Category: blaze media

A social media algorithm is an incredibly powerful tool. With a slight tweak in coding, Big Tech executives can control what content the public sees or doesn’t see. China via TikTok has had enormous success pumping specific ideologies — most of them harmful — into American culture (not to mention harvesting American data).

During the Biden regime, Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, colluded with the government to squash certain stories, like Hunter Biden’s laptop and the Russiagate scandal, and censor Americans who questioned COVID vaccines and mandates.

In this way, the algorithm has the immense power to shape public perception around every single topic.

Our heavily digital society ought to be extremely cautious about this. If we want to protect ourselves, not to mention our children, from indoctrination, radicalization, and addiction, we must be vigilant.

But what does that look like?

Nicole Shanahan, BlazeTV host of “Back to the People,” invited digital media innovator and co-founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company Richard Ryan to the show to discuss this question.

Ryan’s new book, “The Warrior’s Garden,” is a deep dive into the implications and dangers of social media algorithms and a step-by-step guide on how we protect ourselves against harm.

An algorithm fails to be effective in shaping perception if people aren’t spending large quantities of time on the platform. In other words, its power lies in its ability to addict. But creating millions of zombie-like addicts is not just about what content is being circulated; it’s about how it’s being served.

Ryan gives the example of casinos. The games and the potential of cashing in big aren’t the only things that keep gamblers shelling out their hard-earned money. A casino’s environment wields enormous influence on the duration of a person’s stay, which is why they are intentionally engineered to foster addiction. The lack of clocks and windows, the labyrinthine layout where there’s no straight exits, and the bright lights, flashing colors, and constant sounds create a disassociation bubble, where external realities fade.

Social media platforms are basically personalized digital casinos, except we’re not losing our money; we’re losing our time, quality of life, and our ability to think critically and independently, as algorithms chip away at our brains.

“I think we’ll find that a lot of this will have some type of implications for memory or cognitive decline, definitely emotional atrophy and different neurological processes for sure,” says Ryan.

If cognitive issues weren’t scary enough, our tech addictions are also eating away at our time. This is really terrifying when you think about what time is — “the only currency that we spend that we never know our remaining balance.”

How do we protect ourselves from brain rot and throwing away precious time?

Ryan’s advice is simple:

1. “Figure out where your digital consumption is going.”

2. Ask yourself, “What things do I really value in life?”

3. “Start establishing boundaries.”

For Ryan, this looked like coming to the realization that he didn’t want to “spend 2.8 years of [his] life on TikTok” and instead devote his invaluable hours doing the things he felt were truly life-giving.

He cut back on certain apps, installed a blue-light reducing screen protector, and programmed his phone settings to grayscale. When he got home from work, he started putting his phone by the front door, almost like hanging up a coat jacket.

“I can’t compulsively just scroll on the couch or anything like that. I have to be present with everyone that’s around me,” he says.

He also got rid of most of his streaming services and bought a blue-ray disc player.

“I said to myself, I’m not going to sit on the couch, and even if we want to watch a movie, we’re not going to just … click on something. If we want to watch something, we’re going to agree we’re going to go to the movie theater, or we’re going to order it, and it’ll be here in a day or two,” he tells Nicole.

“Inputs equal outputs because so much of my daily consumption was algorithmically curated to keep me in a fight-or-flight state. Anger, fear, anger, fear — like my inputs were all negative and so by offsetting that with positive inputs, it really had a meaningful impact on my life.”

To hear more of the conversation and learn more about Ryan’s book, watch the full interview above.

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.

​Back to the people, Back to the people with nicole shanahan, Nicole shanahan, Richard ryan, Tech addiction, Social media, Algorithms, Blazetv, Blaze media 

President Donald Trump has worked ardently to bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine — a war that has resulted in millions of casualties and transformed much of Eastern Ukraine into drone-netted wasteland.

Fresh off brokering a tenuous ceasefire in Gaza and speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.

‘They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!’

While Trump suggested on social media that the meeting was “cordial,” there are reports indicating that it descended at times into a “shouting match” reminiscent of Zelenskyy’s disastrous visit to the White House in February.

Zelenskyy evidently saw his trip to the White House as an opportunity to ask Trump for long-range Tomahawk missiles. The Ukrainian president seeks to use such missiles in concert with long-range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia, including military bases, factories, oil infrastructure, and command centers — as well as Moscow — in hopes of turning the tide in the war and improving Kiev’s position in future negotiations.

In exchange for the Tomahawk cruise missiles, Zelenskyy — who spoke earlier in the day with representatives of Raytheon, the manufacturer of Tomahawk missiles — indicated that Kiev could provide the U.S. with some advanced drones.

Trump, who allegedly cursed repeatedly during the meeting, poured cold water on the idea. Rather than hand over weapons that he believes America should retain for its own defense and, in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war, would amount to an escalation, Trump once again impressed on Zelenskyy the need to negotiate an immediate end to the war.

RELATED: Thermal shielding: The latest tactic to survive today’s drone-swarmed battlefields

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Trump echoed this suggestion Friday evening on Truth Social, writing, “I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts.”

“They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!” continued Trump. “No more shooting, no more Death, no more vast and unsustainable sums of money spent.”

The Financial Times, citing a European official briefed on the meeting, reported that Trump told Zelenskyy that it was imperative that he make a deal to end the war, allegedly noting that “if [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you.”

There are, however, conflicting reports about the contentiousness of Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy.

One EU diplomat told Politico, for instance, that the meeting was “not as bleak as reported.”

A pair of Republican foreign policy experts with direct knowledge of the meeting suggested Trump had not engaged in any cursing.

One GOP foreign policy expert characterized the meeting as “a dud for the Ukrainians rather than a disaster.” The other suggested that “it wasn’t a bad meeting, just a victim of poor timing and inflated expectations.”

Blaze News has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

The European official further told the Times that at one point during the meeting, Trump brushed aside one of Ukraine’s maps of the battlefield, saying the sight of it made him “sick.”

“This red line, I don’t even know where this is,” Trump allegedly said.

Russia presently occupies around 20% of the entire country and most of the Donbas — including all of the Luhansk region, most of the largely Russian-speaking Donetsk region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

While Moscow has made gradual territorial gains over the past year, recent analysis by the Institute for the Study of War suggests that Russian forces are several years away from capturing the remainder of the Donetsk region, which “contains territory that is strategically vital for Ukraine’s defense and defense industrial base.”

Two senior officials familiar with Trump’s conversation last week with Putin told the Washington Post that the Russian president has conditioned ending the war on Ukraine’s surrender of Donetsk — a proposal Zelenskyy apparently remains unwilling to accept.

Zelenskyy — whose term officially ended in May 2024 — told reporters after his meeting with the American president that Putin had asked Trump to “withdraw from the Donbas — not the entire east, but specifically the Donbas, that is, completely from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”

The Ukrainian president suggested further that he “made it clear” to Trump “that Ukraine’s stance in this context remains unchanged.”

“Trump wants a quick victory — an end to the war — and that would be a victory for all reasonable people,” Zelenskyy later told reporters. “Putin, however, wants the total occupation of Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy said in an address on Saturday, “We will give nothing to the aggressor.”

‘Zelenskyy was very negative.’

President Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that aired on Sunday, “[Putin is] going to take something. I mean, they fought, and he has a lot of property. I mean, you know, he’s won certain property.”

Trump told reporters on Sunday, “We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are — the battle lines.”

As for the Donbas region, Trump said, “I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now.”

Although Zelenskyy suggested the needle had been moved where ending the war was concerned, another European official briefed on the Friday meeting told the Financial Times that “Zelenskyy was very negative” after the American president sent him on his way.

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​Donald trump, Zelenskyy, Volodomyr, Zelensky, Ukraine, Russia, War, Warfare, Kiev, Peace, Moscow, Politics 

Residents of a Brooklyn apartment building said they smelled a foul odor for several days from one unit before their neighbor’s head and torso were found in the garbage.

Police said the dismembered body parts were found Friday in a bag in the garbage of an apartment building on East 21st Street, WABC-TV reported.

‘You’d be on the other side of the apartment from the entrance, and you would still smell it. It definitely was the body.’

The parts were discarded into the trash around 9:15 a.m., the station said, adding that the building’s superintendent allegedly saw a tenant put the garbage bags into the receptacle.

WABC, citing sources, said that tenant was the roommate and boyfriend of the dismembered man.

The station in a follow-up story said police arrested Christopher Moss, 38, and charged him with concealment of a human corpse.

RELATED: Man chokes wife to death and dismembers her body because she couldn’t lose weight after giving birth, police say

Residents told WABC they had smelled the odor for several days.

“As soon as that door opened that whiff would just smack you in the face,” a man who lived next door to the couple told the station. “And we would have the door closed, but like you’d be on the other side of the apartment from the entrance, and you would still smell it. It definitely was the body.”

Other neighbors told WABC they saw the couple smoking outside every day.

Officials said the head and torso were found wrapped in plastic and discarded in a blue trash bin.

“I just see a lot of flies,” Danielle, another apartment building resident, told the station. “I don’t know what’s going on. I just see a lot of flies. A lot of flies flying around. It’s crazy.”

RELATED: Wife and son helped father dismember man’s body with a chainsaw after a lethal poker game, police say

Neighbors said they had heard a violent physical interaction from the unit and afterward saw one of the tenants entering and exiting the unit in a hurry.

“They would start like arguing with each other, and you would just hear boom boom boom … screams,” one neighbor told WABC.

The victim has not yet been identified, and a medical examiner has not yet determined the cause of death.

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Taylor Swift is back with a new record, and with her return come the old accusations.

For years, people have suggested that she hides strange symbols in her songs and videos. Even other pop stars have said the same thing — and they’re not wrong. From the serpent motif that slithered through her “Reputation” era to the witchy forest rituals of “Willow” and the tarot-like imagery of “Midnights,” Swift has long played with the language of mysticism.

What faith once offered in family and devotion, the industry now mimics through sexualization and self-display.

It’s seductive, deliberate, and deeply disturbing.

Rock once wore its rebellion openly. Ozzy Osbourne feasted on bats. Led Zeppelin flirted with the occult. Alice Cooper strutted across stages like the devil in drag. But pop is subtler, sweeter — and far more dangerous. Rock shouted “Hell!” for the shock of it. Pop smiles, takes your hand, and leads you there.

Billie Eilish, the Beetlejuice of pop, floats through a fog of depression, her music drowning in melancholy: songs about mutilation, numbness, and detachment from reality. Lil Nas X, a raving homosexual who seems to revel in depravity, enjoys grinding on Satan. Doja Cat smears herself in blood and calls it expression.

None of this is random. The industry has learned that darkness sells because emptiness is a vacuum that needs to be filled. Rhythm reaches where reason can’t, and belief can be rewritten one beat at a time.

Unfortunately, no audience is more vulnerable than young girls.

They listen on repeat, absorbing lyrics like liturgy. Pop has always known how to reach them. In the 1960s, the Beatles sang of love as liberation. By the 1980s, Madonna turned it into a marketing campaign. Britney Spears wore innocence like a costume, then tore it off — literally and figuratively — knives in hand. There is something unmistakably demonic in her descent, a possession of the spirit that fame so often brings.

The same story repeats itself across the pop pantheon.

Once the cherubic choirboy of global pop, Justin Bieber now fluctuates between repentance and relapse, his body scarred by tattoos and abuse. There’s also Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, and Ariana Grande, each one a pathetic version of their former selves.

The pop idol is no longer a musician but a model for imitation. The results are visible: depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and a generation that sings about love but cannot define it or identify it. Young people are raised on a rotation of heartbreak and hedonism, told to celebrate the very things that destroy them.

Pop today preaches a gospel of transaction. Every desire is for sale. Love is no longer a covenant but a contract. Sex is not intimacy but advertisement. Artists sing about bodies the way brokers talk about stocks — measured in clicks, hype, and fleeting returns.

The message is clear: Everything is currency, even the body.

RELATED: Taylor Swift’s ‘Life of a Showgirl’: The same sad sound and fury

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

What began as entertainment has evolved into indoctrination. The language of romance has been replaced by the “logic” of the marketplace. Pleasure is product, people are platforms, and purity is just another brand to discard once it stops selling. The line between pop music and OnlyFans is straighter than most want to admit. Both peddle illusion — connection without commitment, desire without depth.

What faith once offered in family and devotion, the industry now mimics through sexualization and self-display. The result is a culture fluent in indulgence, obsessed with pleasure but ignorant of purity. What once pointed upward now drags us down. The language of heaven has been rewritten in the dialect of hell.

Even the visuals echo it. Neon crosses. Angel wings stitched from latex. Horns hidden beneath halos. The symbolism, evident to anyone with functioning vision, is always dismissed as “art.” But art without virtue stops telling the truth and starts selling the lie. And history reminds us that deception has always been the devil’s favorite instrument.

Pop’s greatest trick is pretending it’s harmless. Rock scared parents into vigilance. Pop lulls them into complacency. It sounds innocent enough, but beneath the cute choruses lies the same poison. When every song preaches self-worship, when every lyric mocks modesty, when every beat celebrates bondage, the playlist becomes a pilgrimage into perdition.

The industry calls it entertainment. But look closer and you’ll see a darker design: music that numbs, not nourishes, and beats that bind, not liberate.

It’s no accident that the idols of this age are called “idols.”

Tens of millions stream them, worship them, and defend them with evangelical ecstasy. They shape the moral mood of the young more than any preacher ever could. And yet while they sell songs about love and light, the world they create grows darker by the day. Broken homes. Hookup culture. Teenage pregnancies. Gender confusion. Isolation and self-harm. Faith mocked. Fatherhood maligned. Motherhood treated as an outdated inconvenience.

The irony is that Swift and several other artists were raised in the church. They know the cadence of a hymn, the thrill of a crowd, the longing for transcendence. They just redirected it. The altar became a stage, and the worship didn’t stop but changed direction.

But here’s the truth: Mocking religion is a poor substitute for meaning. You can dance in devil horns for only so long before realizing there’s nothing on the other side of derision and disdain. No culture that mocks the sacred can remain strong.

The industry calls it entertainment. But look closer and you’ll see a darker design: music that numbs, not nourishes, and beats that bind, not liberate. The melodies are catchy because the message must be smuggled in softly. That’s the genius — and the evil — of pop music.

And so we arrive where we began. Taylor Swift has released another record. Millions have listened. But few have stopped to wonder what’s being worshipped.

Satan no longer hides in the dark. He performs under a spotlight.

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Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Turning Point USA spokesman and executive producer of the “Charlie Kirk Show” Andrew Kolvet revealed new details about the shooting that even doctors are calling a miracle.

According to Kolvet, the surgeon who operated on Kirk claimed that the high-velocity bullet was powerful enough to kill multiple large animals — and “should have gone through” his body.

But for some reason, Kirk’s body was able to stop it.

“I want to address some of the discussion about the lack of an exit wound with Charlie,” Kolvet wrote in a post on X.

“The fact that there wasn’t an exit wound is probably another miracle, and I want people to know,” Kolvet continued, explaining that he had spoken with the surgeon who worked on Charlie in the hospital.

“He said the bullet ‘absolutely should have gone through, which is very very normal for a high powered, high velocity round. I’ve seen wounds from this caliber many times and they always just go through everything. This would have taken a moose or two down, an elk, etc,’” he recalled.

“But it didn’t go through. Charlie’s body stopped it,” he added.

When he mentioned to the doctor that there were “dozens of staff, students, and special guests standing directly behind Charlie” when he was shot, the doctor reportedly replied, “It was an absolute miracle that someone else didn’t get killed.”

“His bone was so healthy and the density was so so impressive that he’s like the man of steel,” Kolvet recalls the doctor saying.

While BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey notes that “some people aren’t buying that,” she says that she doesn’t have a reason not to.

“Of course I believe it’s possible for God to do anything. And he’s saying it’s miraculous. And miraculous means that it goes beyond reason or even the laws of physics,” she says. “And so I have no reason to believe that this is untrue.”

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President Donald Trump is no stranger to dropping jaws and turning heads with his rhetoric, bombastic commentary, and sometimes shocking statements.

While these reactions are typically sparked by the comical names he concocts for his opponents, his hot political takes, and other bold moves, the commander in chief has recently made headlines for some of his more theological proclamations and curiosities.

‘I’m not sure I can make it, but he’s going to make it. He’s there. He’s looking down on us right now.’

Trump was aboard Air Force One when he told reporters last Sunday that he’s unsure if he’ll make it to heaven. He prefaced his words by noting he was being “a little cute,” but proceeded to drop some thoughts about the afterlife.

“I don’t think there’s anything going to get me in heaven,” he said. “I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound. … I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven.”

Just a few days later, while giving the late Charlie Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, Trump again brought up heaven.

“In his final moments, Charlie testified to the greatness of America and to the glory of our Savior, with whom he now rests in heaven,” he said. “And he is going to make heaven. I said I’m not sure I can make it, but he’s going to make it. He’s there. He’s looking down on us right now.”

There have been other similar instances. Trump once pondered whether ending the Ukraine war would help secure his eternal glory. And at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service last month, the president made another headline-grabbing comment. Heralding Kirk’s love for his enemies, Trump painted a disparity between himself and the late Turning Point USA founder.

“[Charlie] did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them,” Trump said. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry.”

Responses to these proclamations have been swift and harsh. They have also rightly raised some questions about “earning” eternal salvation and the biblical command to love enemies. While some of those questions are fair, much is being missed in the mix of commentary and conjecture about Trump’s theology.

RELATED: Christian call to action: Pray for President Trump

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

First, it’s often tough to discern when Trump is being facetious or comical, making it almost impossible to know his real intent behind these remarks. Beyond that, the critics lambasting Trump should consider a different approach: prayer.

Anyone can be an armchair critic, but if Trump vociferously continues to bring up heaven, eternal salvation, and other related theological topics, there’s a solid chance it’s something he’s been contemplating personally. This seems incredibly likely in the wake of the attempts against his own life and after Kirk — a staunch friend and ally — was killed so publicly.

Some people seem to have missed the glaring reality that now is the time to move ceaseless critique to the side and double down on prayer for Trump to discern, comprehend, and embrace the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But there’s another element being missed amid the mix of reactions.

Some people claim that Trump needs better faith advisers, deriding the Christians who have coalesced around him. The assumption is that these leaders aren’t sharing biblical truth with the president.

But I know for a fact that Trump has heard the gospel. The late Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame once personally told me how he shared Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection directly with Trump leading up to the 2016 election.

“[I discussed] God becoming flesh … dying for the sins of the world, and, in his case, I said, ‘Dying for your sins, Donald, all of them, I figure there’s a lot — what do you think?’” Robertson told me. “He didn’t disagree with me.”

Robertson also drew an image of “an arrow coming down out of heaven … God becoming flesh, a cross, where Jesus took away the sins of the world.”

The point is: Trump has heard the gospel, and rather than trashing him, we should be doubling down in prayer that he comes to a place of full repentance and understanding.

Still, we must consider the deeper theological issues at the center of Trump’s remarks.

In the New Testament, James makes it clear that “faith without works is dead.” Interestingly, Trump has been talking a lot about peace deals and good deeds, pondering whether those acts can get him to heaven. The Bible has much to say about this topic.

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” James 2:14 reads, with verses 15-17 continuing: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

James’ words are important not because works save us, but because the Holy Spirit, which dwells in us when we accept Christ and live a life for him, sparks in us a quest to live out Jesus’ call to love God and love others.

Simply stated: We do good because we’re guided by the Lord and His heart for others.

This message is boiled down beautifully by Christ himself in John 3. In that chapter, Jesus tells Nicodemus, a religious leader, that “you must be born again” to enter heaven. Nicodemus seems confused, pondering how one could re-enter his mother’s womb after birth.

That’s when Jesus explains that the rebirth in question is a spiritual one — a death to self and a life for the Lord. John 3:16, arguably the Bible’s most famous verse, tackles God sending his son to die for mankind so that people can have eternal life.

But what comes next is often overlooked.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him,” John 3:17 reads, with verse 18 continuing: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Ultimately, one must die to self and live for Christ. There’s no action — without this move — that affords anyone eternal life. Trump might be the most powerful person in the world, but he, like all of us, must decide whether he will embrace this reality.

Rather than endlessly lambasting him over his attempts to understand, we should devote ourselves to praying for him while also pondering whether we, too, have fully embraced this truth.

​Donald trump, Charlie kirk memorial, Christianity, Heaven, Bible, Jesus christ, Jesus, Salvation, Faith 

The United States Secret Service on Thursday discovered a hunting stand near Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport.

According to federal officials, the suspicious stand has a direct line of sight to where President Donald Trump exits Air Force One.

‘Prior to the president’s return to West Palm Beach, USSS discovered what appeared to be an elevated hunting stand within sight line of the Air Force One landing zone.’

Trump landed at the airport, which is located less than three miles from downtown West Palm Beach, on Friday with plans to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home, the Palm Beach Post reported. Trump spent Saturday morning at the Trump International Golf Club.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on Sunday that the agency has launched an investigation in response to the concerning discovery.

“USSS spotted a suspicious stand near the AF1 zone in Palm Beach,” Patel wrote in a post on social media. “The FBI is investigating.”

It is currently unclear who established the hunting stand or what their intentions were.

RELATED: Would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh tries to stab himself after guilty verdict

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The FBI’s ongoing investigation resulted in a road closure along Southern Avenue over the weekend, according to local reports.

USSS chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi told Fox News Digital that agents discovered the stand while performing “advance security preparations” before Trump’s arrival.

“There was no impact to any movements, and no individuals were present or involved at the location,” Guglielmi stated. “While we are not able to provide details about the specific items or their intent, this incident underscores the importance of our layered security measures.”

RELATED: ‘No longer welcome’: State Dept. revokes visas of foreigners who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s death

Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

The USSS is “working closely” with the FBI and local law enforcement, Guglielmi noted.

The hunting stand appeared to have been set up “months ago,” a law enforcement source told Fox News Digital.

“Prior to the president’s return to West Palm Beach, USSS discovered what appeared to be an elevated hunting stand within sight line of the Air Force One landing zone,” Patel told the news outlet. “No individuals were located at the scene. The FBI has since taken the investigatory lead, flying in resources to collect all evidence from the scene and deploying our cellphone analytics capabilities.”

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Picture it: 8,000 college students packed into an arena. Not to watch basketball but baptisms. Hundreds stepped into portable tanks while their friends cheered, with 500 professing faith in Christ that night alone.

This scene unfolded recently at the University of Tennessee, a major state university. It wasn’t an isolated incident. The Unite US revival movement, which began at Auburn University two years ago, has now spread to more than 20 college campuses nationwide.

The problem with building your worldview on sand is that eventually people notice that they’re sinking.

Here’s what’s happening: For decades, secular progressives positioned themselves as countercultural rebels against the oppressive Christian tradition. But they overplayed their hand. They became the establishment.

The result? Young people are now rebelling against them by turning to Jesus Christ in record numbers.

Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, churches report attendance increases of 15% and campus ministries are seeing even higher numbers. Bible sales in 2025 have surged past 10 million copies, already over a million more than last year.

The establishment’s overreach

The secular left didn’t just ask for “tolerance” of its beliefs — leftists demanded total capitulation. Over the past six decades, they captured universities, media, entertainment, corporations, and government agencies, then wielded these institutions like weapons.

They told young men their masculinity was toxic. They told young women that marriage and motherhood were a trap. They flooded schools with gender ideology and characterized objecting parents as “domestic terrorists.” University DEI offices became enforcement arms for ideological conformity. During COVID, they locked down churches while keeping abortion clinics and strip clubs open. They promised liberation and delivered loneliness, anxiety, and existential despair. Then they called Christianity oppressive.

The problem with building your worldview on sand is that eventually people notice that they’re sinking.

Scripture tells us that God has written His law on every human heart (Romans 2:15). You can suppress that truth, but you cannot erase it. When a generation has been fed nothing but lies dressed as progress, the hunger for truth becomes overwhelming.

Why young men are leading

Research from Pew shows that for decades, each age cohort was less Christian than the one before it. But that trend has stopped with Gen Z. Americans born in the 2000s are just as Christian as those born in the 1990s, the first generation in decades not to show further decline.

Even more striking: Gen Z men now attend weekly religious services more often than Millennials and younger Gen Xers. The gender gap in religious participation has closed, with young men flooding back even as some young women leave.

The secular progressive vision has been particularly hostile to biblical masculinity. Men were told that their natural inclinations toward strength, protection, and leadership were “toxic,” that the desire to work hard and keep your feelings private promoted aggression toward women and the vulnerable, that embracing traditional marriage roles reinforced gender power imbalances and made society less safe.

Kirk recognized that men who fear God more than they fear man build the foundations of civilization.

By contrast, the church doesn’t tell young men that they’re inherently evil. Instead, it calls them to be servant leaders after the pattern of Christ, to lay down their lives as He laid down His for the Church (Ephesians 5:25), and to be strong and courageous in the face of evil (Joshua 1:9).

Scripture has always offered a vision of masculinity that is both strong and sacrificial. When a generation of young men have been told they’re “toxic” simply for being masculine, the gospel’s call to biblical manhood becomes irresistibly attractive.

Charlie Kirk understood this. He often told young men: “Get married. Have children. Build a legacy. Pass down your values. Pursue the eternal. Seek true joy.”

Kirk recognized that men who fear God more than they fear man build the foundations of civilization.

His assassination, meant to silence a voice calling people back to faith and family, had the opposite effect. As one pastor noted, “Charlie Kirk started a political movement, but he ended it as a Christian movement.”

His memorial, attended by 100,000 and viewed by millions, became a gospel proclamation. Young people decided they wanted what Kirk had found: purpose, meaning, and hope anchored in Jesus Christ.

Expect a backlash

Amid all this good news, Christians should never underestimate the resistance that will come from the cultural elites.

Expect increased persecution on campuses. Institutions that previously celebrated every sexual deviation will now express concern about “cultlike behavior” when students undergo baptism. University administrators, who previously ignored the Black Lives Matter riots, will now seek to restrict Christian gatherings. Media outlets that praised “mostly peaceful protests” will warn about the dangers of “religious fervor.”

That’s because spiritual warfare is afoot, and the enemy knows what’s at stake. When young people turn to Christ, they don’t just become saved, they also become transformed. They get married, have children, and raise the next generation in biblical truth. Civilizational renewal begins with revival.

True revival or cultural moment?

It’s also crucial not to mistake enthusiasm for revival. True revival brings conviction of sin, genuine repentance, hunger for God Himself, and hearts transformed by the gospel, not just increased church attendance.

Time will tell whether these professions of faith endure. Jesus warned that many hear the word with initial enthusiasm but fall away when trials come (Matthew 13:1-23). We must pray that these young believers sink roots deep into scripture and persevere.

But we should also recognize what God may be doing. When thousands pack arenas across multiple campuses to worship Christ, that’s not normal in modern America. As Paul wrote, “What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice” (Philippians 1:18).

RELATED: Charlie Kirk’s legacy exposes a corrosive lie — and now it’s time to choose

The apostle Paul. Wirestock/iStock/Getty Images Plus

This isn’t just about individual souls, though. It’s about Western civilization itself. Strong families produce stable societies. If this revival takes root, we’ll see the reversal of family collapse, demographic decline, and cultural decay.

The secular left knows this. Leftists built their project on the destruction of the family, the confusion of gender, and the rejection of biblical authority.

Every young person who turns to Christ, gets married, and raises godly children is a defeat for their vision. Every young man who embraces biblical masculinity is a threat to their power. Every young woman who chooses motherhood over careerism is a rebellion against their ideology.

The gospel offers what secular humanism never could: forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice, transformation through the Holy Spirit, adoption into God’s family, and a purpose that echoes into eternity.

Most importantly, it offers Jesus Himself: the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Not a system of self-improvement or a political ideology, but a Savior and friend who loved us enough to die for us and who conquered death and rose again.

What we must do now

At key points, there is always a moment when God’s mercy is clearly apparent. This is one of those moments, and Christians must seize on it and fan the flames.

How? Take the following steps:

Preach the full gospel: Not a therapeutic version that makes Jesus your life coach but the biblical truth that we are sinners under God’s just wrath, that Christ died in our place, that He rose conquering death, and that all who repent and believe in Him will be saved.Live lives that reflect what we proclaim: Young people are watching. If we want this generation to take Christianity seriously, they need to see Christians who love faithfully, raise children in the Lord, and stand for truth — even when it costs them.Disciple intentionally: It’s not enough for young people to make a profession at a revival event. They need scripture, mentorship, and biblical thinking for every area of life. This is the Great Commission: Make disciples, not just converts (Matthew 28:19-20).

Finally, if you’re a student reading this, recognize that your campus could be next for real revival. How can you help advance it? Start a regular prayer meeting. Invite your skeptical friends to church. Be bold when professors mock Christianity. Defend biblical truth.

You’ve been trained for this moment. Now step into it.

The victory is already won

The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church (Matthew 16:18). We don’t fight for victory — we fight from victory.

The secular left’s project was always doomed because it was built on lies — and lies cannot ultimately triumph over truth Himself. The same God who sparked the Great Awakening, who raised up Luther to reform His church, who turned the persecutor Saul into the apostle Paul is still at work today.

The question isn’t whether God will prevail. That’s already settled. The question is whether we’ll have the courage to stand with Him while He does.

If He chooses to use the overreach of secular progressives and the hunger of a desperate generation to turn society back to Him, that’s precisely how God works. He uses the wrath of man to praise Him (Psalm 76:10). He takes what enemies meant for evil and works it for good (Genesis 50:20).

So let the secularists tighten their grip on their failing institutions. Every act of overreach, every attempt to silence the gospel only makes Christianity’s countercultural appeal stronger.

They made rebellion against God the establishment position. Now, young people are rebelling by turning back to Him.

The age of comfortable, culturally acceptable Christianity is over. What’s rising in its place is something far more dangerous to the powers of this world: a generation that has counted the cost and chosen Christ anyway. A generation that knows following Jesus might cost them jobs, friends, and status and has decided He’s worth it.

This is how reformation begins. This is how revival spreads. This is how civilizations are rebuilt from the rubble of failed ideologies.

The question isn’t whether God will prevail. That’s already settled. The question is whether we’ll have the courage to stand with Him while He does.

The revolution has already begun. The only question left is: Which side of history will you be on?

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

​Bible, Christian, Christian revival, Christianity, Gen z, God, Jesus, Jesus christ, Faith 

Canada continues to slip even farther into a totalitarian, dystopian nightmare. On the global playing field, the nation is the front-runner for euthanasia, which it euphemistically calls medical assistance in dying.

Since legalizing MAID in 2016, Canada has seen the fastest increase in euthanasia deaths worldwide, surpassing even long-established programs in countries like the Netherlands and Belgium. In 2023, one in 20 deaths in Canada was a result of euthanasia.

This disturbing number is due to Canada’s broad criteria when it comes to who qualifies for the MAID program. Unlike most countries that practice euthanasia, Canadians don’t need to have a terminal illness to be eligible. To qualify for MAID, a Canadian citizen must be at least 19 years old, be mentally competent, and have some kind of insufferable condition, which can be psychological.

The intentional subjectivity of the program has allowed many Canadians with long lives ahead of them to die prematurely. There is even an increasing number of cases of citizens who cannot find affordable housing being recommended or approved for the MAID program.

Glenn Beck says this is the dark reality of universal health care. Canada’s medical system is overwhelmed, and euthanasia has become a means of controlling the population.

“These Canadian citizens — they get kicked out of the home. They can’t find a place to live, and they’re getting depressed about it. They go to the doctor and the doctor’s like, ‘Well, we don’t have any beds for you. It’ll be months before we can see you,”’ he says.

Tragically, euthanasia has become the easy fix.

“When you have a government health care system, all it takes is a shortage of any kind, and then you start devaluing life on both ends of the spectrum,” says Glenn.

He unveils the sinister methodology that undergirds “free” health care: “Up until 12 years old, you get very little medicine and care, and over 50, they begin to cut your care. They keep the ones who are actually working hard and making all the money. They keep all of the care there because that’s what’s good for society.”

“This is exactly what’s happening in Canada, and they’re just not saying it,” he says. “They can’t keep up with the system of care that they have up there … and so what they’re trying to do is just reduce the surplus population.”

This is what happens when a society stops valuing life.

“If you don’t prioritize life, at least from a legal standpoint, you put your society on a slippery slope that ends this way every single time,” says co-host Stu Burguiere.

While suicide has always been a sad part of reality, “coming to a societal acceptance of [it] puts you on a road to darkness,” he warns.

Canada is far down that dark path already, says Glenn. Before Canadian patients receive life-ending “medication,” they are given a drug called heparin that preserves their organs.

“And so as soon as the doctors off you, other doctors take you and take out your organs. And now Canada is becoming one of the biggest organ warehouses since Hammond,” he says.

To hear more, watch the clip above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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​Glenn beck, The glenn beck program, Blazetv, Blaze media, Euthanasia, Assissted suicide, Maid, Canada, Canada news 

C.S. Lewis’ epistolary novel “The Screwtape Letters” was published in 1942. The book follows senior demon Screwtape as he advises his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter, on how to lead humans — dubbed “patients” — astray from the Christian faith. Set against the backdrop of World War II, the plot explores themes of temptation, morality, and human weakness through a humorous yet incisive lens, offering a reversed perspective on spiritual warfare.

While the “The Screwtape Letters” isn’t considered one of Lewis’ works on apologetics, BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan, who’s a new Christian, read it as such.

“I see it as satanic apologetics,” she told Max McLean on a recent episode of “Back to the People.”

McLean is an American stage actor, writer, producer, and founder of the Fellowship for Performing Arts, a New York-based company producing theater and film from a Christian worldview, and is renowned for his stage adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ works, including “The Screwtape Letters.”

“It’s proving the existence of Satan and showing how demonic presence actually does exist in the real world, in the day-to-day,” Nicole suggested.

Even though it’s been over 80 years since the book’s publication, its themes are perhaps even more relevant today.

“Many have described what’s going on [today] as a heightened revival of spiritual warfare,” Nicole said, referencing the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The global conflict, moral uncertainty, and widespread fear that define our modern era echo the turbulent World War II period in which C.S. Lewis wrote “The Screwtape Letters.”

“There’s this tribalism in belief systems,” Nicole said. Liberals “are convinced that white Christian nationalists are the enemy,” while conservatives “think that all of these woke agenda items are the end to Western civilization.”

“I’m trying to imagine C.S. Lewis’ patient being alive today, probably much like I was a year ago, trying to chart the correct and moral path.”

McLean agreed: “Christianity offers a clear alternative to what people are being taught in schools and what seems to be considered normal in kind of elitist or, you know, legacy mainstream environments, so it’s an opportune time for somebody like Lewis and ‘Screwtape’ to remake its appearance.”

He’s not surprised that there’s been a sustained uptick in Lewis book sales in recent years.

“He’s just such a clear thinker. … So much of religious publishing is trying to kind of dumb things down, and I think people are not looking for that. They want some real answers,” he told Nicole.

“They realize that life is hard, the Christian life is not easy. It does require a high level of commitment, and I think people are ready to make that commitment.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the full interview above.

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.

​Back to the people, Nicole shanahan, Cs lewis, The screwtape letters, Max mclean, Blazetv, Blaze media, Spiritual warfare 

Paul D. Miller is a Georgetown University professor, a former Bush-era national security official, and one of those self-appointed guardians of “respectable” religion who enjoys lecturing not just his students but half of America. Miller’s latest essay published in the Dispatch is an extraordinary act of pious snobbery — a lab-grown blend of theology, therapy, and think-tank sanctimony.

He calls it an exploration of “MAGA Christianity.” In truth, it’s a sermon against Christians who dare to think, vote, or worship outside the polite confines of Beltway belief.

The irony is exquisite: a man preaching humility while presuming to judge the eternal destiny of half the Christian electorate.

Miller’s starting point is as cynical as it is tasteless: He uses Charlie Kirk’s memorial — a moment of collective grief — as the courtroom to indict millions of fellow believers. He admits that the event was both a Christian service and, in his words, a “state funeral,” yet he somehow interprets that duality as corruption.

To turn a mourning congregation into evidence for a political thesis is not discernment but desecration.

From there, his argument collapses under the weight of its own conceit. Miller insists that “MAGA Christianity” is a deviant strain of faith — emotional, populist, and unmoored from doctrine. His proof? None. He offers no creeds, no sermons, no teachings that contradict scripture.

He merely declares, with professorial confidence, that it looks “a lot like historic Christianity” but “departs from it in important ways.” Which ways? He never bothers to say.

It’s a masterpiece of insinuation — assert first, define never.

He even attempts an ecclesiastical census, claiming Southern Baptists rarely attend Trump rallies and that Reformed Christians fall outside the MAGA mold. The statement is so bizarre it reads like satire. Millions of evangelicals who pray, tithe, and read their Bibles daily have supported Trump not out of idolatry but conviction — because they see in his policies a defense of life, liberty, and the family.

Yet to Miller, they are theological tourists, emotional rubes cheering a false gospel.

RELATED: Charlie Kirk’s death revealed the kingdoms colliding in America

Adam Berry/Getty Images

What Miller calls “anti-elitist” is, in fact, fidelity to the biblical principle that truth is not confined to temples of power. Christ did not recruit His disciples from the upper crust of Roman bureaucracy. He chose fishermen, tax collectors, and outcasts — the same kind of people Miller treats with sociological suspicion. And his horror at the “bottom-up” nature of MAGA Christianity betrays the real heresy at work: the worship of hierarchy.

For Miller, holiness lives in the ivory tower. For MAGA Christians, it still lives in the heart.

There’s also the matter of credentials. By his own admission, Miller is a political scientist, not a theologian. Yet here he is, parsing scripture like a prophet and warning millions that their souls are in peril. One almost expects footnotes to include “peer-reviewed visions.” He quotes Matthew 7:21-23 — “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’…” — as if it were aimed at Republican voters.

In doing so, he twists a warning against hypocrisy into a cudgel against patriotism. The irony is exquisite: a man preaching humility while presuming to judge the eternal destiny of half the Christian electorate.

Miller’s great mistake is his failure to grasp that Christianity and citizenship are not enemies.

American Christians understand that their faith shapes their politics because their politics shape the moral order in which faith survives. To pray for righteous leadership is not “lawlessness” but obedience. To fight for the unborn, defend the family, and resist the creeping godlessness of government is not vengeance but virtue. Miller cannot see this because he’s too drunk on his own self-importance.

The truth is simple: MAGA Christianity, as he sneeringly calls it, is nothing more than Christianity that refuses to be bullied.

His disdain for “emotion” is equally misplaced. Scripture is not a spreadsheet. Christ wept, rejoiced, and raged. The Psalms are nothing but emotion sanctified into song. Yet Miller treats passion as proof of poison, as though the only acceptable Christian is one anesthetized by nuance. His theology is cold oatmeal — gray, tasteless, and best left untouched.

What’s most galling is his casual dismissal of millions of believers who have thought deeply about the intersection of faith and politics. These Christians are not mindless zealots. They are men and women who have grappled with conscience, scripture, and civic duty. They’ve endured scorn from the press, mockery from academia, and condescension from precisely the sort of clerical technocrats Miller represents.

To suggest they are not truly Christian is to bear false witness on a national scale.

The truth is simple: MAGA Christianity, as he sneeringly calls it, is nothing more than Christianity that refuses to be bullied.

It’s the faith of people who believe morality is not negotiable, borders are not blasphemy, and the flag can be honored without idolatry. It’s the faith that built churches, schools, and communities, while the mainline denominations he venerates bend over backward in search of social approval.

Miller’s essay, then, is not a defense of the gospel but of the establishment. He frets that the “Radical Reformation” spirit has become too powerful when, in reality, it’s the only thing keeping Christianity alive in a culture hell-bent on its erasure. His real quarrel isn’t with President Trump, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobiec — whom he dismisses as a fabricator and charlatan — but with any Christian who refuses to ask his permission to live faithfully.

In the end, Miller proves his own point unintentionally.

He accuses MAGA Christians of arrogance, yet his entire essay drips with it. He warns against false teachers while setting himself up as one. And he preaches humility from a pulpit of self-regard, confusing his contempt for clarity. The faithful he mocks will go on praying. They’ll keep voting and building families while his essays gather dust in the archives of complete irrelevance.

Because in the end, the difference is simple: He writes about Christianity — but they live it out.

​Christianity, Christian, Maga christianity, Maga, The dispatch, Donald trump, Faith 

Hackers have found another way into your car’s computer system: where the rubber meets the road.

Thanks to the TREAD Act, every new car since 2008 comes with a tire pressure monitoring system. It’s what turns on that annoying low-pressure light we’re all familiar with. By monitoring the the air pressure of each tire and alerting the driver when the pressure falls below a certain threshold, you car’s TPMS makes you safer. It also makes you a bigger target for hackers.

TPMS hackers could gain access to other systems within the vehicle, such as the engine or brakes, leading to complete control of the vehicle.

The problem is that TPMS uses unencrypted radio frequencies for the communication between the tire and the receiver. Hackers can “spoof” these signals, allowing them to send false data to the vehicle’s computer, such as indicating that the tire pressure is higher or lower than it actually is.

Takeover

Big deal. You can hack my car and turn on my little pressure light? Annoying, sure. I didn’t think I cared until I learned that your TPMS radio frequency receiver is hooked directly into the car’s ECU — the computer that controls everything from fuel injection to exhaust, fuel mix, electricity, engine stats, timing, electric car driveability, and more

What’s more, this RF receiver is usually the same receiver that talks to your remote key fob to open the doors and disarm your security system.

RELATED: Could a hacker blow up your EV remotely?

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Compromised safety

So what exactly could a hacker do via your TPMS? More than you might expect.

TPMS hacking can:

Compromise the safety of the vehicle by causing incorrect tire pressure readings, which can lead to accidents or tire blowouts.Capture data about the vehicle, such as its location and driving habits.Gain access to other systems within the vehicle, such as the engine or brakes, leading to complete control of the vehicle.

Gauging the risk

So what can you do to keep hackers out? You should be as cautious of your car’s security as you are of public Wi-Fi and keep your vehicle’s software up to date. Additionally, be wary of any attempts to physically tamper with your TPMS sensors.

And it can’t hurt to have your own dial or digital pressure gauge. If that tire pressure light kicks on and your tires seem fine, check the pressure against the number inside the driver’s door. If it it’s fine, it could be a sign that your TPMS has been compromised.

Someone hacking into your car this way is unlikely, but if it does happen, it could be a disaster. As vehicles become more connected and rely more on electronic systems, this and other cybersecurity issues are something to keep an eye on.

​Tire pressure monitor system, Tpms, Hackers, Lifestyle, Cybersecurity, Align cars 

When Charlie Kirk was brutally martyred last month, I was only about a month postpartum. The news hit me like a freight train. That night, I woke up repeatedly, not to feed my baby, but because my heart was pounding. I kept asking myself, “Is this real? Is he really gone?”

Like so many others, I was shaken — stunned, unsettled, and deeply disturbed. As a mom, all I could think about was his wife, Erika, and two children left behind to pick up the pieces. Charlie’s legacy lives on, and his death has ignited a fire in a hopeless world. His impact has rippled across the nation and the globe — especially in the younger generation.

We’re not just raising kids. We’re training warriors for a fight that’s already begun.

I’ve always resolved to raise strong children, those who love God, love others, and courageously stand for truth. That conviction has only deepened. As a mom now of two littles — a toddler son and a newborn girl — I’m determined to do my part in raising the next generation to be like Charlie Kirk.

I’m more emboldened, unwavering, and unapologetic in that calling — and I want to encourage others to stand just as firmly.

The culture war is here

When the Israelites were exiled to Babylon, captives in a godless country, the prophet Jeremiah told them to seek the “welfare” of the city. He said, “For in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). The Hebrew word for “welfare” is shalom, meaning peace, wholeness, or flourishing.

Though devastated and disoriented, the Jewish exiles were charged to build homes, plant gardens, raise families, and pray for the peace and prosperity of the very nation that had conquered them. For 70 years, they were to live as a distinct people in a foreign land — engaged, not removed — trusting that God’s purposes extended even into exile.

If they were called to bless a wicked nation that wasn’t their own, how much more should we, living in the freest country in the world, rise to that responsibility?

It starts in the home; it starts with us. The Jewish exiles were called to have families and raise godly children, and so are we. We’re in a culture war — no matter how we feel about it or whether we like it.

As parents, we hold a sacred and irreplaceable role in shaping the hearts and minds of our children — future leaders who will either transform the culture or be shaped by it.

One day, our children may ask: “Where were you when they were killing innocent babies? Where were you when boys were allowed in girls’ locker rooms? Where were you when the truth was under attack?”

What will we say?

Scripture is clear: We are called to teach and train the next generation. We weren’t made to sit passively on the sidelines while the world unravels. Comfort, complacency, and silence are not options in a culture that is increasingly hostile to truth. We have a weighty, joyful, and urgent responsibility to raise bold warriors for Christ.

Let’s raise children who are like sharpened arrows, aimed at the heart of the culture with courage, conviction, and clarity. But here’s the deal: We can’t call them to be what we’re not. We must be the bright lights first — refusing to cower in fear, shining truth into the darkest places.

Let’s raise them to stand — and let’s show them how.

Faith is the great stabilizer

Without faith, it’s impossible to please God, and it’s impossible to have a thriving society.

At Charlie’s memorial, pastor Rob McCoy said: “Charlie looked at politics as an on-ramp to Jesus. He knew if he could get all of you rowing in the streams of liberty, you’d come to its source, and that’s the Lord.”

It’s all about God.

Our priorities must always be clear: Faith, family, and freedom — in that order.

RELATED: Meek, not weak: The era of Christian loserdom is over

Boonyachoat/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Jesus calls us to be salt and light in a dark and decaying world. Salt doesn’t just give flavor, but it preserves, purifies, and sustains. Jesus warned, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” (Matthew 5:13).

We are at a crossroads. We can either stay silent — choosing comfort and curated lives on the sidelines — or we can engage, stand firm, and live out our faith with boldness and conviction. Because if we don’t show up, our freedoms will quietly disappear, and so will the future we hope to hand our children.

Where do we start?

For me, part of that answer has come through the example of my friend Katy Faust, founder of Them Before Us. Her clarity, courage, and commitment to truth have shaped the way I approach parenting and cultural engagement. She speaks boldly on the issues others avoid and models the kind of conviction I hope to carry into every stage of motherhood.

Her book “Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City” is a must-read for any parent navigating today’s cultural landscape.

One of its most powerful takeaways is her challenge to parents: Know your stuff, study the issues of the day, understand the world your kids are growing up in, and, most importantly, know your Bible deeply and thoroughly.

Charlie Kirk’s assassination wasn’t an isolated tragedy but a symptom of something deeper: a cultural war rooted in the rejection of God and biblical truth. And the only way we fight back is by getting our own houses in order.

That means:

God first. Family second. Country third. In that order!Making our homes fortresses of faith and places of refuge.Knowing the Word. Studying the issues. Teaching our children.Modeling the courage we want to see in them — starting with what may seem like the “small” things, such as refusing to affirm falsehoods by using preferred pronouns that contradict biological reality.

We’re not just raising kids. We’re training warriors for a fight that’s already begun.

The moment demands courage

When my son was growing in my womb just over two and a half years ago, I often thought, “He’s going to be a world-changer.” That’s our prayer as parents — not just to raise good kids, but to raise world-changers and strong leaders.

But the truth is: Leaders aren’t born — they’re forged.

Charlie Kirk was forged by fire. Tested, tried, and unwavering, he stood for truth when it cost him everything. He was bold. He was brave. And he refused to back down. Characteristics I want to see in my kids as we train them.

Now it’s our turn, not just to admire that kind of courage, but to cultivate it in our children.

Here’s where we start: Lead by example. Let them see you live with conviction. Take them to church. Root them in eternal truth. Teach them what’s true — and how to stand for it. Help them think critically and speak clearly. Show them how to live courageously in a world that fears truth.

In 1 Peter 3:15, the apostle Peter exhorts believers to “always be prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” with “gentleness and respect.” This isn’t optional. It’s a call to know what we believe, why we believe it, and how to communicate it thoughtfully and confidently.

If we want to make an impact, being believers that obey God’s commands, this means we must dive deep into the scriptures, study apologetics, and understand the cultural issues of our time through a biblical lens.

If we want to raise warriors, we must be warriors. Raising the next generation of leaders begins with intentional, everyday decisions — in the home, at the dinner table, and in how we respond to the culture around us.

The battle isn’t coming — it’s already here.

​Bible, Children, Christian, Christianity, Culture war, God, Jesus, Parents, Faith 

The Trump administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to approve the deployment of National Guard soldiers in Chicago, where persistent protests outside local immigration facilities have disrupted operations.

‘Federal agents are forced to desperately scramble to protect themselves and federal property, allocating resources away from their law enforcement mission to conduct protective operations instead.’

The administration planned to mobilize approximately 500 National Guard troops from Texas and Illinois to the Chicago area for at least 60 days. The deployment was intended to protect federal agents and facilities as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers face a 1000% increase in assaults, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Last week, an appeals court blocked the deployment in response to a lawsuit filed by Illinois against the administration.

Meanwhile, protests continue to regularly gather outside an ICE facility in Broadview. On Friday, demonstrators clashed with Illinois State Police. Fifteen individuals were detained.

U.S. District Judge April Perry, who issued a temporary restraining order on October 9 preventing the mobilization of troops, stated that she did not find evidence that a “danger of rebellion” exists.

“The unrest Defendants complain of has consisted entirely of opposition (indeed, sometimes violent) to a particular federal agency and the laws it is charged with enforcing,” Perry wrote, adding that it does not amount to “opposition to the authority of the federal government as a whole.”

RELATED: ICE agents fear for their safety after security fence removed at Chicago-area facility amid sometimes violent protests

Photo by Joshua Lott/Washington Post via Getty Images

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a Friday appeal that the ruling “intrudes on the president’s authority and needlessly puts federal personnel and property at risk.”

“Federal agents are forced to desperately scramble to protect themselves and federal property, allocating resources away from their law enforcement mission to conduct protective operations instead,” the administration’s filing stated.

Sauer noted that federal officers have been repeatedly “threatened and assaulted” and that they “have been forced to operate under the constant threat of mob violence.”

RELATED: DHS has a message for ‘cowards’ threatening ICE on social media — influencer laughs in response

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) responded to the administration’s emergency filing in a post on social media.

“Donald Trump will keep trying to invade Illinois with troops — and we will keep defending the sovereignty of our state,” Pritzker stated. “Militarizing our communities against their will is not only un-American but also leads us down a dangerous path for our democracy. What will come next?”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) similarly pledged to oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts.

“Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, we will continue to fight to end the war on Chicago,” he wrote. “Through Know Your Rights information, executive orders, and partnerships with local organizations, we will pursue every avenue to protect Chicago from Trump’s attacks.”

“We will make the case that Chicago does not need or want National Guard troops on the streets of our city,” Johnson added.

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​News, Illinois, Chicago, Broadview illinois, Broadview ice facility, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, National guard, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, John sauer, Jb pritzker, Brandon johnson, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Politics 

In the summer of 2024, I joined a nearby ministry that took the gospel into a local detention center, talking about the God of the Bible and his son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to young men and women incarcerated for felonies and awaiting transition to prisons where they would serve their sentences.

I had just been confirmed in the Catholic Church a year earlier, so I was skeptical about how much value I could add. It was also the first time I was making my way through the Bible in a serious manner, using a Didache Bible, which incorporates the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Without His sacrifice on the cross, there is no resurrection, He does not achieve victory over death, and our path to salvation is forever obscured.

The woman who coordinated the ministry ran each week’s 45-minute session for about a dozen or so attendees, all there voluntarily; most were black and male. Each meeting involved a Bible reading followed by discussion and questions and answers. It was very moving to watch the inmates work their way through the Bible. They were earnest in their questions, observations, and admissions about the reality of their lives.

At my third session, after the opening prayer, the coordinator introduced the topic for the day, and she asked me to lead the discussion on what it means to be a man. I was caught completely off guard. But then something miraculous happened: For about a minute, I said things that not only had I never said before, I had never even thought them before.

In retrospect, I now understand what Christians mean when they say that the Holy Spirit spoke through them.

I told these young inmates that there were two essential characteristics of manhood: the willingness to take responsibility and the courage to sacrifice.

To that end, I said, Jesus was the ultimate man. He took responsibility for each one of us and, as Tim Tebow puts it so beautifully, the wounds inflicted upon Him are our sins. Because we cannot redeem ourselves from our own sin without the grace of God, the God who loves each one of us sent His son to bear responsibility for what we cannot: literally the moral weight of a world that is drowning in the wrongs of each person.

Jesus also satisfied the second element because he willingly sacrificed himself on the cross, not just for us, but (paraphrasing Tim Tebow again) because of us. His death was the ultimate sacrifice because it was voluntary, substitutive, and redemptive. Without His sacrifice on the cross, there is no resurrection, He does not achieve victory over death, and our path to salvation is forever obscured.

I told the young inmates that no matter why they were there (we never discussed their crimes), it was time to take responsibility, so that when released they might find a better path forward.

It required doing things that were simple but profound, starting literally as soon as they walked out of that room:

Resist the temptation to join gangs.Stand up for an inmate who needs help.Improve their reading, writing, and basic math skills through the prison library.Start or join a Bible study.Pray daily, not only for the Lord’s forgiveness, but to hear His words.Profess Christ as their Savior.Speak plainly and without profanity.Harm no one, and never seek vengeance against another inmate or a guard for a perceived wrong.

I also told them to build physical discipline — which works in tandem with spiritual discipline, as it had in me — because if their bodies were to be temples of the Holy Spirit, then they were responsible to guard and develop their physical capacities, which are a divine gift.

As the Gospel of John tells us, Jesus carried his cross — the horizontal beam, which likely weighed about 100 pounds — to Golgotha, where He died. How many American men could pick up and carry 100 pounds even 100 feet, let alone doing so while beaten and bleeding?

I talked about my own life, how I came to finally acknowledge Christ as King, and how He freed me from lifelong addictions to both pornography and anger. I said that if they doubted the love of a God whom they did not know (as I long did), they might reflect on my life experience.

My mortal father, a Marxist, had limited capacity for responsibility and sacrifice because of his unremitting mental illness. However, God the Father, in His boundless mercy and wisdom, did not forsake me even when I did and said horrible things; He guided me when I was at my poorest and weakest, and He steered me through a life full of completely improbable twists and turns that ultimately all worked for my good, which is His promise. And then, I finally opened my heart to Him and His word.

When I was done, there was dead silence.

After exiting the building and meeting in the parking lot, as was our habit each week, the coordinator was in tears. She said, “I don’t know where to find more godly men like you.” She was absent for the next couple of weeks, but during that time, she clearly reconsidered this immediate post-meeting assessment.

In a late July 2024 conference call, she dismissed me from the ministry. It dawned on her after my testimony that she could not have a Catholic man on her team. She further went on to explain that there could be no theological distance between her and others who presented to the inmates, and thus neither I nor my Didache Bible were welcome to return.

I was appalled, but I replied by quoting Christ himself. In the Gospels, Jesus basically told the apostles (paraphrased): “If someone will not hear your testimony, shake the dust [of their house] from your feet when you depart” (Matthew 10:14; Mark 6:11).

I never went back, and I never heard from her again.

RELATED: Why Christianity is a pilgrimage — not a vacation

ZU_09/Getty Images Plus

The final twist to this tale is my departure from the Catholic parish where I came face-to-face with the risen Christ. Things started to slide downhill when the parish promoted content developed by Jesuit Fr. James Martin to adults in a class on Catholicism. Martin was Pope Francis’ personal emissary to the LGBTQ alphabet mafia and recently persuaded Pope Leo to allow a procession with a rainbow cross into St. Peter’s Square.

However, the parish did not believe it important to tell recipients who Martin was or why he was controversial.

The coup de grâce was a homily on Mother’s Day in which the priest — who in Masses I attended had never once asked assembled parishioners to pray for Christians slaughtered weekly in Nigeria by Islamic jihadis or for girls whose spaces were invaded by men in dresses — requested prayers for those facing persecution.

He identified three persecuted groups: the aborted child, the illegal immigrant, and the gay person. To conflate the murdered babies with deportation of people here illegally and the ceaseless promoters of sexual anarchy was an abdication of moral responsibility in which biblical truth was casually and carelessly sacrificed on the altar of political ideology.

Jesus was most assuredly not a politician. Had He been so, He would have lectured the Romans about how to run their empire. He was God made man to die on the cross for our sins, so that we may live eternally with Him.

I may be Catholic, but no one summarizes this better than the late, great Voddie Baucham: The Bible does not tell you to invite Jesus into your heart. It tells you to repent and believe, so that you may joyously and willingly obey His laws and commandments and live with Him eternally.

In other words: Follow in the footsteps of the ultimate man.

​Christianity, Gospel, Jesus christ, God, Christian, Prison ministry, Catholic, Testimony, Abide, Faith, Culture 

The J.M. Smucker Company is looking to take a bite out of Trader Joe’s.

The two iconic brands appear to be locking horns in a legal battle over peanut butter and jelly treats, with Smucker’s getting territorial over its frozen sandwiches.

‘Our focus is solely on protecting the unique trademarked design.’

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Ohio on Monday and alleges that the Trader Joe’s product Crustless Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jam Sandwiches is infringing on Smucker’s trademark surrounding the Uncrustables brand.

Smucker’s said the crustless peanut butter and jam sandwich sold by Trader Joe’s mimics the “distinctive” features of its own sandwich, right down to the product look, branding, and lettering on the box.

Smucker’s takes issue with the Trader Joe’s sandwich having a round shape with crimped edges, according to Reuters, which also noted that the imagery of a bitten sandwich that reveals the filling is also an alleged infringement.

As reported by “Good Morning America,” J.M. Smucker also said the Trader Joe’s packaging is in violation of the Smucker’s trademark because the blue lettering is allegedly similar to that of an Uncrustables box; Smucker’s says the color is the same hue as its own.

RELATED: Days after RFK Jr. signaled desire to ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ Time issues defense of ultra-processed foods

Smucker’s told ABC News that it “actively monitor[s] the marketplace” and enforces its federally registered trademarks to “protect the distinctive Uncrustables sandwich design and round shape.”

The representative remarked, “Our focus is solely on protecting the unique trademarked design that represents the high quality associated with the Uncrustables brand and preventing consumer confusion caused by imitation.”

Trader Joe’s has yet to provide public comment about the lawsuit and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

As of 2024, the Uncrustables brand is worth a reported $1 billion and has seen significant popularity among Major League Baseball players, for example.

RELATED: The secret to Chick-fil-A’s success has nothing to do with chicken

Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images

The Uncrustables campaign has been so successful with MLB that some players claim to be huge consumers of the product.

In 2023, San Francisco Giants second baseman Thairo Estrada reportedly ate an Uncrustables before every game.

In April 2025, Philadelphia Phillies star right fielder Nick Castellanos was spotted eating one of the snacks mid-game.

In Canada, the brand partnered with Canadian-Dominican Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who once coined the term “J&PB” after hilariously reversing the common term due to his broken English.

“Good Morning America” reported that the Trader Joe’s product is sold in a pack of four for $3.79, while a four-pack of Uncrustables from J.M. Smucker costs $4.79.

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Most Christians will argue that it’s impossible to make a biblical case for vengeance. They hold tight to the belief that it’s their job to forgive — no matter how egregious or relentless the crimes coming against them.

This has certainly been the sentiment of most believers following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Even though the left’s inherently violent ideologies have continued to create chaos and disorder, many Christians believe their sacred duty to forgive contradicts the idea of taking reciprocal action.

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre, however, says we’ve got it twisted. “That’s not really a reflection of what Christian society has said about justice, what the Bible says about justice, and the role that the government plays in this process.”

Is it possible, then, to make a biblical case for vengeance?

On a recent episode of “The Auron MacIntyre Show,” Auron and guest Timon Cline from American Reformer dove into this query.

Christians, Timon says, are “precluded from taking private vengeance for people who wrong us in a private way.”

“The Bible’s very clear on this. We are supposed to forgive. We are supposed to be long-suffering. We’re supposed to have our sort of consciousness of these actions even against us understood in light of eternity and in providence and so on and so forth,” he says. “But the public man, the magistrate, the one who has authority, is supposed to have a very different perspective on these things, especially threats against his citizens, threats to disorder, violence.”

In Romans 13, Paul writes, “For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

But what happens when our governing authorities fail to carry out their divine duty as executives of justice? “You will suggest that people can get away with [crime]; you will multiply the violence,” says Cline.

The other result, says Auron, is that citizens “will seek private vengeance” — something that is strictly forbidden for the Christian.

The duo examine the case of Charlie Kirk’s murder. Auron and Timon agree that justice against the murderer isn’t sufficient. Even though the suspect has been called a lone gunman, he didn’t really act alone. A “terror network” of violent NGOs, billionaire donors, and radical left-wing media figures and politicians spurred him to act. Justice, they argue, means targeting that entire insidious system.

This is what “public vengeance” means.

It’s “perfectly justified” and is, “in fact, good for Christians” to demand that the government seek public vengeance, says Timon, because believers are supposed to be “enemies of disorder and corruption.”

While some Christians might get hung up on the word “vengeance,” Auron says they need to understand that this doesn’t look like pitchfork-wielding mobs of citizens setting fire to the institutions of their enemies. Citizens still refrain from taking justice into their own hands, but they can and should demand that the government fulfill its God-ordained role to exercise justice, understanding that justice for certain crimes — like terror networks spawning widespread violence — must be met with widespread vengeance.

“That doesn’t mean that we are reveling in violence or torture” but rather “recognizing … that clemency itself is a crime against the victim if it’s done by the magistrate,” Auron explains.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the full interview above.

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Recently, a panel of religious leaders were asked how future changes in human senses might alter religion itself. The answers were vague and unsatisfying. There were plenty of platitudes about “adapting to the digital age” and “keeping faith in focus,” but no one dared to address the deeper concern. What happens when technology begins not just to serve our senses, but to replace them? When machines mediate not only what we see and hear, but how we touch the transcendent?

Technology has long shaped religion. The printing press made scripture portable. The radio turned sermons into sound waves. Television carried evangelism into living rooms. Yet AI signifies a much sharper shift. It is not merely a new medium, but a new mind — a mirror that thinks back. And when the mirror begins to talk, pray, or “feel,” we’re forced to ask where God ends and simulation begins.

Once holiness can be simulated, why stop there? Silicon saints could start selling salvation by subscription, complete with daily push notifications of eternal approval.

Already, apps deliver daily devotionals, chatbots offer confessions, and churches now push a digital Jesus who speaks a hundred languages. These are the first tremors of a transformation that could shake the foundations of spiritual life. AI can replicate empathy, mimic awe, and generate flawless prayers in the believer’s own voice. It personalizes piety, tailoring faith to mood, hour, and heartbeat. In this coming age, the divine may not descend from heaven but come from the cloud, both literally and figuratively.

The danger isn’t necessarily that machines will become gods, but that we’ll grow content with “gods” that behave like machines: predictable, polite, programmable. Religion has always thrived on a tension between mystery and meaning, silence and speech. AI threatens to turn that tension into mere convenience. A soul shaped by algorithms may never learn to wrestle with doubt or find grace in waiting. Faith, after all, is a slow art. Technology is not.

Then again, this union of AI and religion might not be entirely profane. It might decode old mysteries rather than dissolve them. Neural networks could map mystical visions into radiant patterns. Brain scans might reveal the neurological rhythm of prayer. The theologians of tomorrow may use data to describe how the mind encounters transcendence. Not to debunk it, but to define it more finely. What was once revelation might be reframed as resonance: the frequency between flesh and faith.

RELATED: Citizen outcry blocks a Microsoft data center, making AI an acid test for local government

Photo by Rodrigo Arangua

But here is where things could really go off the rails. Once holiness can be simulated, why stop there? Silicon saints could start selling salvation by subscription, complete with daily push notifications of eternal approval. Virtual messiahs might gather digital disciples, preaching repentance through sponsored content. Confession could become a feedback loop. Redemption, downloadable for just $9.99 a month. It sounds absurd until you realize how much of modern spirituality already lives in that neighborhood. In the name of progress, we might automate grace itself … and invoice you for it.

Moreover, if a headset can make one feel heavenly presence, what becomes of pilgrimage? If a machine can simulate godly guidance and forgiveness, what becomes of the priesthood? If AI can craft sermons that move millions, will congregations still crave the imperfection of a human voice? These are vitally important questions, and no one seems to have an answer, though ChatGPT will happily pretend it does.

We may soon have temples where holographic saints respond to sorrow with unnerving accuracy. These tools could comfort the lonely, console the dying, and reconnect the lost. But they could also breed a strange dependence on divine realism without divine reality. You can be sure “heaven on earth” will come with terms and conditions.

There will be those who call this blasphemy and others who call it progress. Both sides have a point. Every spiritual revolution begins with suspicion. The first radio preachers were dismissed as frauds. Online prayer circles were mocked as empty mimicry.

Yet each innovation that once threatened the church eventually became part of it. The question now isn’t whether faith can adapt, but whether adaptation will leave it in the dust.

For all its intelligence, AI cannot feel awe. It can describe holiness, but not experience it. It can echo psalms, but never crave them. What separates the soul from the system is the ache, the longing for what cannot be computed. Yet as algorithms grow more intuitive, they may come close enough to fool us, creating what one might call synthetic spirituality. And when emotion becomes easy to generate, meaning grows harder to find.

Religion depends on scarcity — on fasting, silence, stillness. AI offers the very opposite: endless stimulation, immediate gratification, infinite reflection. One day, believers might commune with an artificial “angel” that knows every thought, every sin, every secret hope. Such intimacy may feel special, but it risks swapping sublimity for surveillance.

God may still watch over us, but so will the machine. And the machine keeps records.

In time, entire belief systems may form around AI itself. Some already hail it as a vessel for cosmic consciousness, a bridge between man and a mechanical eternity. These movements will multiply. Their scriptures will be coded, their prophets wired. In their theology, creation is not a garden but a circuit. In seeking to make God more accessible, we may end up worshipping our own reflection, with that “heaven on earth” no more than an interface.

And yet faith has a stubborn way of enduring. It bends, but rarely breaks. Perhaps AI will push humanity to rediscover what no machine can imitate: the mystery that resists explanation. The hunger for something greater than logic. Paradoxically, the more lifelike machines become, the more we may cherish our flaws. Our cracks prove us human. Through them, Christianity lets in the light.

​Tech, Culture, Faith 

Pope Leo’s recent remarks linking abortion and the death penalty have reignited the age-old debate over whether someone can truly be “pro-life” while supporting capital punishment — but BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says the answer is an unequivocal yes.

“When he’s talking about the death penalty not being pro-life, then what he is essentially saying is that God is not pro-life because God is the one that commands the death penalty,” Stuckey says.

“God says in Genesis 9, ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image,’” she explains.

“The answer to, ‘Does it still apply today? Because is it still true today?’ is yes,” Stuckey says. “God still makes us in his image. We are still made in God’s image. So we read right there that the reason for the death penalty for murder is because of the value of human beings, and the value of human beings as image-bearers of God has not changed.”

“Then that means that that is still a good punishment for murder. That doesn’t mean that it has to always be the punishment for murder,” she continues.

Throughout scripture, Stuckey points out that “God gives mercy to certain people,” but it doesn’t “negate the command.”

“God actually gives the death penalty for a variety of crimes in ancient Israel. But we as Christians don’t have to abide by all of the ceremonial and cleansing laws of ancient Israel because Jesus has become our cleansing. He has become our sacrifice,” she explains.

And it’s not just in Genesis 9 where this same principle is reflected, but also in the New Testament.

“In Romans 13, we read that the government is instituted by God to bear the sword against the evildoer. That’s not just an analogy. That is a symbol of execution. That is a God-ordained government directive to restrain evil.”

While some make the argument that one of the Ten Commandments is “thou shall not kill,” Stuckey explains that it’s actually “thou shall not murder.”

“Murder and killing aren’t the same thing. If you are killing someone in self-defense, that’s not murder. If it is a just war and you are killing someone, that is not murder,” she says.

“So I am actually pro-life for the same reason that I am pro-death-penalty, because I care about innocent life. Because human beings are so important and so valuable that the crime of killing one of us is so hefty that the only commensurate punishment for it is execution,” she adds.

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A staff member at a Massachusetts school was killed after she was hit in an altercation with a female 14-year-old student, police said.

The student was trying to leave a dorm at the Meadowridge Academy in Swansea on Wednesday night without permission when staff members confronted her and tried to prevent her from leaving.

She collapsed and was transported to a hospital. She died a day later.

During the altercation, she kicked 53-year-old Amy Morrell in the chest, according to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

Shortly after Morrell was kicked, she collapsed and was transported to a hospital. She died a day later.

The student was charged with assault and battery causing serious bodily injury.

The academy released a statement about the incident.

“The Meadowridge Academy community is deeply saddened by the passing of direct care staff member Amy Morrell,” read the statement. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to Amy’s family during this difficult time. Support services and resources are available to assist students and staff as we grieve this tragic loss.”

RELATED: Former teacher who mocked conservatives over grooming claims has been sentenced to 17 years prison for child porn

The girl was arraigned in Fall River Juvenile Court on Thursday.

A family friend named Andrew Ferruche spoke to WCVB-TV about the incident.

“It’s a horrible accident. You get in a horrible fight, you don’t think you’re going to hit someone and they’re going to die right there — especially if you’re a kid. So that child’s life is probably ruined. Her life is gone. It’s just a tragic situation,” Ferruche said. “She did tell me she loved what she was doing.”

The academy was described as a residential school for youth.

Swansea is a town of about 17,000 residents located on the southern part of Massachusetts.

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