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The first sign of spring is said to be the appearance of a robin. That sign is followed by the first sign that June has arrived: a Pride flag, festooned with what seems to be an ever-increasing number of colors and symbols, hoisted up the flagpole, right under (or alongside) Old Glory.

For as long as most folks living in a civil society can remember, pride and lust have been counted among the infamous list known as the seven deadly sins. The list varies slightly in order and phrasing, but they are: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.

To my knowledge, only “pride” has a flag designed specifically to celebrate its practice. However, the Pride flag doesn’t just encompass pride — it glorifies lust too — even though you can attach the spirit of pride to any of the other bad behaviors found on the infamous list.

Of course, the Ten Commandments outline the evil of all of these sins, warning of the danger of being controlled by them. Pride, along with the other deadly sins, is spiritually dangerous — and it often carries psychological and physical consequences too.

Flags, of course, are symbolic and used to unite those of similar viewpoint and allegiance. But we are aware that they can also rally people to lethal ends.

What started out decades ago as the statement, “What we do in our bedrooms is our own business,” has now morphed into, “Celebrate the many ways we transform your children into our own image and indoctrinate them into our devious lifestyle.”

Simply put, evil has become good, and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).

This distortion of God and nature would be comedy to the max if it weren’t so pathetic and dangerous.

A bit of lampooning

At the risk of making light of this very serious practice of our downward-sliding nation, might I suggest decadent flags for several of the remaining sins?

The flag for greed would be filled with dollar signs; for sloth, well, that’s easy — a giant sloth! We could pick any of the remaining 11 months that don’t have “official” flags and send one of these beauties up the flagpole.

I had a couple of ideas for gluttony, which I would like to suggest could fly through the entire month of November. Why November? Well, for one thing, we all know what happens on Thanksgiving Day.

RELATED: Pride Month is on the run. Here’s how to finish the job.

Johnrob via iStock/Getty Images

And the official flag for gluttony? Might I offer a colorful, eye-catching beauty that displays a giant glazed donut with sprinkles? Or perhaps even a tempting array of hot dogs? Or better still — both!

The official gluttony flag could flap in the breeze with (dare I say) pride all November long. (Heck, you might even want to keep it flying all through the Christmas holiday season and into Super Bowl Sunday, for that matter!)

Meanwhile, back in reality

As a nation, we need to turn from our dangerous obsession with coddling a variety of evil ways. “Speaking the truth in love,” at a minimum, is suggested by St. Paul (Ephesians 4:15). It’s obvious, though, that we must keep in mind that certain bad habits and practices have become ingrained in our culture, and pushing back against them, even gently, could have unintended consequences.

However, we need not, simply by our silence, encourage an ever-expanding drift into decadence. After all, if it is indeed true that “pride goes before the fall,” we are very near the precipice. We must begin — and continue — to pull back.

Certainly, that serious effort begins with prayer to see where the spirit of our loving God leads.

And, hey, there’s even a flag for that! George Washington and America’s founders flew “An Appeal to Heaven” banner — which, by the way, I suggest you display every month of the year.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at American Thinker.

​Opinion & analysis, Pride month, Pride flag, Seven deadly sins, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Greed, Evil, Wrath, Envy, Pride 

Something fascinating is happening in corporate America.

According to data from Gravity Research, 39% of corporations are scaling back external Pride Month engagements in 2025, a sharp increase from last year, when only 9% backed off. Only four NFL teams changed their logos to mark Pride this June, with most remaining silent.

Corporations didn’t back away from Pride because of conviction but calculation.

But here’s what makes this particularly interesting: Corporate Pride Month activism isn’t some long-standing American tradition. It’s a very recent phenomenon that represents a dramatic departure from how businesses operated for most of our nation’s history.

Corporate America’s enthusiastic embrace of Pride Month only became widespread in the last decade.

Before 2010, you’d be hard-pressed to find Fortune 500 companies plastering rainbow logos across social media, celebrating drag queens, or embracing “queerness.” This wasn’t because companies opposed LGBTQ individuals — but rather because they understood something fundamental: Corporations exist to provide goods and services, not to take positions on deeply personal matters of sexuality and identity.

The data: Americans want corporate neutrality

Recent polling reveals that corporate Pride Month activism was never as popular as media coverage suggested.

According to the consulting firm Weber Shandwick, 72% of consumers and 71% of employees expect political neutrality in the workplace. In a Pew Research Center survey, 48% said it was either “not too important” or “not at all important” for companies to make public statements on social issues, compared to 41% who thought it was important.

These numbers reveal a fundamental disconnect between corporate behavior and consumer preferences. While companies competed to demonstrate progressive credentials, nearly half of American consumers preferred businesses stay out of social and political issues entirely.

The traditional understanding: Sexuality is a private matter

For most of American history, corporations and society operated under a simple principle: Sexuality is a private matter.

This was based on practical wisdom about what makes for a functioning society and a successful business.

Successful companies in the past focused on product quality, customer service, and employee performance. They didn’t make customers’ private lives part of their brand identity. A bakery sold bread, a bank managed money, and a sports team played games. Personal relationships and sexual behavior weren’t part of the public conversation.

This approach served everyone well. Employees could focus on work without having private lives become matters of public scrutiny. Customers could purchase goods without navigating their provider’s stance on intimate matters.

When sexuality remained private, it retained dignity and personal meaning that gets lost when it becomes part of public performance and corporate branding.

When corporations became activists

The transformation of corporate America into an activist force regarding sexuality represents a fundamental shift. Historically, Fortune 500 companies practiced strategic framing and calculated positioning rather than deep ideological convictions.

By 2020, it seemed almost impossible to find a major corporation that wasn’t actively promoting Pride Month or taking public positions on transgender issues. The pressure for conformity was intense. Companies that didn’t participate risked being labeled discriminatory and being attacked, either online or physically.

But this represented something unprecedented in American business history. Never before had companies so systematically promoted particular views about sexuality, marriage, and gender identity.

This wasn’t about equal treatment under company policy; it was about the active promotion and celebration of specific sexual behaviors and identities.

The hidden costs of corporate activism

Unfortunately, business leaders failed to anticipate the substantial hidden costs of sexual activism. DEI initiatives often grew outside central compliance functions, creating legal risks.

According to employment attorney Michael Elkins, companies face “a catch-22”: uncertainty between “the fear of getting sued for having a program or the fear of getting taken to task by eliminating the program.”

Research shows diversity training programs — a cornerstone of corporate activism — often fail spectacularly.

“The positive effects of diversity training rarely last beyond a day or two, and a number of studies suggest that it can activate bias or spark a backlash,” explains the Harvard Business Review.

Yet, companies spend millions on these ineffective programs.

Additional costs include compliance expenses; legal review; employee relations issues when activism conflicts with worker values; management time diverted from core business; and reputational risks.

By contrast, those companies that maintain appropriate boundaries can avoid these costs and focus these and other resources on their mission.

The market backlash

The corporate retreat is also the result of the market finally imposing discipline on misguided activism.

Anheuser-Busch InBev lost a total of $1.4 billion in sales due to the backlash it received over its partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer. In addition, AB InBev’s stock fell 20% and the Mexican-brewed Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light as America’s top-selling beer, a title that Bud Light had held for over two decades.

Target faced similar financial and reputational consequences and this year has either moved Pride Month products to a less-trafficked area of the store or removed them altogether, citing worker safety concerns.

These weren’t just minor market adjustments — they represented massive consumer rejection of corporate sexual activism.

Why ‘but companies have always taken stands’ misses the point

Critics argue that companies have always taken social positions, but this misunderstands what’s different about this “celebration.” Historical corporate social engagement focused on broadly supported community issues: education, disaster relief, economic development, and patriotism.

What’s unprecedented here is the systematic promotion of specific views about sexuality and gender identity.

The argument that this retreat is a temporary political positioning misses the deeper dynamics taking place. As Forbes contributor Alicia Gonzalez noted, “The corporate retreat in DEI issues is coming from the same companies that swore five years ago that diversity and inclusion were deeply held values. As soon as the political winds changed, they backtracked.”

This reveals that corporate activism was based on perceived social pressure — not genuine conviction.

Building long-term change

If approached strategically, the corporate retreat creates an opportunity for decency to be restored to civil society.

Consumer action works. Boycotts against Bud Light and Target led eight other companies to abandon DEI policies, including Tractor Supply Co., which lost $2 billion in less than a month.

Consumers should actively support businesses that maintain an appropriate focus on their core mission. In addition, consumers must research companies’ positions before purchasing and choose only those that avoid divisive positions. Customers should extend this action beyond boycotts by providing positive support for businesses operating according to traditional principles.

Business leaders must return to serving customers effectively, rather than advancing social causes. Companies maintaining institutional focus avoid legal, financial, and reputational risks.

Finally, investors should question whether investing according to Environmental, Social, and Governance scores measured by how much divisive social activism the company embraces actually serves shareholder interests. Financial losses at companies like Anheuser-Busch demonstrate that catering to social activist demands will destroy shareholder value rather than create it.

Restoring institutional focus

What’s at stake isn’t just corporate messaging but the nature of the social contract.

The traditional American approach favored institutional focus and neutrality. Schools educated children, businesses provided goods and services, sports leagues entertained fans. These institutions were able to serve everyone, no matter their background or political stance, because their mission and business model didn’t require agreement on controversial personal matters.

When every institution promotes particular views about sexuality and gender, people with traditional values can’t fully participate in public life.

Restoring institutional focus benefits everyone, with LGBTQ individuals judged on performance rather than sexual identity, people with traditional values not forced to choose between convictions and participation, and institutions focused on their core functions.

The opportunity before us

Pride organizations nationwide now face sponsorship challenges. San Francisco Pride has a $200,000 budget gap, Kansas City’s KC Pride lost $200,000 (half its budget), and New York’s Heritage of Pride needs $750,000 after corporate withdrawals.

This suggests that corporate Pride Month activism was never sustainable. Market forces have provided a correction that political pressure couldn’t achieve.

Now, the goal must be to rebuild a culture where institutions serve proper functions — and personal matters remain private.

Success requires market discipline, which means consistently rewarding appropriate focus while imposing costs on divisive activism. Recent conservative boycotts have worked. As Suzanne Bowdey notes, “For once, Americans are making companies think twice about their extreme politics.”

Combined with legal frameworks protecting institutional neutrality, this moment could restore proper relationships between public institutions and private life.

The data suggests that most Americans are ready for change. The question is whether we’ll build something lasting or celebrate temporary victories while ignoring underlying problems. Corporations didn’t back away from Pride because of conviction but calculation. They never had principles, just profits. When the pressure lifts, they’ll go right back to what they did before as if nothing has changed.

If we want lasting change, it has to be built on truth — not trends.

This article is adapted from an essay originally published at Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center.

​Lgbtq agenda, Pride, Lgbtq ideology, Sexuality, Pride month 

Tom O’Neill is the author of “Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties,” which pulls the curtain back on the mysterious government-funded MKUltra experiments that left their human guinea pigs insane and ultimately ruined lives.

And O’Neill, who investigated the mind-numbing experiments for 20 years, found that many of them were on children.

“Here’s what I know the CIA did do with children in the 50s and at least through the early to mid-60s, although I don’t think you would be a candidate for this — they looked for kids who were completely orphaned or had parents that were disinterested,” O’Neill tells BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan on “Back to the People.”

“If the kids got in trouble, they were taken into juvenile detention centers. This is exactly what happened to Manson,” he continues, “and they were doing research using drugs and hypnosis.”

According to O’Neill, the CIA’s goal was to learn “which kids were more suggestible to persuasion, which kids could be convinced of something, which kids were more resistant to that,” and if it was genetic.

But it wasn’t just the low-income families whose children ended up as government experiments.

“Allen Dulles put his daughter into MKUltra research laboratories because she was a difficult child, and he wanted to see if they could change her behavior using drugs — you know, completely rewire her brain,” O’Neill explains. “It was shocking how inhumane he was.”

“In the way that you and I, I think, are obsessed about trying to figure out the truth,” Shanahan responds, “they’re obsessed with the power to use these techniques and substances, in some cases, to influence behavior, to influence society.”

“It’s scary that they even had these objectives,” O’Neill agrees. “They had mass conversion projects where they wanted to learn how to convert audiences, crowds, and, you know, other people have done studies of that suggestibility with music and lyrics and concerts.”

“And of course, that’s what Manson learned how to do, was to control groups of people and get them to act uniformly, obediently, and do whatever he said — including, by the end of it all, killing strangers without questioning who they are or why,” he continues.

Some of those brainwashed by the technique to act out in ways they wouldn’t otherwise have also been reported to have no memory of what they’ve done.

“There’s accounts in your book of individuals who do these horrific things and then have no memory of it,” Shanahan states.

According to O’Neill, there was a technique to “remove true memories in human beings without their knowledge and replace them with false memories, which would be permanent.”

This involved LSD and hypnosis, which O’Neill explains worked well on those who were more susceptible to hypnosis — just like how some people have life-changing experiences on LSD, while others don’t.

“Some people had a psychedelic experience during their first LSD trip that changed them permanently, where other people would just do LSD and have a wild, intense experience but then be the person they were before,” he tells Shanahan.

“That was the whole reason MKUltra was created. I mean, a person’s memory is among the most precious things we have, and if someone can put a false memory in our head without us knowing, that takes away your whole life prior,” he adds.

Want more from Nicole Shanahan?

To enjoy more of Nicole’s compelling blend of empathy, curiosity, and enlightenment, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video, Video phone, Camera phone, Free, Upload, Sharing, Youtube.com, Back to the people with nicole shanahan, Nicole shanahan, Back to the people, Tom o’neill, Mk ultra, Chaos, Charles manson, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Government conspiracy, The cia, Cia mkultra, Mk ultra experiments, Hypnosis, Lsd 

The wife of the man suspected of assassinating the former speaker of the Minnesota House and her husband was detained by police about 85 miles north of the Twin Cities riding in a vehicle containing cash, passports, a weapon, and ammunition.

Jennifer Boelter, 51, of Green Isle, Minn., was detained after police stopped the vehicle near Onamia, Minn. Police had been tracking the vehicle, television station KSTP reported. Three relatives of Boelter were also in the vehicle, the station said but did not elaborate.

‘I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly.’

Meanwhile, a massive manhunt continues for Vance Leroy Boelter, 57, a security company co-owner who police said shot and killed Democrat Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their Brooklyn Park, Minn., home about 3:30 a.m. June 14.

Police said they believe Boelter shot Democrat state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife about 90 minutes earlier in their home in Champlin, Minn., about five miles from the Hortman home. The Hoffmans survived the assassination attempt.

On June 15, police said they found Boelter’s abandoned vehicle and some of his belongings near Belle Plaine, Minn., in Sibley County — about 15 miles from Boelter’s home in Green Isle. The belongings included a cowboy hat similar to what he was wearing on security video around 6 a.m. June 14.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz described the shootings as acts of targeted political violence.

During the shootings, Boelter was dressed as a police officer and wearing a latex mask disguise that made him appear bald, according to a photo released by the FBI. He drove a black Ford SUV painted like a police cruiser with emergency lights.

Minnesota television stations showed the front door of the Hoffman residence riddled with bullet holes.

After the Hoffman shooting, police in Brooklyn Park went to Hortman’s residence and spotted a man they now say was Boelter coming out the front door. He immediately fired at the officers before retreating into the home and escaping through the rear entrance, police said. He left his police-style SUV in the driveway with emergency lights on.

RELATED: Suspect tied to Walz? Democrat governor may have appointed alleged Minnesota shooter to state board

Brooklyn Park police officers search a vehicle entering a neighborhood on June 14, 2025 in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. They were searching for the man suspected of assassinating former Minnesota House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Boelter’s SUV, left sitting in the Hortmans’ driveway, contained fliers with the message “No Kings” on them. That was an apparent reference to protests staged across the country June 14 in opposition to President Donald J. Trump.

A hit list was also in the vehicle containing the names of up to 70 people, including Gov. Tim Walz, Hortman, and Hoffman. The hit list contained references to Planned Parenthood and a number of pro-abortion lawmakers, the New York Post and other media outlets reported. It included 11 lawmakers from Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

During her term as House speaker during the 2023 legislative session, Hortman was the “driving force” behind legislation to “codify abortion rights,” according to a June 15 Minnesota Star Tribune article.

Hortman, a Catholic who once taught Sunday school at the Church of St. Timothy in Blaine, Minn., was inspired to run for office in 1998 to oppose an incumbent who wanted to ban so-called gay marriage in Minnesota.

Walz had appointed Boelter to a four-year term on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in December 2019. Boelter was appointed to a two-year term on the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Council by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton in June 2016. Senator Hoffman was also a member of the board during Boelter’s tenure. Boelter was listed as the general manager of a 7-Eleven store on the board’s website.

RELATED: ‘Politically motivated assassination’: Minnesota Democrat rep and husband gunned down — state senator, wife wounded

David Carlson, a childhood friend who rented a room to suspected assassin Vance Boelter, reads a text message Boelter allegedly sent him hours after Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot to death.Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

David Carlson, a childhood friend of Boelter who rented him a room in his North Minneapolis home, said Boelter was a strong supporter of President Trump, according to KARE-TV.

Carlson sat on the front porch of his home June 14 and read texts that he said he received from Boelter that said, “I made some choices and you guys don’t know anything about this, but I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly.”

Alpha News obtained security video said to be of Boelter outside the home in the 4800 block of Fremont Avenue North at about 6 a.m. June 14. Wearing a light cowboy hat, Boelter used what appeared to be a hammer to smash the front passenger window in a black police-style SUV before walking away down an alley.

Owned security company

Boelter and his wife operated Praetorian Guard Security Services LLC. The company was first registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office in September 2018. Although the business registration for the company lapsed twice, it is currently in good standing through December 2026, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State.

A Ford police SUV decked out with decals that read “PRAETORIAN” on the doors was parked in the driveway of a home in Gaylord, Minn., that the Boelters were apparently renting in April 2023, according to Google Maps. The address matches that of the principal executive office address listed on the LLC business registration with the secretary of state. Jenny Boelter is listed as the manager.

The mailing address for Praetorian Guard Security Services is in Green Isle, Minn., a rural area along 341st Avenue, about 15 miles from the Gaylord address and 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis. According to public credit records, the Boelters are the owners of the Green Isle property, which has an assessed value of $376,000 and a market value estimated at $545,000.

The Praetorian Security Services website is somewhat bare bones. Jennifer Boelter is listed as president and CEO. Vance Boelter is listed as the director of security patrols.

“Praetorian Guard Security Services is residential armed home security for your family, home and property,” the website states. “We are a licensed service in Minnesota helping to keep your home, property and those you love safe. We are proud to offer a team of security officers who are well trained, diligent and extremely detailed.”

According to Vance Boelter’s biography on the website, he “has been involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.” It does not provide details on the “security situations.”

The company offers only armed security services, the website says. “We drive the same make and model of vehicles that many police departments use in the U.S. Currently we drive Ford Explorer Utility Vehicles.”

Boelter’s LinkedIn page does not include any information on Praetorian Guard Security Services. It lists Boelter’s current job as CEO of Red Lion Group, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LinkedIn page also says Boelter is “actively applying” for full-time jobs with titles such as director of operations, vice president, general manager, and president.

Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park was shot and killed in her home on June 14, 2025. State Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin was shot and seriously wounded in his home 90 minutes earlier.Minnesota Legislature

Boelter was part of a business group that met with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ambassador to the United States on Nov. 30, 2018, in Worthington, Minn.

According to an article in The Globe newspaper, Boelter spoke at the meeting, suggesting to the ambassador that 20 businesses in Minnesota team up to train Congolese workers in a variety of occupations in America. The article said Boelter was “representing the oil refinery chain Marathon Petroleum Corp.”

In an undated video posted on social media that appeared to be part of an online course in the funeral industry, Boelter said he was working six days a week for Wulff Funeral Homes and Metro First Call, primarily doing body removals. He said the jobs include removing bodies from active crime scenes and delivering them to the medical examiner’s office in Hennepin County, Minn.

Boelter said his Red Lion Group’s work in Congo includes farming and fishing projects to help increase the food supply for the country’s more than 100 million people. He said he took the funeral home jobs to help “pay the bills” while working on his ventures for the central African nation.

Videos circulated on X appear to show Boelter doing Christian preaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2022 and 2023.

Boelter’s LinkedIn page lists employment with companies including 7-Eleven, Greencore, Del Monte, and Johnsonville, a Wisconsin-based sausage company.

Vance and Jennifer Boelter are the parents of five grown children. They have been married since October 1997.

A possible angle to the tragedy that was discussed widely on social media but largely ignored by legacy outlets was that Hortman bucked her party and joined House Republicans to strip subsidized MinnesotaCare health coverage from some 17,000 adult illegal aliens in the Gopher State.

Some Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party lawmakers said the move to strip the coverage from illegal aliens would leave them “out to die,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune’s June 9 edition.

“What I worry about is that people will lose their health insurance,” Hortman said after the vote. “I know people will be hurt by that vote.” For a moment, Hortman choked up with emotion before the television cameras before continuing. “We worked very hard to try to get a budget deal that wouldn’t include that provision.”

Minnesota Republicans had threatened to shut down state government if the measure failed to pass. They estimated removing illegal alien adults from MinnesotaCare would save tens of millions of dollars per year. The change will take effect at the end of 2025.

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​Politics 

Gracie, her mobility tech, and I moved slowly through the hospital hallway — our usual recovery route. She had just had her 92nd operation — yes, 92 — and she’s had six more since.

She walked on prosthetic legs with semi-quiet grit and more than a little sweat. An IV tree clanked beside her — wound vacs, oxygen, pain meds — a parade of endurance wrapped in machinery.

When the soul flatlines, don’t step back. Step in. Call the code. Be the grace.

Then came the yelling. Two doors down — profanity, chaos, pain.

We couldn’t move fast — not with all the gear and lines. The screaming was piercing. And no, nurses don’t get paid nearly enough.

“Code Gray,” someone said, the hospital code for a combative patient. Within seconds, nurses and security swarmed the room. As best we could, we steered Gracie and her gear down another hallway away from the noise. But the echoes followed — the anger, the struggle, the desperation.

Outside the chaos stood a woman — mid-50s, hollow-eyed, worn to the threads.

I knew the look. I’ve worn it. So will every caregiver sooner or later.

While her loved one raged, she stood helpless, desperate, hoping someone — anyone — might bring peace.

She was also in crisis. But hospitals have no code for her.

Hospitals have codes for medical emergencies:

Code Blue: A patient stops breathing. I’ve lived through that. Years ago, Gracie flatlined. I watched the team rush in and bring her back.Code Red: Fire.Code Pink: Infant abduction.Code Gray: Aggression.

All are designed to alert, mobilize, and respond.

But what code do you call for when the soul collapses?

‘Code Grace’

We need a “Code Grace” — recognized by caregivers, hospital staff, churches, funeral homes, rehab centers, law enforcement, maybe even a nation — a code that triggers presence instead of procedures, compassion over containment, tenderness before triage.

Because sometimes the real damage isn’t limited to the patient’s bed. It’s standing just outside the door, trying not to fall apart.

The morning after that Code Gray, I walked into the lobby of the extended-stay hotel across from the hospital. Most guests there were tethered to the same world we were: the renowned children’s and teaching hospital nearby.

Then, I saw them again.

A mother, two children, and a woman I assumed was the grandmother. Weeks earlier, I’d seen the boy — screaming, flailing in a stroller — his mother and grandmother scrambling to contain the storm. Sensory overload. Fear. Pain in public. They rushed out before I could speak.

But now they were back and calm.

The mother looked tired — because she was. But steady. Present. Her mother stood beside her. Her son was quiet. Her daughter bounced nearby, unaware of the weight her mom carried.

I walked over and said, “I remember you from a couple weeks ago.”

That’s all it took. A door opened. Not pity. Not awkwardness. Just respect.

She shared her story: single mom, two kids — one with autism. Studying for a special education certification. The father? Gone. Domestic violence. But she didn’t quit. She just kept going.

She asked about me. I gave her the short version — my wife’s journey, my four decades as a caregiver. Then I looked her in the eye and said: “From one caregiver to another — you’re amazing.”

Tears welled up. Not from weakness. From being seen. Heard. Understood. For one moment, grace was louder than exhaustion.

Before I left, I shook her hand. “I’m proud to know you.” I also shared a quote I’d once heard — origin debated, but worth repeating:

You’ll never be criticized by someone doing more than you. Only by someone doing less. Remember that.

She nodded. She already knew.

What our nation needs now

But Code Grace isn’t just for hospitals and their periphery. We see soul flatlines everywhere — newsfeeds, comment sections, family dinners.

I’ve watched people unravel over political figures, convinced one man will either save or doom the nation. For some, it’s full allegiance to Trump (or Elon). For others, it’s Trump derangement syndrome — the belief that he’s the Antichrist with a social media account. But press in closer, and you’ll see: It’s not really about policy. It’s about meaning.

When faith erodes and identity frays, people grasp for something — anything — to hold on to. They hitch it to a personality, a movement, or a fight. That’s not politics; that’s a spiritual crisis. And yes, they need a Code Grace, too. Not to validate hysteria but to look behind it.

As many therapists say, “If it’s hysterical, it’s historical.” Beneath the rage is often someone terrified of being forgotten or irrelevant.

Jesus didn’t flinch at that kind of mess. He didn’t come to preserve an empire. He came to raise the dead. He didn’t wait for calm. He walked straight into the noise — and told it to be still.

He saw the bleeding woman, the man in the tree, the leper, the blind, the demon-possessed, the grieving sisters. He saw what others missed — or avoided. And he moved toward them with healing, with power, with grace.

Move toward the pain

The theologian Henri Nouwen once wrote, “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts … to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. … Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

That’s the Code Grace response — and it’s not optional. It’s the calling of anyone who wears His name.

If we listen closely, we can hear the silent code.

Not in the ER but in the eyes of a caregiver who hasn’t slept; the tremble of a mother navigating autism in public; the woman in the hallway, trying not to scream; the colleagues gripped by headlines — because they’ve pinned their peace to politics instead of promises that don’t change.

When the soul flatlines, don’t step back.

Step in. Call the code. Be the grace.

​Opinion & analysis, Hospitals, Caregivers, Disabilities, Autism, Family, Faith, Code grace, Children, Compassion 

A Kentucky man was hit with multiple charges in connection with a strange case of unleashing a raccoon in a business during which the animal bit a person, according to police. Previously, the man was arrested for allegedly attempting to flee from police on a mule.

The Murray Police Department said it received a complaint about a man intentionally releasing a raccoon inside a business at 9:18 p.m. on June 6. The individual — 40-year-old Jonathan Mason of Murray — purposely turned loose the wild animal and then fled from the business, police said.

‘Upon officer arrival, Mason was outside the business and was manifestly under the influence of alcohol.’

Police in a statement said that the raccoon bit a person inside the business. Police also noted that Mason previously had been ordered to stay off the property of the business.

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Murray police officers were able to track down Mason while he was driving his vehicle.

Police stated that they conducted a traffic stop, but Mason “refused to roll down his windows or exit the vehicle.” Officers were forced to physically remove him from the vehicle after he resisted, police said.

Mason was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, third-degree trespassing, resisting arrest, and failure to maintain required insurance, according to jail records.

Mason as of Friday morning was still behind bars in the Calloway County Jail.

RELATED: Deputies shoot growling Florida man dead after ‘bizarre’ standoff — and just moments after he survived alligator attack: Cops

Mason is no stranger to the Murray Police Department. He was arrested six months ago for another bizarre story involving an animal.

Just after 9 p.m. Dec. 7, 2024, officers responded to a “local alcohol establishment” in regard to an “unruly individual.”

The Murray Police Department said in a statement, “Upon officer arrival, Mason was outside the business and was manifestly under the influence of alcohol.”

“Mason had ridden a mule to the establishment, and he refused to stop when ordered to by the officer,” police added. “As the officer attempted to place Mason under arrest, Mason resisted.”

According to police, witnesses informed investigators that Mason mistreated the mule, including whipping the mule an “unnecessary amount” of times at a different establishment.

Mason was arrested and booked in the Calloway County Jail on second-degree disorderly conduct, third-degree criminal trespassing, alcohol intoxication in a public place, and second-degree cruelty to animals.

Just two days later — Dec. 9, 2024 — police said officers were dispatched to the area where this mule had been stabled regarding a seemingly intoxicated male who was “riding a mule down the roadway. An officer located Mason on his mule, but Mason refused to stop for the officer, and he fled on the mule on the roadway. Shortly after fleeing, Mason was arrested and lodged in the Calloway County Jail.” Police said he was charged with third-degree fleeing or evading police and second-degree cruelty to animals.

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​Weird news, Odd news, Strange news, Kentucky, Kentucky news, Bizarre news, Crime, Mule, Raccoon 

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly three years since my dad passed away.

As we honor and celebrate the incredible fathers in our lives this Father’s Day, I find myself reflecting deeply on my own dad and the lasting impact he made — not only on me but on many others.

From the time I was a little girl, he taught me lessons that have shaped who I am today — lessons I carry with me and will pass on to my own children.

Like all of us, my dad was imperfect and faced his own struggles; he was flawed, as we all are in our humanity here on this side of heaven. Though I miss him deeply, I am profoundly grateful for the timeless truths he instilled in me and for the lasting wisdom he left behind.

Character and integrity over reputation

My father taught me that character and integrity matter more than reputation — that we are only as good as our word, a principle rooted in Matthew 5:37, “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’”

Growing up, I can remember several times when I’d commit to one party, only to later find out that a more exciting one was happening at the same time. Of course, I wanted to ditch the one I already said “yes” to for something better, but my dad would remind me that a person’s character is measured not by how popular or liked she is but by whether she can be trusted to follow through — even when it costs her something.

He showed me that faithfulness in the small things matters deeply because God has called us to work with our whole hearts.

That lesson was hard for me as a kid, and candidly, it’s still hard sometimes. But over time, I’ve come to see that being true to your word builds something reputation never can: real trust.

My dad was the kind of man who dealt fairly with everyone. He didn’t cut corners, didn’t shade the truth, and never made promises he didn’t intend to keep.

If he said he’d be there, he showed up. If he sold you a car, you’d walk away knowing everything about it — probably more than you wanted to. He wasn’t interested in getting the better end of a deal. He was interested in doing right by people.

That kind of consistency — honesty in the small things and integrity when no one’s watching — has deeply shaped how I want to live. His example has challenged me to keep my commitments, to speak truthfully, and to value being trustworthy more than being liked. Because in the end, character and integrity don’t just reflect who we are — they reflect the God we serve.

Work ethic and diligence matters

I don’t think I’ve ever met a harder worker than my dad.

His work ethic and perseverance were unwavering. There were very few things he didn’t master — either through natural ability or sheer determination. Though he was an engineer by trade, his work didn’t end when he clocked out. When he wasn’t solving complex problems at work, you’d find him under the hood of one of his kids’ cars changing the oil, fixing something broken in the house, working on a project, rebuilding a computer, or building a deck.

If something needed to be done, he either knew how to do it — or he figured it out. His capacity to take on responsibility and execute with excellence was unmatched.

With nine kids in the house, there wasn’t much time for rest or hobbies, especially given the amount of wear and tear we unleashed on everything. He simply kept going — oftentimes too much.

Through his consistency, he taught me that hard work — even in the most mundane of tasks — will outlast and outshine natural talent every time. He showed me that faithfulness in the small things matters deeply because God has called us to work with our whole hearts, as we are working for Him — not just for people, as Colossians 3:23 reminds us.

My dad lived that out. He modeled diligence not for recognition, but because it was the right thing to do.

One of the most lasting lessons he left me was the value of persistence over time. Proverbs 13:11 says, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” My dad believed in that “little by little” way of living — slow, steady, and faithful progress.

He saw potential in me that I hadn’t yet discovered, and he knew that sometimes, the only way to grow was to push past fear and just do the hard thing.

I remember one night in high school, feeling completely overwhelmed by the amount of schoolwork I had to finish. I walked into his office — slumped, dramatic, and hoping for sympathy. Without even needing to hear the full story, he gently asked, “What’s the matter?” I poured out my complaints about the impossible workload. He listened, smiled kindly, and asked a question I’d heard from him many times before: “How do you eat an elephant?”

I groaned, but I knew the answer (and that he was right): “One bite at a time.”

That simple phrase, shared in a moment of stress, has never left me. When life piles on, and responsibilities feel too heavy to manage, I still hear his voice reminding me that you don’t have to do it all at once — you just have to take the next bite. And keep going.

Overcome fear and take calculated risks

My dad encouraged me to face fear head-on — whether it was the fear of failing, trying something new and difficult, or simply the fear of what others might think. He reminded me often that courage isn’t the absence of fear but the choice to move forward despite it.

Ironically, he was a remarkably cautious man in many areas of life. He double-checked the house locks, read every instruction manual in great detail, and rarely took unnecessary risks. But when it came to things like dirt biking, he threw caution to the wind — full throttle ahead, dust flying behind him. It wasn’t recklessness; it was a certain kind of boldness that showed up when it mattered most.

He taught me that you can live with care and wisdom and still be brave when it counts.

I had never ridden a dirt bike before in my life, but my dad figured if I could drive a stick shift, I could handle a motocross bike. Same concept, right? So with only a few brief instructions, he tossed me on the bike and told me to go. I was terrified, but he wasn’t. He believed I could do it, and more importantly, he believed in what I could become on the other side of my fear.

The same thing happened when I had my learner’s permit.

One day, out of nowhere, he told me to get on the highway. “You’ll be fine,” he said casually. “You can do it,” he encouraged. I couldn’t believe he trusted me enough to merge into fast-moving traffic — but he did. And that trust taught me to trust myself. He saw potential in me that I hadn’t yet discovered, and he knew that sometimes, the only way to grow was to push past fear and just do the hard thing.

In college, that same fear crept in again, this time in the form of a tough class. I remember calling him, anxious that I might earn my first-ever C (clearly, grades were an idol for me). Despite studying hard, I was barely making low Bs, and the final exam was looming. I told him how overwhelmed I felt. He listened and then asked, “Did you study hard? Are you doing your best?” I said I was. He replied simply, “Then stop worrying. Trust that God will take care of the rest. Do your part — and let go of the fear.”

He reminded me that any strength we have is a gift from God — not something we create on our own.

I barely squeaked by with a B, but that wasn’t the point. And a C would’ve been good and humbling for me, no doubt. However, the point was learning to let go of the fear of failure and do my best, trusting God with the outcome.

That principle has carried me through far more than just school. My dad taught me that failing isn’t the enemy — fear is. And faith, courage, and a little bit of grit are often all we need to keep going.

Surrender over self-sufficiency

As my dad battled ALS — a terminal disease that gradually weakens the nerves controlling muscles, making it harder to move, speak, eat, and eventually breathe — he gave me some pivotal advice he knew I would especially need.

We share a strength that often masks a deep weakness: self-sufficiency. Every good trait carries its own Achilles’ heel, and this one is no exception. Because of his ability to tackle life’s hardest challenges and his relentless determination to figure things out, my dad could’ve earned gold medals for his self-sufficiency.

But he reminded me that any strength we have is a gift from God — not something we create on our own. He cautioned me that our talents and abilities are meant to be stewarded — to bless others and bring glory to God — not to fuel self-reliance or pride. It’s not about our own strength but His and His alone. He wished he had been more faithful to lean on God rather than himself.

That conversation was sobering, and it struck me exactly where it needed to. I can easily take pride in my abilities and the skills I’ve worked tirelessly to develop, but ultimately, God has given me the health, the drive, and the capacity to do what I do. Not me.

I’m thankful my dad saw this weakness in me enough to impart one last valuable lesson that I’m continuing to work on: A life surrendered is more valuable than a life of self-sufficiency. That’s all God wants from us, after all.

​Father, Fatherhood, Life lessons, Christianity, Christian, God, Father’s day, Faith 

Conservatives across the country are building momentum to clean up elections. Donald Trump’s proposals call for paper ballots, voter ID, and in-person voting on Election Day only. These reforms would mark a major improvement over the chaotic 2020 election — when Joe Biden somehow received more votes than any presidential candidate in history.

But tightening election procedures also risks reviving an old Democratic trick: voter suppression.

The inability to print a ballot is ultimately no different than a refusal to provide a ballot to a voter. It is voter suppression.

In an ideal system, voting would happen exclusively on paper ballots and in person. No mail-ins. No drop boxes. ID required.

However, to counter suppression efforts in Republican precincts, polls should remain open for several days — perhaps even a full week. Extending in-person voting would allow voters to push back against the tactics designed to keep them home.

I am well aware of how voter suppression works because I have the scars to prove it. When I started voting in Travis County (Austin), Texas, in the 1980s, ballot suppression in Republican precincts was an established protocol by the Democrats who ran the county. The strategy was two-pronged:

Insufficient voting booths: Conservative precincts were provided very few voting booths, causing extremely long lines. I watched many people drive up, look at the line, then drive away. Many other would-be voters already in line would finally give up and forgo voting. While my precinct had four or five booths, I’d later watch the evening news show Democratic precincts outfitted with dozens.

Ballot shortages: It was a predictable occurrence that Republican precincts would run out of ballots before the polls closed due to “unexpectedly” high turnout. Those in line could either wait for hours until someone showed up with “provisional” ballots, or they could give up. Most people would not wait in line until 10 p.m. just to cast a vote.

Not enough ballots

I was in the habit of voting first thing in the morning on Election Day to ensure I got a ballot. Even though the wait was long due to the bottleneck caused by so few voting booths, I would at least get my vote in. But the ballot I cast also resulted in a missing ballot for someone else trying to vote later in the day, as Democratic officials who ran the county made sure that there were fewer ballots than voters in my precinct.

The county elections administrator always had an excuse for the ballot shortages in Republican precincts. She’d cite a local statute that required her to allocate ballots based on average county turnout. Since Republican precincts had higher voter turnout than the county as a whole, shortages were guaranteed — by design.

When early voting finally came about several years later, I was thrilled. I was tired of battling my own county officials just to cast a Republican vote.

Decades later, these tactics are still in use.

The recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election, for example, drew national attention because the outcome could affect midterm Congressional redistricting, which could then swing control of the U.S. House of Representatives from Republican to Democrat.

On Election Day in Milwaukee, 69 of its 180 precincts reported ballot shortages, and nine precincts ran out of ballots completely. Milwaukee’s top election official offered a familiar excuse: Ballots were printed based on past turnout. But voter participation surged to 50%, far above normal for a spring election. It was “unexpected.”

Some conservatives pushing for same-day voting likely haven’t considered that those in charge of ballot preparation might simply not provide enough.

Ballot printing — or lack thereof

Another method of voter suppression involves ballot printing. If the printer “breaks,” there’s no ballot to cast. This tactic has benefited Democrats in recent elections, such as in Phoenix, Arizona’s Maricopa County, and Texas’ Harris County.

In the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, Republican Kari Lake narrowly lost by 17,000 votes out of 2.5 million counted ballots. Long lines due to printer problems caused many Arizonans to give up and leave before voting. Moreover, thousands of ballots that were printed could not be read by ballot-counting machines.

RELATED: Why voters are done compromising with the ‘America Last’ elite

cosmaa via iStock/Getty Images

Similarly, in the 2022 gubernatorial election in Texas, printer problems prevented many voters in Republican precincts around Houston from being able to obtain a ballot. As reported by the Houston Chronicle, a few days after the election, “More than a dozen voting locations in Harris County ran out of the paper used to print ballots in voting machines Tuesday, county officials confirmed. Some sites, poll workers and voters said, had no ballots on hand for one to two hours.”

“From our standpoint, it seems there was an attempt to make sure there were not enough ballots at Republican polls,” the chairman of the Harris County GOP told the Chronicle. The inability to print a ballot is ultimately no different than a refusal to provide a ballot to a voter. It is voter suppression.

Ample ballots, ample booths

If we are going to use all-paper ballots, states need to mandate that each precinct open on Election Day with enough printed ballots for every registered voter. Any unused ballots must be destroyed after polls close to protect election integrity.

There also must be enough voting booths to ensure that long lines don’t become a voting deterrent.

Personally, I’d prefer that in-person, paper ballot voting be allowed over several days to ensure that Democrats cannot engage in Election Day voter suppression tactics. One suppressed Republican ballot carries the same weight as one fraudulent Democratic vote stuffed in a ballot box.

​Opinion & analysis, Elections, Voting fraud, Reform, Arizona, Texas, Milwaukee, Ballots, Election day, Election integrity 

Highly pathogenic avian influenza has spread to all 50 states, and the number of commercial birds that have died — or have been killed under the Biden administration — is over 166 million.

This is not only driving up the price of eggs but destroying the ability for chickens to adapt.

Self-described “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer” Joel Salatin believes the government is handling this situation the opposite of how it should be.

“All of life is adapting, trying to adapt to new attacks that are coming, mutations, and trying to survive,” he tells BlazeTV host James Poulos on “Zero Hour,” adding, “We could talk about that in regard to bird flu.”

“Here we are in this big bird flu thing, 166 million chickens killed in the last 24 months, and probably only one or two million were actually sick,” he continues. “All the rest of them were fine. But we have this eradication idea that if one in a hundred thousand is sick, we kill all, we sterilize everything.”

But when you sterilize the world, animals as well as humans won’t be equipped to handle new strains of viruses as well as they could.

“And so the virus is trying to adapt, to become more virulent, more deadly, if you will,” Salatin explains. “And so the chickens that either don’t get it or got it and got over it, and they’re many that do, to kill them, we deny chickens the chance for the most vibrant, virulent, immunological ones to adapt, to give us progeny, that is now keeping up with the virus.”

“If your immune system never gets a chance to work, then it’s not an immune system,” Poulos chimes in.

“This extermination policy is just insanity,” Salatin agrees, adding, “When you have a disease, you don’t kill the survivors.”

Want more from James Poulos?

To enjoy more of James’s visionary commentary on politics, tech, ideas, and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free, Upload, Video phone, Sharing, Video, Camera phone, Youtube.com, Zero hour, Zero hour with james poulos, James poulos, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Bird flu, H1n1, H1n1 response, Killing chickens, The biden administration, Farmers, Egg costs, Egg prices, Avian flu, Joel salatin, Libertarianism, Libertarian, Libertarian party 

Too many children in America are growing up without a father. Sadly, even when there is a father in the home, although he is physically present, he is often emotionally absent.

On this Father’s Day, I want to reflect upon a simple premise: To leave a legacy, you must live a legacy.

None of us will ever get everything right. But we can choose to be faithful even when we mess up.

Leaving a legacy for your kids is certainly important, but the emphasis of scripture is living a legacy. If we’re going to pass our faith along, we must first possess our faith. Fathers must confess their faith openly while also living it and walking in purity and integrity.

Little eyes are watching you, Dad. There’s no place in our lives for the stain of moral impurity or the lack of integrity. We need to be setting the highest possible standards for our lives, not seeing how close to sin we can get without being burned.

So much about being a father is about being the leader of the home.

Consider the questions:

How are you living?What kind of leader are you?

If you are a follower of Christ, you’ll be living right and you’ll be the right kind of leader in your family, in your community, and your church.

A man who pursues integrity and follows Christ in His holiness and purity is a godly father who can faithfully lead his family in truth.

Following Jesus means humbling yourself enough to admit when you’re wrong. Maybe you’ve lost your temper, been distracted and disengaged at home, or ignored what God’s been nudging you to confront. Leading well starts with being led — by Christ.

It’s about more than clocking a few distracted minutes with your kids each day. It’s about living a life they can watch and imitate. Can they see that you follow Jesus — not because you say it, but because it’s obvious in the way you live?

That’s the kind of legacy that matters.

None of us will ever get everything right. But we can choose to be faithful even when we mess up.

Sons need to see a dad who doesn’t just talk about values but actively pursues Christ. Daughters need to see their father love their mother with the same faithfulness and sacrifice Christ showed His church.

Dads, your children don’t need a perfect father. They need a present one. They need a praying one, and they need a passionate one. They don’t need a weekend warrior or a distant provider. They need someone who’s following Jesus and letting Jesus lead him every day.

If we do that — if we stay close to Christ — we won’t just leave a legacy. We’ll live one. Right here, right now, in our homes, in our churches, and in the hearts of the children who are watching us every day.

As we consider the significance of Father’s Day, let’s make it our lifelong goal to be faithful in God’s eyes — and not just be successful by the world’s standards.

In the end, we may never be the smartest, richest, or most accomplished men in the room. But we can be the fathers our children need and the followers Christ has called us to be.

​Christ, Fatherhood, Dads, Fathers, Father’s day, Christianity, Christians, Faith 

“Boys will be boys.”

I know this because I have two of them — and I’m still one at heart. Give me a cardboard tube, and it quickly becomes a sword or a lightsaber (complete with sound effects). My sons do the same. My daughter? Not so much.

Fatherhood matters — not just sentimentally, but statistically.

But beneath the innocent play and imaginary battles lies something deeper, something wired into the heart of every man: the call to provide and protect.

It’s a calling that many men feel innately, but tragically, our culture has done all it can to distract from this responsibility and delay the transition to true manhood. Worse still, modern messaging often reshapes manhood into a version that previous generations wouldn’t even recognize: one of detachment, passivity, or perpetual adolescence.

Nowhere is this more evident than when an unexpected pregnancy enters the picture.

Too often, fathers are overlooked or written off as irrelevant to the decision-making process, either by societal expectation or personal retreat. But at thousands of pregnancy help organizations across the country, that narrative is changing. These centers are not only supporting women. They are increasingly reaching out to men as well, challenging them to rise to the occasion and embrace fatherhood.

In fact, in the past two years alone, programming specifically designed for men at pregnancy help centers has grown by 6%. It’s a quiet but powerful shift, one that recognizes that helping women also means equipping and encouraging men to be the dads they were created to be.

Why does this matter? Because children benefit when fathers are present and engaged.

According to research compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, children with involved fathers are more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, and avoid high-risk behaviors. Studies show that children with involved fathers are 43% more likely to earn A’s in school and 33% less likely to repeat a grade. Another study found that children with present fathers are significantly less likely to suffer from depression or engage in criminal activity.

Fatherhood matters — not just sentimentally, but statistically.

And yet the narrative of modern America too often casts men as optional or even unwelcome in conversations about parenting and family formation. If we want to change the outcomes for the next generation, we must change that mindset.

We need a culture that encourages men to step up — not step back.

That’s why many of us working in the pregnancy help movement have taken up the mantle of being a “dadvocate” — someone who sees the value in reaching men, even when they seem disinterested or discouraged. We believe that just as women deserve support and hope, so do the men who helped create a new life. Whether they choose to engage or not, we trust that something greater is at work: a call deep within them to be part of their children’s story.

In a world increasingly confused about manhood, fatherhood, and family, perhaps the best gift we can give this Father’s Day is a renewed recognition of the vital role dads play — and the encouragement they need to step into that role with confidence and purpose.

Let’s build a culture that welcomes fathers, equips them, and celebrates the irreplaceable part they play. For the sake of every child and every generation to come.

​Fathers, Father’s day, Cultural lie, False narrative, Manhood, Fatherhood 

My father, K.P. Yohannan, went to be with the Lord one year ago. I have remembered him every single day since then — wishing he was here and wishing we could continue some of the conversations we started.

As I’ve looked back, I’ve come to realize what a tremendous blessing it was for me to witness how he lived out his faith daily.

Loving our kids means making faith tangible and practical for them.

One of the most impactful things he modeled for me was how to live a life of integrity. He was the same person at home as he was in public. That consistency is rare, yet it’s one of the most powerful ways a parent can love his children. Every day, my father lived out for my sister and me what it meant to genuinely follow God.

Growing up in our home, sharing the gospel wasn’t just a job; it was a way of life.

I watched how, as he got older, his pursuit of God didn’t fade — it deepened. His heart and passion for those who had not heard about Christ only strengthened. He didn’t grow tired of the mission; he grew more consumed by it. And that passion wasn’t just in the gifts he gave or the words he spoke — it was in the life he lived, day after day.

That genuine life is the greatest gift a father can give his children. It’s something we can carry with us and then pass on to our own children, which they will then pass down to their children. Loving our kids means making faith tangible and practical for them. It means showing them what it looks like to live with a passion for those living and dying without Christ and a deep love for God.

That means in the everyday moments — in the car, over coffee, during our prayers — we live a simple, faithful life by loving God and loving others. In this way, our lives glorify God.

When I think about my father, as much as I miss him — as much as I wish he were still here sitting next to me — there’s also a peace that carries me forward. The same God who was with him is with me. I now have the privilege of continuing this life of love that my father exemplified.

If there’s one thing I wish people would remember about my father, it’s this: He would often say to everyone he met, “Add 100 years to your life. where are you, and what matters in light of that reality?” It was his way of challenging us to invest our lives in eternal things, knowing that only what we do for Christ will last.

He would also urge us not to waste our time. He would tell us, “Don’t give up so easily.” Especially young people — he would plead with them not to wait to serve God. Simplify your life. Use your time. Use your resources. Pray. Give. Go. There’s a world out there that still needs to hear about Christ.

And then he’d often ask the question: What are you now going to do about it?

I hope, by God’s grace, to lead my own children in the same way my father led me. Not by being perfect; my father wasn’t perfect. But by being able to genuinely say to my children, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”

A year without my father has taught me how much he’s still with me. His voice still echoes. His lessons still guide. GFA World, the ministry he founded, still moves forward.

With that in mind, I continue walking and asking myself, “What am I going to do about it?”

I want to respond to that question every day of my life. I pray that my own children, and all those impacted by my father’s life, will do the same.

​Father’s day, Fatherhood, Christianity, Christian, Christ, Gospel, Faith 

Almost 17 years ago, the Washington Post reported that a father had drowned while saving his son’s life. That man’s name was Tom Vander Woude. He was my dad.

Every Father’s Day, I reflect on what I learned from his life and death.

‘It is usually pretty easy to know what is right or wrong. We are usually the ones who make it more difficult.’

In many ways, he was an ordinary man. He was born on a farm and died on a farm. He loved watermelon and ice cream. At age 22, he married his high school sweetheart, and they raised seven sons together. I am the fifth. He flew for the Navy, coached basketball, and prayed every day. Dad selflessly served God, family, and country.

My youngest brother, Joseph, was born with Down syndrome. From the moment he entered the world, Joseph and Dad were inseparable. When Joseph was a toddler, the doctors told my parents that crawling, though difficult for him, would help Joseph’s physical and mental development. Dad made makeshift elbow pads for them both and got down on his hands and knees to spend hours with Joseph crawling around the house. As Joseph got older, he went everywhere with Dad — sitting on the bench while Dad coached, attending daily Mass, riding in the truck while listening to country music, and working on the family farm.

Then one fateful day in 2008, my dad taught me something I will never forget: True fatherhood requires sacrificial love.

That day, while working on our house, Dad noticed something wrong: The top of our septic tank had collapsed, and Joseph, who was 22 years old, was nowhere to be found. Dad rushed to the tank and found Joseph struggling to keep his head above the pool of sewage. Wasting no time, Dad dove into the muck and managed to get beneath Joseph.

But realizing he couldn’t save Joseph on his own, Dad told a nearby worker, “You pull and I’ll push,” took his last breath, and descended beneath my brother to lift him above the deadly fumes.

Shortly afterward, my mom watched helplessly as the first responders treated my brother and retrieved the lifeless body of my father, the love of her life. Remarkably, Joseph survived, and he assists my mother to this day in her golden years.

On that tragic day, I lost my role model and dad, but I learned a profound lesson about sacrifice. Habitual small acts of service prepare you for acts of heroism.

Dad often said, “It is usually pretty easy to know what is right or wrong. We are usually the ones who make it more difficult.”

For Dad, doing the right thing meant performing quiet acts of service and sacrifice for others. To save money for our college tuition, he would only buy older cars. When furloughed from the airlines, he worked as a laborer at a horse farm to pay the bills. When a family of 12 moved to the area, my dad offered for them to stay in our already-full farmhouse while they looked for a house; then he co-signed their mortgage. When the local Catholic parish was founded, my parents volunteered as sacristans and altar server coordinators.

Because of my dad’s courageous example of service and sacrifice, the local Catholic diocese is considering opening his cause for canonization.

The Catholic Church, through a lengthy and detailed process, can solemnly declare that individuals who lived a heroically virtuous life are saints with God in heaven. In 2017, Pope Francis added a new path to sainthood for those who lay down their lives out of love for others. If my dad’s life and death fit these criteria, his story may inspire fathers, husbands, and all people for years to come.

Dad’s untimely death was tragic. To this day, I miss his smile and guidance. I am grateful for the profound impact he had on me in his short life, not only as a man but as a father and a husband. His joy, his determination, his dedication to his family, his quiet strength, and his deep faith are just a few things that motivate me to be the best version of myself.

Every day, and especially on Father’s Day, I hope and pray that I can be like my dad.

​Father’s day, Christianity, Catholic church, Catholic, Christian, God, Fatherhood, Faith 

On May 20, an enormous transgender pride flag was hung vertically from the summit of Yosemite’s El Capitan by a trans activist group that hilariously calls itself “Trans Is Natural.” The stunt was a protest against President Trump’s “anti-trans” policies, specifically the removal of mentions of “transgender” and “intersex” people from government websites.

The leader of the group, a bearded man wearing short shorts and drag makeup who goes by the name “Pattie Gonia,” posted a TikTok from the national park explaining the group’s activism.

Allie Beth Stuckey reacted to the video on a recent episode of “Relatable.”

“We carry the largest trans pride flag to ever be flown in a national park and unfurled it on the side of El Cap to prove a point: that trans is natural. The Trump administration and transphobes would love to have you believe that being trans is unnatural, but species that can transition sexes can be found on every continent and in every ocean on planet Earth,” he said, displaying an image of clownfish, which are protandrous hermaphrodites, meaning they are born male and can change into females later in life.

Allie dismantles his argument with one simple truth: “Humans are not fish.”

She reads between the lines of Pattie’s argument: “You see what he did there? He didn’t say ‘transition gender.’”

“For a long time the ridiculous and false assertion was that gender and sex are separate — that gender is how you identify and how you manifest your feelings about who you are, and your sex is biological. Now they’re just saying you can actually transition your sex,” Allie explains.

Except that claim falls immediately flat when you consider that it’s literally impossible to change chromosomes and gametes.

Those “can’t be transitioned, so even if it is true that other species can transition sex, the question is can humans transition sexes? And the answer is no,” says Allie, which means being “trans” is “actually the least natural thing in the world.”

“Gender and sex, by the way, are interchangeable. I don’t buy this idea that … how you feel on the inside can oppose biological reality,” she adds, calling it a “religious, philosophical idea that is just not true.”

“If something is natural and obvious and observable, you don’t have to declare it with a giant flag in a national park — you just don’t.”

Funny enough, Pattie didn’t get the declaration he hoped for. Just shortly after the pink, blue, and black monstrosity was hoisted, park officials ordered its removal, citing policies prohibiting unauthorized displays on park land. In less than two hours, hikers and tourists went back to looking at God’s creation — untainted by LGBTQ+ propaganda.

To see the footage of Pattie Gonia’s thwarted flag stunt and hear more of Allie’s commentary, watch the episode above.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Relatable, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Allie beth stuckey, Blazetv, Blaze media, Trans activism, Transgenderism, Pattie gonia, Yosemite, National park, Trump trans policies 

Jesus flipping tables in the Temple is not a permission slip for violent protests.

As pockets of Los Angeles and other major cities descended into chaos this week — violent protests orchestrated by leftist agitators angry that the Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws — a meme about Jesus went viral.

Jesus didn’t torch Roman government buildings, loot businesses, attack Roman authorities, or cause destruction for the sake of chaos.

Eventually plastered on the front page of Reddit, the leftist meme depicts Jesus’ famous temple tantrum — when he flipped over tables in the Jerusalem Temple courts — and included the sarcastic line with quotes of mockery, “Destruction of property is not a valid form of protest.”

— (@)

The meme, which Reddit moderators later deleted, is clever. But it’s also incredibly dishonest.

Behind the viral image is a destructive lie: Jesus was a woke political protester who used violence to fight injustice. And if Jesus protested with violence, then violence is a justified form of protest, right?

Wrong.

Jesus’ sacred confrontation

Following his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple courts and, according to the Gospel of Matthew, “drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves (Matthew 21:12-13).

You can imagine the scene. An indignant Jesus, days before his execution, drives out merchants and money-changers. Coins clatter to the ground. Tables flip. Animals scatter. Chaos erupts.

Jesus even fashioned a “whip” as a protest instrument, according to the Gospel of John. In modern vernacular, it appears Jesus engaged in “civil disobedience.”

RELATED: Is Jesus a liberal? Democrat senator weaponizes Christ — then condemns himself

sedmak/iStock/Getty Images Plus

But Jesus was protesting neither Rome nor secular injustice. Rather, he was purifying the Temple, the house of God, the place where God’s presence literally dwelt. He wasn’t targeting outsiders (i.e., secular authorities) but insiders (i.e., the Jewish establishment) because they had allowed a sacred space to be misused.

“Jesus’ explicit protest is against the misuse of God’s house for trade instead of prayer,” writes Bible scholar R.T. France in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.

“It is where the trade is being carried out rather than how that is the focus of his displeasure. And that means the protest is directed not so much against the traders themselves but against the priestly establishment who had allowed them to operate with in the sacred area,” France explains. “Commercial activity, however justified in itself, should not be carried out where people came to pray, and a temple regime which encouraged this had failed in its responsibility. This was, therefore, apparently a demonstration against the Sadducean establishment.”

Importantly, Jesus “was not leading a popular protest movement.” Instead, the incident is meant to draw attention to Jesus’ messianic identity and divine authority, according to France.

This is why Jesus quotes from two prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah:

Isaiah 56:7: When Jesus declares, “My house will be called a house of prayer,” he is making clear that he is concerned with proper use of the Temple’s sacred space.Jeremiah 7:11: When Jesus accuses the Jewish leaders of turning the Temple courts into a “den of robbers,” he is accusing the leaders of hypocrisy: While they use pious words to show apparent reverence for God, their behavior proves they do not have proper respect for God’s house.

The Bible is clear: Jesus was not inciting a riot.

On the contrary, Jesus is a prophet who, like the prophets before him, was issuing a prophetic rebuke. It was a moment of divine judgement for Jewish leaders — not a license for modern-day destruction.

Not a riot

With leftist violence back in style, the meme went viral because it serves an insidious purpose: Leftists seeking to justify violence want to weaponize Jesus to sanctify their chaos.

But there is a world of difference between Jesus’ righteous anger and the senseless violence of anti-ICE leftist protesters.

Jesus didn’t torch Roman government buildings, loot businesses, attack Roman authorities, or cause destruction for the sake of chaos. The Temple courts, after all, technically belonged to Him.

Standing in his Father’s house, Jesus was confronting the corruption of the leaders responsible for supervising and protecting God’s house. In that regard, Jesus was restoring what Jewish leaders had tarnished — not burning it down. Jesus demonstrated a holy anger, and it served a heavenly purpose.

Flip your tables

Jesus is not a leftist protest mascot. But the meme gets one thing right: We should be like Jesus.

We should love what God loves, and we should hate what God hates. We should honor what God honors, and we should always defend God’s truth, opposing all attempts to corrupt it.

To be like Jesus is not to justify violence and excuse chaos. Instead, it requires pursuing God and his righteousness and, ultimately, following Jesus to the cross.

That means, like Jesus, we flip the “tables” of our own lives — the idols, sins, and lies that lead far from God and unto death — and allow God to cleanse and restore us, just as Jesus did to the Temple on his way to the cross.

The invitation is not to violence but to eternal transformation. Follow Him, indeed.

​Jesus, Ice protests, Leftists, Protests, Christianity, Meme, Viral, Ice, God, Christian, Faith 

The 250th anniversary of the United States Army brought out the best and worst from U.S. politicians, some of whom were thankful for the event while others condemned it.

The day-long celebration culminated with a parade down Constitution Ave. NW in Washington, D.C., showing off Army personnel, tanks, armored vehicles, and historical equipment.

‘Today should be about them. Not Donald Trump.’

Supporters lined the streets as U.S. Army servicemen and women waved and saluted President Donald Trump; the parade lasted about 90 minutes.

During the event, politicians and commentators showed their best (and worst) colors.

“Today’s events in Washington, D.C. are an incredible opportunity to showcase the strength, discipline, and teamwork of our military,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on X. Greene also participated in workouts in D.C. with armed forces members earlier in the day.

Retired Army Captain Sam Brown, in a message posted to his X page, called the parade “a tribute to the history and tradition of the greatest fighting Army in the world.”

Conservative commentator Benny Johnson was excited for the parade, showcasing a photo of the stage that hosted the president.

“Holy smokes. The setup for President Trump’s speech at the Army’s 250th Anniversary parade is so badass,” Johnson wrote on X.

RELATED: From ‘F**k Trump’ to handshakes: ‘No Kings’ rally in Texas stays civil

— (@)

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman (D) quoted an Army post on X and put politics aside to state the parade represented the “very best of us” and should be celebrated “regardless of your politics,”

At the same time however, politicians like California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) attacked the parade as something that is done by weak world leaders.

The governor called the parade “an embarrassment” and a “vulgar display of weakness” that is typically meant for dictators. Newsom then claimed the parade was actually demanded by Trump to celebrate his birthday, which fell on the same day.

“Today should be about them,” Newsom said, referring to members of the Army. “Not Donald Trump.”

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) chose to celebrate the day by praising left-wing protests against the deportation of illegal immigrants.

“Today, I stand with the millions of Americans making clear this country doesn’t belong to a king,” Warren wrote on X.

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D) both attended the anti-immigration enforcement protests on the Army’s anniversary.

Sanders said on his X page that he and others were standing up and “saying NO to the authoritarianism,” while Schumer simply posed for a photo with protesters with the caption, “No kings in America.”

RELATED: Big Tech execs enlist in Army Reserve, citing ‘patriotism’ and cybersecurity

Blaze News reached out to former service members to gauge their reaction to the military parade and whether it should be seen as an unnecessary display.

“It’s technically a birthday party, and the Army celebrates with parades for everything. I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Matt Harley, a former Army combat engineer, told Blaze News.

“I don’t see why there would be any problem with a military parade, considering the amount of Pride parades there are,” a former member of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps told Blaze News. “June should probably just be military month instead,” he added.

The parade also featured live music and honored countless generations of fabled Army units, including the 101st Airborne Division. The division is one of the most storied units in history, and their efforts in World War II served as the inspiration for the hit series “Band of Brothers” and the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”

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If you spend any amount of time on X (formally known as Twitter), it’s hard not to notice the incredible amount of daily anxiety people experience.

It’s all over. There’s political anxiety, height anxiety, weight anxiety, relationship anxiety manifesting in an accelerating gender war, and, of course, class anxiety. And my God, the class anxiety is so painful, so fraught, and so vapid. Really, it’s so absurd you have to laugh.

In our degraded era, developing into a civilized, literate Westerner is considered boring.

“If I have to read one more post about what something ‘codes as,’ I am going to throw my phone through the (insert expletive) window.” That was my sentiment about three days before I finally muted the phrase, “codes as.”

Code breaking

For those not in the know, the latest trend online seems to be analyzing a person’s every sartorial/consumer/personal choice and determining what it says about their status. In other words, what it “codes as.”

RELATED: Children’s clothing should be cheap — but it doesn’t have to look ugly

Universal History Archive/Getty Images

It gets old quickly. How many posts can be made analyzing what a car “codes as”? How many hot takes can there possibly be on the apparent class-signaling evident in how a woman does her hair? How many overwrought opinions clearly overcompensating for a hidden fear about “downward mobility” can really be sent out into the X-verse?

It appears there is no limit, no ceiling. This silly, trite — though pretending to be enlightened and insightful — discourse knows no end.

Mixed signals

We all know that we all send signals all the time. Sometimes we send them intentionally, other times unintentionally.

We understand that what we wear says something about what we value. That how we speak reveals something about our upbringing.

The watches we wear, the music we hear, the way we talk about faith, and the way we voice our disagreements with those opposite us all speak volumes. The way we talk about money — or more importantly, the way we don’t talk about money — the manners we have or the ones we don’t have, all these things are signals.

So what’s wrong with analyzing these signals?

Trend traps

Nothing. It’s the talking about it publicly. It’s a bit gauche, especially when it leads to obsessing over our own choices and what they communicate to others.

Being in a constant state of trying to anticipate trends or copy the taste of others is exhausting. To base your identity entirely on signaling as a certain class and how others see you as an embodiment of that class is silly.

It’s a sign of having no internal compass, opinion, or taste of your own. It’s a sign of extreme over-socialization. It’s closer to slavery than freedom. It’s no way to live life.

Improving your manners is good. Manners are a sign of dignified civilization. Trying to dress well out of respect for others is also good. Dressing well is a sign of decency. Becoming musically literate so as to understand some of the most beautiful music ever written is key to understanding the greatness of Western civilization. These things used to be attached to class in some way. Now, not so much.

Personality void

In our degraded era, developing into a civilized, literate Westerner is considered boring. Today, class anxiety mainly revolves around buying the right things and consuming them in the right way.

It’s what happens when one lacks a personality or confidence. It may sound strange, but it takes confidence to be who you are, enjoy what you enjoy, pursue what you believe, learn about art and culture out of genuine curiosity, and be a decent person because it’s the right thing to do.

RELATED: Fashion icon turned Nazi ally: Coco Chanel’s dark wartime secrets (plus the nation that revived her)

Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast | Getty Images

If you are in a constant state of reacting to the world and then becoming whoever you are based on that reaction, what are you? Is there anything in there, deep down? Do you have autonomy, or are you just a pinball bouncing around?

That’s the problem with all of this. That’s the story under the story. That’s what the obsession with what everything “codes as” reveals. A lack of self and an inability to be someone — anyone! — without first consulting the trend opinions of everyone else.

It’s a life lived for others. A life without honest direction or authentic intention.

​Men’s style, Menswear, Lifestyle, Codes as, Class, Status anxiety, The root of the matter 

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock noticed that minutes into one of Brittney Griner’s latest appearances on the court, she had “two of the worst, dumbest fouls” he’s ever seen in basketball.

“They look like intentional fouls, particularly the second one. She basically elbowed Aliyah Boston in the neck for no reason, two minutes into the game,” Whitlock explains on “Fearless.”

Whitlock believes this is the result of a mindset that many WNBA players share.

“‘We’re entitled, we’re owed a debt, we’ve been mistreated, we’re victims,’” he mocks. “If you have that mindset, that ‘I’m entitled, we’re victims, that we’re owed a debt, that we should be getting paid the same millions of dollars as men,’ that’s a recipe for corruption.”

“And that’s why the entire victimhood mentality that the media pushes is very dangerous,” he continues. “Particularly as it relates to the black demographic, there’s an entitlement. ‘I’m owed something. Give me reparations. I’ve been ripped off.’”

“And you wonder, man, why are they committing such a high rate of crime? It starts with an entitled mindset, that ‘I’m owed.’ It’s not a crime in their mind — they’re taking what they’re owed. ‘I’ve been exploited in this country; I’m owed,’” he adds.

A’ja Wilson is no different.

“She’s off to the worst start, I think, of potentially her WNBA career last night,” Whitlock says. “She got hit in the face. It looked like her nose was bleeding or something on her face was bleeding, and she never went back in.”

“All the bending over that she’s been asking Nike to do and white players to do, and forcing Kelsey Plum, ‘You understand your white privilege,’ and, ‘You guys need to celebrate black women,’” he continues.

“They’ve put out a signature shoe for A’ja Wilson that no one’s interested in. They’ve put on hold Caitlin Clark’s marketing Nike career and signature shoe to cater to A’ja Wilson. It’s all a flop,” he adds.

This is why Whitlock believes when things actually get hard, like Wilson getting hit in the face, she quit instead of powering through for her team and fans.

“Entitled people. Victims. They’re low integrity; they’re low character. When the going gets tough, they get going,” he says.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free, Video phone, Upload, Camera phone, Video, Sharing, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, A’ja wilson, Wnba, Basketball, Womens basketball, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Caitlin clark, Brittney griner 

Hi, I’m Lauren Fix, longtime automotive journalist and a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. Welcome back to “Quick Fix,” where I answer car-related questions you submit to me.

Today’s question comes from Sarah in Tampa, Florida.

Hi Lauren:

We are helping our teenager buy his first car so he can drive himself to his job this summer. We want something safe, inexpensive, and reliable.

Can you 1) recommend where to look for such a car? And 2) suggest any makes or models that buyers tend to have good luck with?

Thank you!

Great question, Sarah — and I think I’ve got some good answers for you.

When it comes to buying a used car, dealers are always a good bet: buy a certified pre-owned vehicle and you’re protected by a warranty.

If you want buy from a private seller, I recommend you get the vehicle you’re considering up on a lift so an ASE certified mechanic can look at. Have him or her give the car one of three rankings:

Green: This means “go,” of course. It’s well-maintained, no rust, the engine and brakes are in good working order. An easy decision to buy.

Yellow: Cars like this might have been in a minor fender-bender, or have some concerning but repairable issues to deal with. Worth a buy if you know what you’re getting into.

Red: Avoid. This includes severe accidents, flood damage, a salvage title, and the kind of problems (transmission, for example) that can cost more than the value of the car.

As far as car safety goes, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) maintains a wealth of ratings online.

Now for where the rubber meets the road. Here are a few of my car recommendations at different price points.

New

Kia K4Mazda CX 30Toyota PriusHonda Civic

Used under 20k

2017 Toyota RAV42018 Mazda CX 52017 Honda CR – V2021 Toyota Corolla

Used under 15k

2018 Kia Sportage2019 Kia Soul2017 Toyota Corolla2018 Mazda3

And, for some real bargains (keep in mind, however, that with cars 10-15 years old you’re sacrificing safety and/or reliability):

Used under 10k

2009 Toyota RAV42010 Honda element2011 Toyota Avalon

Much more information where that came from. Just click the video below:

Got a car-related question? Email me at getquickfix@pm.me.

​Align cars, Quick fix, Lauren fix, Lifestyle, How to, Cars, Used cars, Teen drivers, Driver safety 

The protests across the nation concerning Trump’s deportations have everyone’s heads on a swivel, but while the leftist-run media tries to paint Trump as an evil dictator, his poll numbers are going up.

Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows believes Trump is on the right path and that the left has miscalculated his support.

“The men and women who serve in ICE and Border Patrol, they’re having none of it. They’ve got a president who has their back, they have the president’s back, and the American people will see the difference,” Meadows says on “Blaze News I The Mandate.”

“Elections have consequences,” BlazeTV host Jill Savage agrees. “This is what the American people voted for, this was one of the very central issues of the Trump campaign, and now they’re going out and trying to execute the plan that the American people voted for.”

And while the left tries to find allies in immigrants who are here legally, what it’s actually finding is that legal immigrants don’t want criminals here either.

“And what’s happening to President Trump’s poll numbers among those who have come here as immigrants is going way up, but not just for those who say, ‘I want to secure the border.’ It’s the people who have come here legally and said, ‘Listen, we need to control the border,’” Meadows says.

“And that’s been the surprising thing, I think, to the left. They’re starting to say, ‘How in the world are his numbers going up?’” he adds.

Blaze Media D.C. correspondent Christopher Bedford notes that this is a typical line of Democrat thinking — that all people who don’t look like their imagined version of a Trump supporter must not think like one either.

“The Democrats have really tried to typecast different groups into one homogeneous thing, whether it’s immigrants and illegal immigrants, that’s all one voting bloc. They don’t realize that illegal immigrants come and they commit crimes in communities where a lot of legal immigrants actually live,” Bedford says.

“Or they assumed that Hispanic workers and immigrants would rise during Black Lives Matter, but those were two distinct groups with distinct missions,” he adds. “Their reads on everyone seem to be incorrect.”

Want more from ‘Blaze News | The Mandate’?

To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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