcoat or a Tory — it was a scrawny, self-important poet who managed to burn the woods down trying to make chowder. His name? Henry David Thoreau.

But on that frozen April morning, no one had time for philosophy. As the Minutemen turned onto Barretts Mill Road, then Lowell Road, they may have glimpsed fellow militiamen assembling on the ridge above the bridge spanning the Concord River.

Ahead lay the town. Between them and it: British light infantry, armed and in formation.

In 1775, the British Empire spanned from Bengal to Bermuda. It held all 13 American colonies and, after its victory in the French and Indian War, ruled Eastern Canada as well. The British Army was undefeated, disciplined, and sharply dressed in red coats and white trousers.

But beneath the uniform, most were poor. Soldiering wasn’t seen as honorable. It was a last resort for men with no other prospects — desperate enough to take the king’s shilling.

The night before the battle, those men had been roused from their barracks in Boston, a world away from the places they called home. They boarded small boats and crossed the Charles River in silence. Seven hundred soldiers, soaked to the skin, trudged 10 miles through the dark to Lexington Green.

There, about 80 American militiamen waited. They had mustered in the night, armed but unsure. As the British columns approached, fear rippled through their line. The enemy just kept coming.

Their captain — a veteran of the war in Canada — knew the odds. He arranged his men in parade formation and told them not to fire. He wasn’t there to win. He was trying to avoid a massacre.

British officers on horseback rode past their lines, eyes cold, barking orders at the militiamen to drop their weapons and disperse. The sun was still nearly two hours from rising when a shot rang out.

No one knows who fired first — but the British answered with a volley.

They gunned down their own countrymen — eight killed, 10 wounded — shattering a small town before continuing their march to Concord.

The shock was immediate and profound. Tensions had simmered for months, but no war had been declared. The Declaration of Independence was still more than a year away. British troops had fired on an unruly mob in Boston five years earlier, but this was different. This time they opened fire on a peaceful militia. And this time, they were marching inland to seize arms and cannon — something they had done before without bloodshed.

This time changed everything.

By the time the British reached Concord, seven miles farther west, the town already knew what had happened. Colonial spies had tracked the army’s every move. Paul Revere had watched their boats leave Boston. The militia had scattered much of the weapons and ammunition into nearby fields. The element of surprise was gone.

Unlike Lexington, Concord didn’t meet the troops with defiance — at least not at first. Soldiers paid townspeople for supplies. No shots were fired. But above Barrett’s Hill, the Minutemen were watching.

They were farmers, blacksmiths, merchants, and their sons. Some had fought the French. Others had battled Indians. But most had never faced trained soldiers.

They weren’t an army — until that moment.

Now, they outnumbered the redcoats. Then the smoke rose from the town — cannon carriages, set ablaze by the British.

The sight triggered fury.

“Will you let them burn down the town?” shouted Joseph Hosmer.

The Americans didn’t answer with words. They marched down the hill to cross the bridge — and into history.

When I was a kid, “the shot heard ’round the world” was the defining story of the American Revolution. We took field trips to the battlefield, rode our bikes down to see the re-enactments with Dad, and as teenagers, we snuck beers and cigars along the quiet river after dark.

I imagined the men — some barely more than boys — who stood their ground and faced down a global empire for their rights. I thought of their strength, courage, and resolve. They suffered, bled, and died for our inheritance.

To us, they were heroes.

It wasn’t until I got older and started to travel that I realized how little of the war was actually fought in the towns where I grew up. I knew my ancestors had fought at Monmouth. Others in my family had taken up arms for the crown in the South. But in my imagination, the war was always Lexington, Concord, the Boston Massacre, and Bunker Hill.

Travel shattered that illusion.

I stood on a hill in New Jersey where my family had held the line against charging Hessian mercenaries. A few miles away, I visited a house marked with a plaque: A man had been hanged there by a mob, suspected of loyalty to the king.

The biggest battles were in the South. That’s where the war was won.

One branch of my family knew the cost of neutrality. A former officer from the French and Indian War refused to take sides when the Revolution broke out. The local townspeople tried to lynch him. Driven into exile, he joined the loyalists.

While he was away fighting, his wife fed information to the Americans — protecting the farm and their many children from reprisals. Her actions earned him a pardon. After the war, he returned from exile and served in the North Carolina State Assembly.

The Revolution wasn’t a clean myth. It was a civil war, bitter and personal. And my family, like many, lived both sides of it.

I once had a beer and a lobster roll on a quiet Connecticut beach where Long Island spies came ashore with news of British troop movements. I bent down and touched the cold water of the Delaware, where Washington’s army crossed one bitter Christmas Eve.

No book can teach what you learn by walking where history happened — by breathing the same air, listening to the same wind, standing where great men once stood.

With time, I came to see how much larger the Revolution really was. And uglier. The lines between right and wrong blurred. The deeper you go, the more complexity you uncover. That’s the price of understanding — and of growing up.

Still, Concord will always stay with me.

I know the men in red weren’t monsters. They were cold, far from home, following orders. “They came three thousand miles, and died, to keep the Past upon its throne,” reads the grave marker by the river. “Unheard, beyond the ocean tide, their English mother made her moan.”

But I know the other side, too. The farmers who stood against them weren’t radicals or rebels. They were citizens. They were noble. And when the moment came, they chose to act.

You can’t hold on to your inheritance if you don’t know where it came from — or what it cost.

That’s why I’ll take my son with me the next time I stand on that “rude bridge that arched the flood” and tell him what happened there — where embattled farmers once stood and fired the shot heard ’round the world.

Emerson’s poem: Concord Hymn

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Klaus Schwab indicated in an April 1 letter to the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees and staff that he was stepping down as chairman of the technocratic globalist organization. The 87-year-old economist did not, however, appear to be in a rush.

The WEF told the Financial Times earlier this month that Schwab — who pushed vigorously in recent years for a “great reset” of capitalism — would complete his departure by January 2027. His exit has, however, come early.

Schwab announced Monday that he was stepping down immediately.

“Following my recent announcement, and as I enter my 88th year, I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect,” the technocrat said in a statement to the WEF’s board.

The board unanimously appointed WEF Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe as the interim chairman and established a search committee for the selection of a future chair.

Brabeck-Letmathe is the Austrian business executive who led the Nestlé Group as CEO from 1997 to 2008 and Formula One until 2016. A notable shareholder in the vaccine manufacturer Moderna at least as of 2023, Brabeck-Letmathe has served as a member of the WEF’s foundation board as well as on its board of trustees.

“At a time when the world is undergoing rapid transformation, the need for inclusive dialogue to navigate complexity and shape the future has never been more critical,” the WEF stated. “The Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum underlines the importance of remaining steadfast in its mission and values as a facilitator of progress. Building on its trusted role, the Forum will continue to bring together leaders from all sectors and regions to exchange insights and foster collaboration.”

‘The world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies.’

Blaze News previously noted that Schwab’s exit, apparently announced on the 55th anniversary of the day he began working on the borrowed concept of a “global village,” followed in the wake of a probe into allegations of discrimination at the WEF.

The Wall Street Journal published a damning report alleging — on the basis of internal complaints, email exchanges, and interviews with current and past WEF employees — that “under Schwab’s decades-long oversight, the forum has allowed to fester an atmosphere hostile to women and black people in its own workplace.”

The report contained allegations that: multiple female employees were “pushed out or otherwise saw their careers suffer” when pregnant or coming back from maternity leave; some women were sexually harassed by senior WEF managers; Schwab “made suggestive comments to [former staffers] that made them uncomfortable”; and some black employees were passed over for promotions and subjected to objectionable racial comments.

The WEF suggested the Journal’s report was “inaccurate,” stating, “We are an organization that upholds the highest standards of governance, while working to address the most pressing challenges of our time with our high-performance teams, our diverse and global outlook, and an environment that values innovation, inclusion, and well-being.”

After the Wall Street Journal’s report made waves, the WEF hired a pair of law firms to investigate the claims of workplace discrimination and harassment.

The law firm Covington and Burling — whose members had their security clearances suspended last month by President Donald Trump — conveniently concluded with the Swiss firm Homburger that it “did not find the forum had committed any legal violations” and “did not substantiate” the misconduct allegations against Schwab.

Time will tell if Schwab’s replacement will secure the future he long conspired to bring about.

In a June 2020 WEF blog post, Schwab noted that “the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

Observing that populations proved willing “to make sacrifices” during the pandemic, Schwab indicated “the will to build a better society does exist.”

“We must use it to secure the Great Reset that we so badly need,” continued Schwab. “That will require stronger and more effective governments.”

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​Klaus schwab, Schwab, World economic forum, Globalism, Globalist, Technocratic, Davos, Europe, Totalitarian, Great reset, Politics 

Voters in crime-ridden Oakland, California, elected former U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat, as the city’s next mayor.

Oakland held a special election on Tuesday after former Mayor Sheng Thao (D) was recalled by her constituents over the city’s rising crime rates, which prompted many businesses to flee the area.

‘I’ve never uttered “defund the police.”‘

The FBI raided Thao’s home in June, and she was later indicted in January on bribery, conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud charges.

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price (D) was also recalled.

The successful recall efforts appeared to indicate that Oakland residents had had enough of progressive politicians’ soft-on-crime approach.

Seneca Scott, the founder of Neighbors Together Oakland, said the recalls signaled that the “phony ‘progressive’ movement is officially dead.”

However, last week, Oakland residents voted to replace Thao with Lee, a Democratic candidate who had opposed the recall effort and previously expressed support for defunding the police.

In June 2020, Lee told Politico that she was “really proud of what Minneapolis unanimously decided” after the city pulled funding from the police. Yet, Lee has insisted that she never supported the defunding movement.

“I’ve never uttered ‘defund the police,’” she told KRON-TV in January. “I never was there. Some were, some weren’t. But that’s okay. I wasn’t. Some said it was only progressives who were, doing the right thing for police reform. And believe you me, I’ve been out there on police accountability and police reform. That’s me. But, believe you me, I understand the need for public safety for everyone.”

Lee’s challenger, former City Council member Loren Taylor (D), who supported tougher police measures, held the initial lead in the mayoral race. However, Lee ultimately secured a five-point victory in the ranked-choice election.

Despite her previous comments indicating her support for yanking funding from law enforcement, Lee ran on a public safety platform in the special election.

Her “first 100 days” plan stated that she intends to address the city’s homelessness crisis and “bring together Police Department leadership and representatives from all business corridors to coordinate and improve public safety strategies.”

She also stated she would appoint a task force “to modernize Oakland’s Charter and strengthen government accountability.”

Scott referred to Lee as “Thao 2.0” and attributed her election success to her “tremendous name recognition.” He expressed doubt that she would keep her campaign promises.

“I have no confidence ‘progressives’ will actually follow thru, they just pandered as usual and will continue passing destructive anti-commerce policies,” Scott wrote in a post on X.

Lee stated on Saturday, “This morning, Loren Taylor called me to concede the race. While I believe strongly in respecting the democratic voting process and ballots will continue to be counted through Tuesday, the results are clear that the people of Oakland have elected me as your next Mayor. THANK YOU, OAKLAND!”

“I accept your choice with a deep sense of responsibility, humility, and love,” she continued. “Oakland is a deeply divided City, and I answered the call to run, to unite our community—so that I can represent every voter, and we can all work together as One Oakland to solve our most pressing problems.”

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Four congressional Democrats
arrived in El Salvador on Monday in hopes of pressuring the Trump administration into facilitating the return of Salvadoran MS-13 affiliate Kilmar Abrego Garcia — something the U.S. Supreme Court conditionally ordered earlier this month.

The trip comes on the heels of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen’s (D) pilgrimage to support the suspected gangbanger — a trip critics seized upon as another damning example of Democrats’ extra-national priorities — and in the wake of new polling showing
record-low confidence in Democratic congressional leadership.

While Democratic
Reps. Robert Garcia (Calif.), Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), and Maxine Dexter (Ore.) followed in the steps of Van Hollen, who traveled last week to San Salvador to both demand Abrego Garcia’s release and share an intimate moment with the MS-13 affiliate, taxpayers did not similarly pay their way.

‘You can spend your own money.’

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer refused the Democratic lawmakers’ request to let taxpayer money be wasted on the trip,
stating in an April 18 letter to Garcia and Frost, “It is absurd that you both displayed active hostility for over two years toward the Committee’s oversight of the Biden Border Crisis and the consequences of millions of illegal aliens entering the country, yet now, you are seeking travel at Committee expense to meet with foreign gang members.”

“You may be pleased to know that a Democrat Senator, Chris Van Hollen, was photographed just yesterday in El Salvador enjoying margaritas garnished with cherry slices with the foreign gang member your letter references,” continued Comer. “If you also wish to meet with him, you can spend your own money.”

Although denied the opportunity to send an official congressional delegation at taxpayers’ expense, the Democrats decided to make the trip anyway.

The four Democrats’ offices
informed Axios that they will meet with U.S. embassy officials in El Salvador.

Evidently unfazed by the credible accusations lodged against Garcia — of human trafficking and domestic abuse — as well as an immigration court’s determination that he is a “danger to the community,” the Democrats will also advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release.

“Donald Trump and his Administration are running a government-funded kidnapping program — illegally arresting, jailing, and deporting innocent people with zero due process. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is Trump’s latest victim,” said Frost.

“While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported,” Rep. Garcia
said in a statement. “We are demanding the Trump Administration abide by the Supreme Court decision and give Kilmar and the other migrants mistakenly sent to El Salvador due process in the United States.”

An Obama judge
ordered the Trump administration on April 4 to bring a deported MS-13 member back to the United States, which he originally stole into without inspection in 2011.

On April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court
unanimously upheld the lower court’s ruling in part, stating, “The order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

The court noted, however, that the “scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority,” and that the lower court “should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

White House officials indicated that the release and return of Abrego Garcia is up to El Salvador.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us. The Supreme Court ruled that if El Salvador wants to return him … we would facilitate it: meaning, provide a plane.”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele indicated in the Oval Office last week that doing so is not possible.

President Donald Trump made clear Friday that contrary to Democrats’ characterization of Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland man” traduced, the Salvadoran bears the markings of his gang affiliation. Rather than leave the markings to the imagination, Trump shared a picture of the gang tattoo online.

‘Americans are increasingly saying the country is on the right track when it comes to immigration policy.’

“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person,'” wrote Trump. “They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc.”

— (@)

A new Gallup poll
found that confidence in Democratic congressional leaders is at an all-time low — only 25% of respondents signaled confidence in the leftist lawmakers’ ability to do or recommend the right thing. Democrats’ lowest confidence rating was previously 34%, which was recorded in 2023.

The four Democrats’ protest in El Salvador is unlikely to improve their relationship with voters. After all, a recent Washington Post poll
found in February that the majority of Americans support deporting all illegal aliens presently in the United States.

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On April 8, Kevin O’Leary, commonly known as Mr. Wonderful, appeared on CNN to give his two cents on President Trump’s newly announced 104% tariffs on Chinese imports.

O’Leary was critical but not in the way most pundits are critical. On the contrary, O’Leary argued the tariffs weren’t even close to sufficient.

“104% tariffs in China are not enough. I’m advocating 400%. I do business in China. They don’t play by the rules; they’ve been in the WTO for decades; they have never abided by any of the rules they agreed to when they came in for decades. They cheat; they steal; they steal IP. I can’t litigate in their courts; they take product — technology, they steal it; they manufacture it and sell it back here,” he said.

When CNN host Laura Coates pushed back, O’Leary doubled down.

“I want Xi on an airplane to Washington to level the playing field. This is not about tariffs any more,” he said, noting that people can dislike Trump all they want but that standing up to China is simply the right thing to do.

Mark Levin says O’Leary’s “tough talking” is fine but that Trump’s tariff plan is already brilliant.

“What Trump is doing is he’s ratcheting, and that’s the right way to approach it,” he says, noting that the plan will cause some discomfort for Americans in the short term but ultimately will create fairer trade practices.

However, his tariff plan is much bigger than just trade.

“I think Trump is looking at — if not defeating the communist Chinese, severely damaging their economy and hence militarily, the way Reagan did the Soviet Union through economics,” says Levin.

“The truth is as big as the communist Chinese economy is, it’s not as big as ours. It’s two-thirds or so the size of the American economy. They cannot beat us economically, at least right now,” he explains.

These tariff plans are aimed at ensuring that it stays that way.

To hear more of Levin’s analysis, watch the clip above.

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Last year, as millions of Americans were preparing to celebrate the Resurrection, President Biden took the opportunity to add a new holy day to the national calendar.

March 31, 2024 — previously known as “Easter” — would now double as the “Transgender Day of Visibility,” Biden’s
proclamation declared. (This was a separate event from the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which fell on November 20.) “Today, we send a message to all transgender Americans,” the president wrote. “You are loved. You are heard. You are understood. You belong.”

One year later, as Christians gathered again to celebrate one of Christianity’s most holy holidays, a new president issued a very different proclamation.

“During this sacred week, we acknowledge that the glory of Easter Sunday cannot come without the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross,” President Trump
wrote. “In His final hours on Earth, Christ willingly endured excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross out of a deep and abiding love for all His creation. Through His suffering, we have redemption. Through His death, we are forgiven of our sins. Through His Resurrection, we have hope of eternal life.”

What a difference one year can make.

The Trump administration’s commemoration of this Holy Week didn’t just strike a contrast with Biden. President Trump has taken Easter more seriously than any other president in modern American history. That’s a good thing. Easter is the holiest day on the Christian calendar, “celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ — the living Son of God who conquered death, freed us from sin, and unlocked the gates of Heaven for all of humanity,” as the president’s proclamation put it.

This is not a radical idea. Nor is it some boutique left-wing micro-holiday, dreamed up five minutes ago in a sociology classroom.

Even more broadly, Easter is deeply rooted in the traditions and folkways of the American nation itself. Some
80% of Americans celebrate this holiday — a larger number than the nearly two-thirds of Americans who identify as Christian.

Last week, I
introduced legislation that would establish Easter Monday as a federal holiday. This is long overdue. Easter Monday is already recognized as a public holiday in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe. The United States is one of the only nations in the West that doesn’t formally recognize it as such.

My bill, which I was proud to introduce with
Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.V.), would fix that, giving millions of Americans the chance to more fully celebrate the defining moment of the faith that shaped our nation.

This simple addition to the federal holiday calendar is pro-faith, pro-family, and pro-worker. March and April are the only back-to-back months without an official federal holiday. A federal holiday would add a three-day weekend to the two-month stretch from Presidents’ Day to Memorial Day, providing American workers and families a much-needed opportunity to gather and relax.

At the same time, it comes with its own economic benefits. Easter weekend already generates around $15 billion for our economy. A three-day weekend could boost that by an estimated 10% to 15%, adding up to $2 billion in economic activity.

This is not a radical idea. Nor is it some boutique left-wing micro-holiday, dreamed up five minutes ago in a sociology classroom, commemorating “Trans Visibility” or “Indigenous Day of Mourning.” It is a federal recognition of a tradition that is inextricably linked to our way of life itself — a tradition that already unites more than three-quarters of Americans.

For generations, many American school calendars gave students the day off for both Good Friday and Easter Monday. We already have a “National Day of Prayer,” signed into law by Missouri’s own President Harry Truman. A federal Easter Monday holiday would go a step farther, allowing Americans to celebrate one of the most extraordinary days in world history: Easter — the day of Christ’s Resurrection.

Our holidays and traditions are part of the story we tell about ourselves. This is not a partisan idea. Easter is not a “Republican” or “Democrat” holiday. Easter is an American holiday. It’s time our federal calendar recognized it as such.

​Easter, Easter monday, Christian, Christianity, Holiday, Legislation, Faith 

Pope Francis, certain of the empty tomb, went with hope to his own on Easter Monday at the age of 88. The bells of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
began to toll at the news of the Roman pontiff’s passing. In short order, all of the bells in the Italian capital followed suit.

Hours earlier, Pope Francis — born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina —
met with Catholic U.S. Vice President JD Vance, rode through St. Peter’s Square to greet the faithful, and gave his Easter blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world).

The pope, greatly weakened by his bout with pneumonia and able only to raise his hands enough to make the sign of the cross,
noted in his Easter message, “All those who put their hope in God place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey.”

‘In his eyes, every life is precious!’

“Together with the risen Jesus,” wrote the pope, those who trust in God “become pilgrims of hope, witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of life.”

Pope Francis also conveyed in his message, which was read by Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, master of pontifical liturgical celebrations of the supreme pontiff, that “God created us for life and wants the human family to rise again.”

“In his eyes, every life is precious! The life of a child in the mother’s womb, as well as the lives of the elderly and the sick, who in more and more countries are looked upon as people to be discarded,” wrote the pope.

Pope Francis condemned anti-Semitism and the “great thirst for death” seen around the world and drew attention in particular to “the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”

“I appeal to the warring parties: Call a ceasefire, release the hostages, and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace,” added the pope.

The pope underscored that Jesus “is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us.”

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber, speaking in Vatican City,
indicated that Pope Francis “returned to the house of the Father” at 7:35 a.m. Monday morning.

“His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church,” said Farrell. “He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”

The Vatican
noted that Pope Francis, who wrote and published four papal encyclicals, approved an updated edition of the liturgical book for papal funeral rites in April 2024.

“The renewed rite,” said Archbishop Ravelli, “seeks to emphasize even more that the funeral of the Roman Pontiff is that of a pastor and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful person of this world.”

Pope Francis — who once
stated that humility “saves us from the evil one and from the danger of becoming his accomplices” — apparently desired a simplification of the funeral rites and a focus on expressing the faith of the Catholic Church in the risen body of Christ.

After the pope’s funeral and nine days of mourning, cardinals will convene in Rome to elect Pope Francis’ successor.

Pope Francis, born to Italian immigrants in 1936, entered the Society of Jesus at age 21 and was ordained a priest in 1969. After serving as a Jesuit provincial, seminary rector, and professor, Bergoglio was appointed auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires by St. John Paul II in 1992. Six years later he became archbishop of the city, cardinal in 2001, then pope in 2013 at the age of 76, following the unprecedented resignation of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

The Catholic News Agency
noted that he was the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first to adopt the name Francis — a name he chose on account of St. Francis of Assisi’s devotion to creation, peace, and poverty.

During his papacy, Pope Francis — who suffered from lung issues for decades — created 163 new cardinals, canonized 942 saints, and issued 75 motu proprio documents.

Pope Francis often frustrated liberals and conservative Catholics alike, either going what was perceived to be too far in one direction or not far enough in the other.

‘Nobody, absolutely nobody, has managed to understand him.’

For instance, he did not depreciate the sacrament of marriage to accommodate the desires of non-straight activists inside or outside the church, and he refrained from removing barriers to female priests. But he also restricted the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass and was often critical of Western nations, particularly the United States and its policies.

Dan Hitchens,
writing for First Things, indicated that “he began the decade being hero-worshipped by the world’s media and ended it being denounced by Jordan Peterson. Books, articles, Twitter threads have poured forth from overheated brains. And yet — and I include myself in this — nobody, absolutely nobody, has managed to understand him.”

Hitchens rebuffed cynical readings of Francis’ papacy and intentions, especially since his pontificate was, at times, “the opposite of cynical: above all, when the pope has returned to his great theme of ‘the throwaway society,’ his lonely stand against a global system which, from the sweatshops to the euthanasia clinics, treats the vulnerable not as the image of Christ but as useless trash. That magnificent critique will be one of his most significant legacies.”

World leaders celebrated Pope Francis’ life and impact.

Argentina President Javier Milei
wrote, “Despite differences that seem minor today, having been able to know him in his kindness and wisdom was a true honor for me. As President, as an Argentine, and, fundamentally, as a man of faith, I bid farewell to the Holy Father and stand with all of us who are today dealing with this sad news.”

‘May God rest his soul.’

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi
said, “Pope Francis will always be remembered as a beacon of compassion, humility and spiritual courage by millions across the world. From a young age, he devoted himself towards realising the ideals of Lord Christ. He diligently served the poor and downtrodden. For those who were suffering, he ignited a spirit of hope.”

Pierre Poilievre, head of the Canadian Conservative Party,
stated, “His humility, compassion, and steadfast faith had a profound impact on millions of Canadians and others around the world from every faith background.”

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
said in a statement, “Pope Francis’ love for humanity was powerful and profound. The memory and example of his compassion will long endure.”

“I was happy to see him yesterday,”
wrote Vice President Vance. “My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him. I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul.”

“Pope Francis will long be remembered for his outreach to those on the margins of the Church and of society,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement. “He renewed for us the mission to bring the Gospel out to the ends of the earth and offer divine mercy to all. He has also taken advantage of the present Jubilee to call us to a profound hope: one that is not an empty or naïve hope, but one grounded in the promise of Almighty God to be with us always.”

In his first address as Roman pontiff, Francis
stated:

Now let us begin this journey, the Bishop and people, this journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust. Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world that there might be a great sense of brotherhood. My hope is that this journey of the Church that we begin today, together with help of my Cardinal Vicar, be fruitful for the evangelization of this beautiful city. And now I would like to give the blessing, but first I want to ask you a favor. Before the bishop blesses the people, I ask that you would pray to the Lord to bless me — the prayer of the people for their Bishop.

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The University of Notre Dame may finally be on the verge of blocking access to pornography on its Indiana campus — and not a moment too soon.

When I was a student at Notre Dame in 2019, I met with then-President Rev. John Jenkins to urge him to adopt a campus-wide porn filter. Our student-led campaign had gained thousands of signatures and drawn national media attention, including coverage from Newsweek, the Daily Beast, and ABC’s “Nightline.”

With major corporations distancing themselves from the pornography industry, Notre Dame has even more reason to follow its students’ lead.

I explained to Father Jenkins, an affable priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, how pornography fuels the trafficking of women and children. But he seemed more concerned about avoiding any attempt to control the behavior of male students who watch porn. His argument? That blocking pornography would deprive students of the chance to build self-control.

Six years later, that argument feels even more out of touch. A growing consensus now recognizes pornography not as a harmless personal vice but as a driving force behind the sexual exploitation of children and the trafficking of women. It’s also bad for the brain.

That change in understanding comes as a new generation of Notre Dame students has launched another effort to convince the university to act. Last month, students introduced a petition urging the university president “to take immediate action to promote a pornography-free campus.” According to the Irish Rover, a conservative student newspaper, more than 600 students have already signed the petition — an impressive showing at a university with only about 9,000 undergraduates.

‘Infested with rape videos’

Public opinion has shifted in recent years thanks in part to a groundbreaking 2020 New York Times article by columnist Nicholas Kristof titled “The Children of Pornhub.” In it, Kristof documented how Pornhub “monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.”

Kristof’s column shared the stories of young women whose abuse as children had been filmed and profited from by one of the most powerful pornographic websites in the world. Kristof concluded, damningly, that Pornhub “is infested with rape videos.”

The corporate world took notice. In response to Kristof’s exposé, Mastercard, Visa, and Discover all blocked payments to Pornhub to avoid liability for enabling child sexual abuse. Under pressure, Pornhub announced new age-verification policies last year. But the vast majority of pornographic websites still require no such safeguards. Child sexual abuse material remains rampant across “mainstream” platforms.

With major corporations distancing themselves from the pornography industry, Notre Dame has even more reason to follow its students’ lead. Other Catholic institutions already have.

Inspired by our 2019 efforts at Notre Dame, the Catholic University of America passed a student government resolution asking administrators to “prohibit access to the top 200 pornography websites through the campus network.” President John Garvey agreed and honored the request. Franciscan University of Steubenville and Christendom College also maintain similar pornography filters.

Overcoming resistance

Now, with new leadership at Notre Dame, the odds of real action have improved. The Rev. Robert Dowd took office as university president in June.

When I was a student, I had the privilege of learning from Father Dowd. Unlike professors who treat students as interchangeable, Father Dowd made time to meet individually with everyone. His compassion wasn’t confined to the classroom — he also founded the Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity, which supports research aimed at alleviating poverty in the developing world. Standing against child sexual exploitation would be entirely consistent with both his academic and moral commitments.

But Father Dowd will face institutional resistance. Some administrators fear that blocking porn might make Notre Dame look provincial — unfit to compete with elite secular institutions. Others worry a filter might somehow impinge upon academic freedom.

Both fears are unfounded.

First, Notre Dame can lead the nation by taking a principled stand against an industry that fuels exploitation and abuse. Second, academic freedom can be preserved with basic accommodations. If faculty or students require access to pornography for legitimate research, they can ask Notre Dame’s IT department to lift the filter on their account.

And the technical hurdle? It’s minimal. John Gohsman, Notre Dame’s former vice president for information technology, told Students for Child-Oriented Policy that installing a filter “would be neither technologically difficult nor costly.”

I hope — and fully expect — that Father Dowd will heed today’s students and take meaningful action against the evils perpetuated by the pornography industry.

I’ll end where I began. In 2019, when Father Jenkins refused our request, I said this:

Pornography propagates sexual assault, contributes to the objectification of women, and advances the sexual exploitation of children. I call on Notre Dame to instead stand as a champion for women and children by enforcing the university’s official policy against using pornography on the campus Wi-Fi network.

That call is still waiting for a response. Now is the time.

​Opinion & analysis, Notre dame, Pornhub, Pornography ban, Students, John jenkins, Robert dowd, Internet, Child sexual abuse, Academic freedom, Catholic university of america 

Jesus is coming back — to the walls of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

In a sharp reversal of the Biden administration’s campaign to scrub religious symbols from public institutions, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced last week that a painting of Jesus covered up in 2023 would be restored to public view. The announcement drew cheers from merchant mariners gathered at the academy.

Under the previous administration, erasing Jesus from the walls was just the beginning. But that all changed the moment President Trump took office.

The painting, titled “Christ on the Water,” dates to the 1940s and was created to honor mariners lost at sea during World War II. But in early 2023, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation sent a letter to then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling the artwork a “sectarian painting illustrating the supremacy of Jesus Christ” and demanding that it be removed as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

Naturally, Buttigieg complied. Joanna Nunan, the academy superintendent — whose biography boasted of her efforts to expand “diversity and inclusion” in the Coast Guard and Merchant Marine — ordered the painting covered.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and then-Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) slammed Nunan for her “flawed understanding” of the First Amendment and called on the academy to keep the painting on display. At the time, academy midshipmen warned that “woke” ideology had “seeped into the school” — and that its spread had only accelerated under Biden and Buttigieg.

Duffy’s announcement marks a clear break from that era and shows just how dramatically things have shifted under President Trump.

Last week’s announcement isn’t the only recent move by the administration to defend America’s religious heritage.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins announced that his office intervened to stop a speech code threatening chaplains at a Pennsylvania VA hospital.

The action came after First Liberty Institute and the Independence Law Center sent a letter to Collins on behalf of Chaplain Rusty Trubey. An Army Reserve chaplain, veteran, and former missionary, Trubey has served at the Coatesville VA Medical Center for nearly a decade.

In June 2024, as part of his regular duties, Trubey led a chapel service and preached from the first chapter of Romans. After the service, while cleaning up, he was approached by a VA police officer who said complaints had been filed about his sermon.

After the incident, the VA removed Chaplain Trubey from his duties, launched a months-long investigation, and threatened to mark his permanent record. Though the VA eventually dropped the reprimand, his supervisor pushed to impose a sermon review process and revise the Chaplain SOP and Performance Plan to limit what topics chaplains could preach on. Had those changes taken effect, chaplains could have faced punishment for preaching in accordance with their religious convictions.

Secretary Collins reversed course, stating clearly: “There is no national or local policy or standard operating procedure which inhibits Chaplain sermons. To the extent that there have been any proposed changes to any existing policy, those proposals will not move forward and have been rescinded.”

He emphasized, “It is undisputed and well-settled law that constitutional protections and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act safeguard statements made by all VA chaplains while delivering sermons in line with their ecclesiastical endorsers.”

Under the previous administration, erasing Jesus from the walls was just the beginning. Erasing faith from the pulpit soon followed. We can only imagine what the landscape would look like if the November election had gone the other way.

But that all changed the moment President Trump took office.

In his first days, Trump issued executive orders to restore religious liberty and end the weaponization of the federal government against political dissent — a tactic increasingly common in the left’s push to enforce its woke ideology. From the start, the administration made clear that faith would not be silenced.

That mission hasn’t let up. The fight to restore our first freedom has been relentless.

And to that, many Americans say amen.

​Opinion & analysis, First amendment, Religion, Freedom of religion, Establishment clause, Sectarian, Pete buttigieg, Merchant marine academy, Sean duffy, Department of transportation, Ted cruz, Jim banks, Joanna nunan, Woke ideology, Woke military, Christ on the water, Romans, Chaplain, First liberty institute, Rusty trubey, Religious freedom restoration act 

Here’s a fun Bible trivia fact: The word “remember” (and its variants) appears over 8,000 times in the Bible.

As we celebrate Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection this weekend, remembering calls us to a more intimate relationship with God. I’m currently reading through the Old Testament, and the amount of times God commands the Israelites to “remember” or “do not forget” seems countless.

No matter what waves come, God calls us to give thanks and to recount all that He has done for us.

And yet, God’s chosen people endlessly turned their backs on God, forsaking Him to worship false gods.

Within an hour of learning something, research shows we forget about 50% of the information. As someone who is currently pregnant, I forget things even quicker.

But unlike being forced to recall information from a college-hall lecture, God isn’t calling us to remember random facts for the sake of regurgitating them. On the contrary, when He commands His followers to “remember,” there’s a specific purpose behind it — and it’s ultimately for our good and His glory.

To stay grounded in truth

Remembering helps us stay connected to what God has done — His promises, faithfulness, and guidance. Forgetting leads to drifting away or repeating mistakes like the Israelites did over and over again.

Throughout their 40-year journey, running in circles around the wilderness, the Israelites continued to doubt God and His goodness. God rescued them from the harsh grip of the Egyptians, miraculously parted the Red Sea, rained down manna from heaven, provided quail by a strong wind, supplied water from a rock, and ensured their clothes never wore out.

And yet, despite these incredible miracles and provisions, the Israelites turned to idolatry.

When Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Israelites grew tired of waiting for him during those 40 days and 40 nights, so they turned back to their pagan practices. Instead of Moses’ brother, Aaron, reminding them of God’s truth and His unchanging character, he succumbed to their request and directed them to gather up gold. Aaron not only built an altar in front of the calf, he announced a festival to take place. Consequences ensued upon Moses’ return, which included people dying and a plague.

It can be easy for us to think how ridiculous it is that the Israelites couldn’t wait for Moses to come down the mountain because the timing didn’t suit them. But how many times do we immediately doubt God because He’s not doing something on our timetable and turn to anything but God and His truth?

To build faith

Looking back on past seasons where God showed up for us can strengthen our trust in Him when we’re facing hardship and uncertainty. One way we can do this is by setting up visual reminders of God’s faithfulness: creating our own ebenezers.

In Hebrew, “ebenezer” means “stone of help.” The great prophet Samuel created the first one to commemorate God’s incredible provision for the Israelites. Many are familiar with the word because it’s in the well-known hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written by Robert Robinson, a Baptist minister. The renowned line goes: “Here I raise my Ebenezer, Here by Thy great help I’ve come.”

It’s by God’s great help and undeserving mercy that the Israelites defeated the Philistines when the Philistines had planned to attack them. After 20 years of infidelity along with the Ark of the Covenant being in pagan possession, the Israelites repented of their sin and pleaded with Samuel during this pivotal moment of history: “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:8).

When the Israelites faced an impossible situation, they came back to the living God, humbly asking for help. God “thundered” against the Philistines and threw them into “confusion,” giving the Israelites a resounding victory over their enemies. Samuel didn’t want them to forget God’s supernatural intervention, so he set up a stone of remembrance and called it “Ebenezer” because “the Lord has helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12).

Similarly, years earlier after God had parted the Jordan River for the Israelites as they entered the Promised Land, God commanded that 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel be set up to commemorate God’s unwavering faithfulness.

To give thanks and teach future generations

Remembering can be a form of worship. It helps us remain grateful and humble, recognizing that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. God often told people to remember and tell — to pass on stories of deliverance so others could learn, believe, and trust in the one who is unchanging.

The apostle Paul calls us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). No matter what waves come, God calls us to give thanks and to recount all that He has done for us.

It strengthens my faith when I read miraculous biblical accounts, looking back on His faithfulness in my own life, and hearing modern-day stories of how God provided when situations looked bleak. God healed my mother-in-law from cancer; God opened my friend’s womb after seven years of waiting; God provided a husband for me in the most wild, unexpected way; God answered three specific prayers when my dad was dying of an incurable disease; and so much more.

We must share these kinds of stories with others to encourage them, to tell of God’s faithfulness, and ultimately to give God the glory for the great things He has done. These miracle stories are to point others to Him and build upon our own ebenezer.

More importantly, God commands us to pass the faith along to the next generation, teaching our children of His wondrous deeds.

In Psalm 78, we are instructed not to “hide” these stories from our children. The Psalmist says, “But tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.”

This recurring theme of teaching our children about God can be found throughout the scriptures. As God relays His commandments to Moses in the wilderness, Moses instructs the Israelites saying: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

Here’s my practical suggestion for this solemn yet celebratory weekend: Instead of scrolling social media for a new nugget of truth, listening to podcasts for a new perspective on Easter, or expecting your pastor to preach a new angle on the resurrection, look back at what God has done in your life.

Reflect — and then take action:

Grab a pen and write three clear answers to prayer you’ve experienced in your life.
Open a new “notes” page in your phone app and make a list of at least 15 things you are grateful for.
Find a Sharpie and write down any major struggles that Christ has freed you from — then tear the sheet up and throw away the pieces.
Set aside time with your spouse, close friend, and/or children and reminisce about the details of how you came to know the Lord and how He has changed your life through His work on the cross.
Set up your own ebenezer to commemorate the miracles God has done in your life and how He has worked faithfully to provide for you.

​Remember, Christianity, Christian, God, Ebenezer, Prophet samuel, Easter, Faith 

The apostle Peter describes false teachers: “And in their greed they will exploit you with false words” (2 Peter 2:3).

The Bible describes false teachers in several ways, but one of the most consistent characteristics of a false teacher is that his or her life is marked by greed.

In the prosperity gospel, Christ is not the end, but merely a means to an end: the accumulation of more and more wealth.

Serving as the head of the recently established White House Faith Office, “pastor” Paula White is
one of the leading proponents of Word of Faith theology, otherwise known as the “prosperity gospel.” The Word of Faith movement is an aberrant form of Christianity. It asserts that all Christians should enjoy financial prosperity and physical healing provided they have sufficient faith and sow enough “seed” (i.e., monetary offerings) in a preacher’s ministry. Sow enough “seed” to reap a “harvest.”

Prosperity preachers misuse biblical texts to promise parishioners as much as a “hundredfold return” on their offerings. Mark 4:8, for example, states, “And other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they were yielding a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

Just a little logic makes the prosperity interpretation laughable.

If you give $100 and receive $10,000 in return, then sow that $10,000 and receive $10,000,000 in return, it would not take many “harvest” cycles before you could pay off the national debt. The seed mentioned in Mark 4:8 is not even about money. The seed is the word of God that yields a spiritual harvest in the hearts of those prepared to receive it. But Word of Faith preachers never let the Bible get in the way of their lucrative theology.

Paula White is no stranger to such manipulative Bible twisting.

In videos posted before her recent appointment, White has told people to sow $133 based on Proverbs 1:33 and $91 based on Psalm 91 or even $1,144 based on John 11:44. She promises her followers that if they sow these specific dollar amounts in her ministry, they will receive the corresponding blessings mentioned therein.

This is utter foolishness. Chapter divisions and verse numbers were not added to the Bible until the Middle Ages to facilitate easy navigation of the scriptures. The written text is inspired, but the chapter divisions and verse numbers are not. Besides Paula White and countless other prosperity preachers using them to fleece their followers, they have no spiritual significance whatsoever.

One might think that Paula White’s elevated profile from her appointment by President Donald Trump might cause her to be more cautious about shamelessly exploiting people for money.

But one would be wrong.

In late March, White generated controversy once again because she appeared to promise followers the “7 Blessings of Passover.”

These seven blessings are:

An angel assigned to you.
God will be an enemy to your enemies.
Financial prosperity.
Healing from sickness.
A long life.
Increase.
A special year of blessing.

She suggested sowing varying dollar amounts: a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $1,000.

Though White never
explicitly said that these seven blessings would be yours in exchange for money, it was certainly implied. At one point a narrator quotes Deuteronomy 16:16, “None shall appear before the Lord empty-handed,” before urging viewers to sow their “best Passover offering.” The narrator then states, “Don’t miss your moment to release seven supernatural blessings and provision into your life.” White follows up, saying, “I believe when you honor God on Passover … you can receive these seven supernatural blessings for you and your house.”

Despite White receiving significant backlash on social media for her video, she posted an almost identical one on April 13. “I believe God for miracles during this time because God is faithful to His word. So get ready to experience the supernatural blessing of this time as we honor God,” she
says in the video.

In other words: You “honor God” by giving money to Paula White.

If you sow financial seed to Paula White, God will give you these seven blessings. Need money? Give what you have to Paula. Need healing? Give your money to Paula. Do you or a family member — possibly one of your own children — have a serious physical condition like cancer? Well, you’ll need to sow a
big seed for that. The bigger miracle you need, the bigger monetary seed you better sow.

Like all Word of Faith and prosperity gospel preachers, Paula White tries to disguise her greed. She says, “Now we’re not buying a miracle; we’re not doing any of that ‘Jesus junk.’” But her attempt is in vain. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is obvious to everyone observing that it is still a pig.

The Bible says much about how we should care for the poor and the widows. Prosperity preachers like Paula White exploit them and, to add sin upon sin, do so in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus reserved His most blistering rebukes for false teachers who distort scripture and “devour widows’ homes” (Luke 20:46-45).

Paula White takes the most sacred Christian holy day, Resurrection Sunday, and turns it into an opportunity for her to stuff her already bulging coffers.

In the prosperity gospel, Christ is not the end, but merely a means to an end: the accumulation of more and more wealth.

Please do not misunderstand: There is nothing inherently wrong with being wealthy, nor is there anything inherently honorable in being poor. There is nothing wrong with adequately compensating men who serve as pastors — this, in fact, is biblical (1 Timothy 5:17-18).

But it is completely wrong to twist scripture and exploit the poor and the sick to fund a lifestyle of luxury. It is wrong when Paula White tells people to give her money before they even pay their light bill because you can’t expect the electric company to heal your child.

Jesus did not come to this earth to put an end to financial poverty. He plainly stated, “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11). Jesus did not even come to put an end to sickness and disease — that will only be realized for believers on the other side of heaven, not here. Jesus came to this earth to put an end to sin and the wrath of God that it incurs.

God the Son, uncreated and fully God from eternity past, took on a human nature at Bethlehem. Jesus Christ was one person with two distinct natures: He is truly God and truly man. As the God-man, Jesus gave His perfect life on the cross as a perfect sacrifice to perfectly satisfy God’s wrath that burns against sin.

Jesus did not die on the cross so that we can have a perfect life, but so that we can be saved from God’s perfect wrath (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10). Then on the third day, He was bodily raised from the dead, proving Himself to be who He said He was: God in human flesh. The only way to have the wrath of God removed is to turn (i.e., repent) from sin and place your full trust in Christ and what He accomplished with His one-time, never-to-be-repeated sacrifice on Calvary’s tree (Hebrews 10:10, 12).

False teachers have been a problem in the church since its inception. In fact, of the 27 books in the New Testament, 26 of them directly warn about false doctrine and/or false teachers. Not only are false teachers marked by greed, but scripture also describes them as “caring only for themselves” (Jude 12).

Greed combined with a lack of care for others is a dangerous combination indeed.

​Easter, Paula white, Prosperity gospel, Word of faith, Christianity, Christians, Trump faith office, False teacher, God, Jesus, Faith