Category: blaze media

While leftists accuse the Trump administration of censorship after comedian Jimmy Kimmel was fired, and then promptly reinstated, for his vile commentary regarding Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination — the real censorship bully has been revealed.

Google has finally disclosed that the Biden administration pressured the company into widespread censorship and will reportedly be reinstating YouTube accounts that were censored years ago for voicing the wrong opinions.

According to the House Judiciary Committee, the company admitted that “the Biden administration pressured Google to censor Americans and remove content that did not violate YouTube’s policies.”

Those opinions ran counter to the Biden administration’s official narrative surrounding COVID and election integrity.

“Wow, you mean to tell me that it wasn’t just YouTube who decided to find all of these accounts of these creators, these doctors in some cases, these scientists, these experts who lost their YouTube accounts, lost their livelihoods due to COVID quote ‘misinformation’ that turned out to be true?” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.

“They admitted the Biden administration’s pressure to censor Americans was ‘unacceptable and wrong’ after the fact. … Thanks for the news flash in 2025,” she continues.

“Now all of a sudden they’re like, ‘Oh, actually, government pressuring a private company to censor Americans’ voices is actually, as it turns out, unacceptable.’ Now, it took us five years to get there. It took us five years to formulate that opinion. It took us Donald Trump’s election,” she says. “Because remember, things didn’t really start changing until they realized there was going to be a new sheriff in town.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Free, Upload, Video, Camera phone, Sharing, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jimmy kimmel, Censorship, Covid censorship, Google censorship, Biden administration, Biden, Joe biden, Joe biden censored americans, Youtube creators censored, Banned on youtube 

The U.S. Department of State is too bureaucratic, insular, and disconnected from the American people to meet today’s global challenges. For those reasons, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a “reduction in force” and a broader reorganization of the department in July.

These reforms should inspire hope in those wishing to enter a career in diplomacy and international relations. Above all, they need to be worthy of the American people’s trust and confidence. One hopes this is just the beginning of reforms that will create a State Department that is prepared for conflict around the world, agile in crisis, deliberate in strategy, and effective in delivering results for the American people.

The world isn’t waiting for the State Department to get its act together. Foreign adversaries are watching — and exploiting — our division.

Rubio’s reforms reflect the spirit of President Harry S. Truman, namesake of the State Department’s headquarters. The last U.S. president without a college degree, Truman was born in the rural Missouri Ozarks in the small town of Lamar and raised outside Kansas City, Missouri. From humble beginnings, he learned the value of grit, service, and earning one’s keep — a reflection of Midwestern values.

Truman is remembered for the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, recognizing Israel, and helping to found the United Nations — policies and actions that helped shape the Cold War order that is now giving way to a new era.

Like many from his background, he harbored a deep dislike for Washington, D.C., often feeling unwelcome despite years of service, professional success, and lasting friendships. I maintain a similar love-hate relationship with our nation’s capital.

The irony is unmistakable: The State Department’s headquarters bears the name of a man whose kind it has long resisted serving, defending, or hiring. Today, however, we face a rare moment — driven by global urgency — that offers an opportunity to finally change this paradigm.

It’s critical that Rubio’s reforms expand across the entire department. By embracing PEACE — professionalism, excellence, accountability, community, and empowerment — and elevating the builders within the State Department, internal resistance can be overcome, credibility can be restored, and America’s ability to lead in an era of global conflict can be strengthened.

Status quo by design

For decades, the State Department has been experiencing bureaucratic resistance, which takes many forms. As outlined by organizations like DemocracyAID, tactics include “quiet quitting,” withholding or limiting information sharing, excluding certain personnel from key meetings, stonewalling paper clearances, and conflict avoidance, including brushing off individuals who are perceived to be unaligned with specific political imperatives. These are not simply ideological acts of opposition — though politics plays a role — but are symptoms of a much deeper problem: decades of poor management, a lack of accountability, and a culture that prioritizes equal outcomes over equal opportunity and merit-based advancement.

Long before the Biden-Harris administration’s short-sighted, politicized approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion, the department had already grown insular, disconnected, and unrepresentative of the citizens it serves. Persistent derogatory attitudes toward Republicans, working-class Americans, people of faith (including Christians), rural communities, and those without a college degree have harmed employees from these backgrounds and eroded the department’s ability to represent the broader American public and our national interests.

This includes Main Street’s interests — not just those of Hollywood, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the ivory tower. Many colleagues, peers, and even mentors from these groups came to believe this hostility was meant to drive them out. They were likely right.

This culture has taken a heavy toll on morale and execution. Even under the previous administration, senior Biden officials quietly questioned whether the State Department was truly capable of conducting modern diplomacy. It was not uncommon for colleagues at the White House to ask without irony, “Does State do diplomacy?”

RELATED: State Department cuts ties with Armed Queers-affiliated NGO

Photo by Adam Glanzman/Washington Post via Getty Images

The department was viewed as bloated, unresponsive, and incapable of fulfilling its core constitutional responsibilities. While officials may deny this publicly — federal employees remain a core political constituency — many would privately acknowledge deep dysfunction and a need for reform.

The challenge now is whether political leadership on both sides of the aisle is willing to act. Rubio has signaled his intent to make the difficult decisions necessary to modernize the department. That task will be far more effective — and more lasting — if it is met with bipartisan support. Fixing the State Department should not be a partisan issue. It is a national security imperative.

One place to start is returning to Missouri-inspired values like the ones Truman brought to the White House. The State Department should look to model its reforms on the College of the Ozarks, a federally recognized work college that grounds its mission in five core areas: academics, religion, culture, vocation, and patriotic growth.

These values reflect the beliefs of a broad swath of Americans — many of whom have too often been dismissed or ignored by the national security establishment. They have served the Ozarks well and could serve the nation well in a time of need.

Ensuring that the State Department effectively and objectively serves the American people while moving at the “speed of relevance” requires creating a new code and new core values. This is our moment to forge a department guided by the character of the American statesman.

Professionalism

U.S. diplomats should be patriots who conduct themselves with competence and respect while faithfully advancing U.S. national interests and exemplifying the highest standards of public service at home and abroad.

State Department leaders must model integrity, discipline, and openness to differing viewpoints; evaluate and communicate their teams’ perspectives objectively and without bias; and foster a culture of candor. By encouraging constructive conflict and providing space for grievances to be aired, leaders create an environment where people feel heard — one that ultimately strengthens the team’s effectiveness and finds the best solutions.

Excellence

The builders and doers who are delivering every day (and not just on non-mental health days) for the secretary and the president should be the model for all personnel. I firmly believe these individuals represent the majority of my colleagues serving at home and abroad.

These are the innovators and patriots, and they deserve internal and public recognition. Restarting the internal awards process while partnering with the Ben Franklin Fellowship to launch privately funded recognitions, as the State Department has done for other groups, would be a powerful way to reignite excellence.

Accountability

Leadership at the top — especially from the seventh floor — needs to direct senior career officials to hold underperformers accountable. This may require overcoming reluctance from officials who are waiting for future career opportunities or avoiding their core responsibilities.

Meanwhile, reform-minded employees — the silent majority — remain under scrutiny, and little accountability is exercised for those who leak, underperform, or resist implementing the policies of the president. The seventh floor must not only authorize reform but also drive it forward with urgency.

Community

It is time to rebuild a culture that is anchored in the renewed core values that can sustain the department’s authority as the premier foreign affairs agency, one that is worthy of the trust and confidence of our diplomats and their families serving abroad. Equally important is restoring the State Department’s credibility by confronting its insular, ineffective, and often disconnected approach to domestic concerns and the interests of the citizens we serve.

One way to develop our community is a limited relaunch of employee organizations aligned with administration priorities. When managed well, these groups boost morale, encourage dialogue with leadership, and showcase the department’s commitment to all Americans, including working-class families, Christians, and veterans.

My experience founding FirstGens@State in 2022 — which has grown to 700 members and has advanced recruitment, mentorship, and retention — proves the value of such employee organizations. Unlike identity-based models, FirstGens@State members bring unique American experiences, grit, and patriotism that better inform discussions around U.S. national interests and strengthen the understanding of the global majority.

Empowerment

Great leadership means giving your team the freedom to act without offloading responsibilities. Therefore, power should be delegated to subordinates to make decisions, and they — as well as leadership — should be held accountable for outcomes.

The seventh floor should actively promote a culture that rewards courage, leadership, hard work, teamwork, innovation, and calculated risk-taking. That includes expanding access to professional development, senior responsibilities, and face time with department and White House leadership. The seventh floor must become comfortable providing the authority to act, but never shed the responsibility for the mission’s success or failure — otherwise, the status quo will return.

The way forward

External stakeholders play a significant role, should they choose diplomacy and collaboration around shared interests. Together, the American Foreign Service Association, the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Ben Franklin Fellowship, and other similar organizations can speak with a unified voice to drive change at the department. But division prevents these ideas from reaching fruition.

So far, public statements from some of these groups’ members have reflected vitriol and incivility. Academy member and former American Foreign Service Association President Eric Rubin said the following about the Ben Franklin Fellowship on Trailing House’s Facebook community page: “Foreign Service friends and colleagues: know thy enemy. ‘All enemies, foreign and domestic.’” (This post appears to have been taken down since it was posted earlier this year.)

RELATED: America First foreign policy gets an Office of Natural Rights

Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images

How can U.S. Foreign Service members take your organization seriously if you do not set a tone for constructive dialogue and demonstrate a willingness to engage in good faith? The silent majority within the department needs establishment senior diplomats and civil servants to step up and perform far better. It’s time to grow up.

Long-term reform

In our present environment, high-performing State Department professionals — and ultimately the American people — bear the heaviest burden. They compensate for obstructionists while navigating subtle relational aggression and peer surveillance. This includes staff who increasingly face reputational attacks, doxxing, and tactics that are more typical of civil conflict than a workplace.

The world isn’t waiting for the State Department to get its act together. Foreign adversaries are watching — and exploiting — our division. Reform cannot be parked on the runway. We have to fly the plane, fix it in mid-air, and be ready for the long-haul journey ahead.

Editor’s note: This article was published originally at the American Mind.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, State department, State department reform, Marco rubio 

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump released a letter to be given to new citizens upon their naturalization. The message was lofty and inspiring: “America has always welcomed those who embrace our values, assimilate into our society, and pledge allegiance to our country. By taking this oath, you have forged a sacred bond with our Nation, her traditions, her history, her culture, and her values.”

The letter should be applauded for setting an aspirational standard for what citizenship should mean. But it is not an accurate reflection of today’s reality. The United States faces a deep assimilation crisis.

Tougher tests, stricter reviews, and heightened scrutiny must replace the laughably weak process we have today.

To its credit, the Trump administration — through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow — has tried to address the problem by revamping the path to naturalization. The changes include restoring a more rigorous version of the citizenship test. Today, the English portion can be passed simply by writing one memorized sentence, such as: “The president lives in the White House.”

Other reforms include social media screening and neighborhood checks to determine whether applicants are civic-minded, engage in anti-American behavior, or have a history of trouble with the law. These commonsense steps move naturalization closer to what it should be: a process that ensures new citizens merit the honor of joining the American republic.

Numbers that tell the story

America’s foreign-born population has topped 50 million, driven by mass immigration policies that have prioritized large inflows from countries with steep barriers to assimilation, including Mexico, India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam. Legal immigration at this scale has created far more strain on assimilation than even the inflow of illegal aliens.

One of the clearest measures is English proficiency. According to Pew Research, only about half of immigrants ages 5 and older speak English well. Rates vary widely by country of origin; among Central American immigrants, only one in three is proficient.

Worse, proficiency has declined over time. Immigrants who arrived before 2000 had about a 10-point advantage over those who arrived later. Census data shows that 22% of Americans older than 5 speak a language other than English at home — and a third of them admit they speak English “less than very well.”

Split allegiances compound the problem. A 2012 Pew Research poll found that only 21% of Hispanics primarily identified as “American.” Meanwhile, naturalized U.S. citizens from Mexico can still vote in Mexican elections, an arrangement that blurs civic loyalty.

The money tells a similar story. The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that $200 billion leaves the United States annually in remittances to immigrants’ home countries, including Mexico, India, Guatemala, the Philippines, and China. These untaxed transfers amount to a substantial portion of the GDP of many Central American nations — and a permanent drain on American wealth.

Cultural decay in plain sight

The cultural effects of weak assimilation are obvious. Earlier this summer, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told a foreign audience, in Spanish: “I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American.”

She is not alone. Last year, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) declared in Somali: “We are an organized society, brothers and sisters, people of the same blood, people who know they are Somalis first, Muslims second.”

A Gallup poll from June reflects the larger trend: 92% of Republicans say they are extremely or very proud to be American, compared to just 36% of Democrats. As Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies recently observed, much of the blame lies with America itself. When national culture, language, and tradition are purposely eroded, what is left for newcomers to assimilate into?

RELATED: Patriotic assimilation is the cure for America’s identity crisis

Photo by SimpleImages via Getty Images

Acknowledge the problem

The assimilation crisis has no quick fix. With more than 800,000 people naturalized last year, the math guarantees that tens of thousands of new citizens each year will have only weak attachment to American identity. Unless naturalization standards change, the problem will compound.

Short of drastically reducing legal immigration, the least America can do is raise the bar. Clearer tests, more rigorous reviews, and tighter scrutiny must replace today’s lax process.

But first comes honesty. President Trump’s letter should be read for what it is — not a reflection of our current affairs, but a call to restore the meaning of citizenship. It points toward the America we ought to be.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Assimilation, Naturalization, Immigration crisis, Immigration 

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is looking especially attractive for car buyers.

For the first time in decades, taxpayers can deduct up to $10,000 in auto loan interest for new vehicles assembled in the United States. Welcome relief after being stretched thin by high borrowing costs and inflation.

A family financing a $40,000 SUV can save several hundred dollars in the first year, depending on their tax bracket.

Bonus: It helps strengthen American manufacturing.

Above the line

Unlike most tax deductions, this one is above the line, which means taxpayers can claim it without itemizing. That simplicity makes it available to millions of middle-class Americans.

To qualify, buyers must purchase a new personal-use vehicle. Cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, vans, or motorcycles under 14,000 pounds qualify, but the final assembly has to be completed in the United States. This is a direct remedy for the skewed global competition and supply chain pressures that have been hurting many car companies that build in the USA.

The law requires lenders to issue a new IRS form, the 1098-Q, reporting interest paid on qualifying loans. Borrowers will also need to provide their vehicle identification number on their tax return to confirm eligibility. If a loan is refinanced, the deduction typically still applies, provided the vehicle meets the original requirements. These safeguards give taxpayers the benefit of American-assembled vehicles. And I’ll leave a list of all the vehicles that should qualify below.

The deduction is targeted at middle-income car buyers. For single filers, it begins phasing out at $100,000 in income and is fully eliminated at $150,000. For couples, the phase-out starts at $200,000 and ends at $250,000. That structure puts the greatest benefit in the hands of households struggling most with high interest rates. With the average new car loan now topping $42,000 at more than 7% APR, first-year interest charges alone can reach $1,600 or more. For those families, the deduction can provide a meaningful tax refund without pushing them anywhere near the $10,000 cap.

Crucial savings

Dealerships have wasted no time highlighting this change. Sales teams are using the tax break as a tool to overcome sticker shock. A family financing a $40,000 SUV can save several hundred dollars in the first year, depending on their tax bracket.

For buyers weighing whether to purchase now or wait, that savings often makes the decision. This could especially benefit dealerships unloading mid-range U.S.-built vehicles like Ford, Chevrolet, and Tesla’s American-assembled models.

By designing loans to capture the greatest benefit from the law, dealerships also get to emphasize their role in saving the buyer money — a way to build trust at a time when consumers are increasingly cautious about debt.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act also includes other provisions, such as restoring 100% bonus depreciation for qualified business property through 2028. This helps small-business owners and independent contractors (like rideshare drivers) who can now deduct vehicle interest while expensing their assets. It also helps dealerships manage inventory more efficiently.

RELATED: EV mandate killed in ‘biggest day of deregulation in American history’

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

EV rider

One of the most consequential changes, however, is the phase-out of federal electric vehicle tax credits. As of September 30, 2025, the long-standing subsidies that handed buyers $7,500 for new EVs and $4,000 for used EVs will be gone. For years, EV sales have been artificially boosted by taxpayer-funded incentives. That era is ending. Buyers who want an EV will now need to evaluate them on real-world value, just like gas-powered vehicles. U.S.-assembled EVs will still qualify for the auto loan interest deduction, but the days of federal handouts at the point of sale are coming to a quick end.

This change creates urgency. Dealers are moving EV inventory quickly before credits expire, while at the same time promoting the deduction for all qualifying vehicles. For buyers, the message is clear: If you want a subsidized EV, act quickly. If you want lasting tax savings, look to U.S.-assembled cars, trucks, or SUVs under the new deduction.

Because the auto loan deduction sunsets after 2028, buyers and dealers are preparing for a surge in purchases over the next two years. The goal is to drive a temporary spikes in auto sales; this incentive will create a wave of demand for a short period of time. The difference this time is that the benefit is tied to supporting American factories and workers, not just moving inventory off lots.

Straightforward steps

For buyers, the steps are straightforward. Confirm that your vehicle is new, assembled in the U.S., and purchased after December 31, 2024. Check income limits, work with your lender to ensure proper reporting, and keep the VIN on hand for tax filing. With interest rates high and the average new vehicle price pushing past $48,000, the potential savings are substantial. Over the course of a multiyear loan, some buyers could save thousands of dollars in taxes while keeping more of their household budget intact.

The law’s auto loan deduction is more than a line in the tax code. It rewards those who buy American, gives relief to the middle class, and reduces reliance on subsidies that distort the marketplace. For car buyers balancing inflation, high interest rates, and everyday expenses, it delivers something rare in Washington: practical help that makes life a little easier.

These cars meet the requirements for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act loan deduction.

Acura: Integra, MDX, RDX, TLX, ZDXBMW: X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, XMBuick: Enclave, Encore GX, EnvistaCadillac: Celestiq, CT4, CT5, Escalade, Escalade IQ, Lyriq, Vistiq, XT4, XT5, XT6Chevrolet: Colorado, Corvette, Express, Malibu, Silverado 1500, Silverado 2500, Silverado EV, Suburban, Tahoe, TraverseDodge: DurangoFord: Bronco, Escape, Expedition, Explorer, F-150, F-150 Lightning, Mustang, RangerGenesis: GV70, GV80GMC: Acadia, Canyon, Hummer EV SUT, Hummer EV SUV, Savana, Sierra 1500, Sierra 2500, Yukon, Yukon XLHonda: Accord, Civic, CR-V, Odyssey, Pilot, RidgelineHyundai: Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Tucson, Ioniq 5, Ioniq 9Jeep: Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Wagoneer, Grand Wagoneer, WranglerKia: EV6, EV9, Sorento, TellurideLincoln: Aviator, Corsair, NavigatorLucid: Air, GravityMazda: CX-50Mercedes-Benz: EQE SUV, EQS SUV, GLE, GLS, Sprinter 2500, Sprinter 3500Nissan: Altima, Frontier, Pathfinder, Rogue, LEAFPolestar 3Rivian: R1S, R1TSubaru: Ascent, Impreza, Legacy, OutbackTesla: Cybertruck, Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model XToyota: bZ4X, Camry, Corolla, Corolla Cross, Grand Highlander, Highlander, Sequoia, Sienna, TundraVolkswagen: Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport, ID.4Volvo: EX90, S60Heavy-Duty Vehicles (8,501–13,999 lbs GVWR)Ford: Super Duty F-250, Super Duty F-350 (SRW configurations), Transit 350 HDChevrolet: Express 3500, Silverado 3500HD (select configurations under 14,000 lbs)GMC: Savana 3500, Sierra 3500HD (select configurations under 14,000 lbs)

​Lifestyle, One big beautiful bill, Auto industry, Buy american, Align cars 

The image was unforgettable.

A grieving widow, standing before thousands, chose not to curse the darkness before her. Erika Kirk spoke words of grace instead of vengeance, forgiving the man who allegedly gunned down her husband. Days earlier in California, the family of slain pastor Felipe Ascencio had done the same, turning the other cheek even as sorrow filled the air.

This is not politics guided by conscience. It’s ideology married to contempt, unmoored from God, and unashamed of evil.

Two funerals. Two acts of radical mercy. In an age of rage, such restraint is astonishing.

Forgive, but resist

This deserves respect. In a culture where cruelty passes for cleverness and malice poses as morality, forgiveness stands out like a candle in the night. It is not weakness but strength, drawn from God and lived in public. It recalls Saint Stephen praying for his killers and Christ forgiving from the cross.

To forgive when the mob demands fury is its own form of defiance. It unsettles a culture addicted to vengeance. But forgiveness is not a shield. Mercy eases the wound, but it does not stop the next bullet.

That’s the truth conservatives must face.

We are not dealing with decent opponents who stumble now and then. We are dealing with a godless left that sees mercy as impotence. Leftists do not mourn their enemies; they mock them. Scroll through their comments after a killing — laughter, sneers, excuses. Watch their pundits explain why the victim had it coming.

This is not politics guided by conscience. It’s ideology married to contempt, unmoored from God, and unashamed of evil.

Forgiveness is holy. But when it’s met with ridicule, it signals that more blood can be spilled without cost. A movement that forgives but never fortifies will not survive. A church that turns the cheek but never guards the body will be broken. This age does not admire meekness; it exploits it. And those who delight in Charlie Kirk’s death will not be moved by hymns or prayers. They will be encouraged by them if nothing else follows.

So what next?

First, vigilance. Christians can no longer assume that sharing a country means sharing values. That illusion has been broken for years. Many Americans share a land, yet dream of different nations. In media, schools, and politics, hostility to faith, family, and country is open and unapologetic. The hatred is plain, and the influence is real.

To look away is to invite defeat.

Second, unity. The left thrives on division within the right, and too often it prevails. Grudges, disputes, and rivalries weaken those who should be standing shoulder to shoulder. A fractured right is an easy target.

RELATED: How Erika Kirk answered the hardest question of all

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Third, cultural strength. Politics follows culture, and culture is where the left has won most ground. Leftists control classrooms, newsrooms, and streaming services, the feeds in every young person’s pocket. They shape imaginations before ballots are ever cast. To counter this, those on the right cannot retreat into nostalgia. They must build schools that teach truth, create art that uplifts, and support media that speaks with honesty about faith, family, and country.

Culture shapes politics, and if culture is lost, the future is lost.

Fourth, law and governance. Forgiveness mends hearts, but law restrains hands. A society that refuses to punish evil guarantees more of it. Prayers for the dead are not enough. There must be laws that protect churches, policies that guard families, courts that resist ideological pressure. To love an enemy does not mean allowing him to wage war.

This is not a call to violence but a call to clarity.

Steadfast in mercy — and might

History shows that kindness alone cannot conquer wickedness. Rome admired the martyrs, yet still threw them to the lions. Emperors preached justice while crucifixions lined the roads. Popes spoke of humility while selling indulgences. Dictators praised virtue while locking believers in prisons. Across ages and empires, evil has never yielded to gentle words. It retreats only before courage, conviction, and steadfast resistance.

Forgive your enemy, but do not let him rule your household. Pray for his soul, but do not let his ideology shape your child’s classroom. Bless those who curse you, but do not hand them the levers of power they would use to curse your grandchildren.

Erika Kirk’s words lifted eyes to heaven and shamed a culture of retribution. But if her forgiveness is mistaken for a strategy, we will see more widows, more orphans, and more funerals. Forgiveness is a balm, not a barricade. The barricade must be built by all decent Americans — through faith, family, unity, vigilance, and cultural strength.

Two thousand years ago, Christ carried the cross and conquered death. Today, his followers are called to carry their own. Sometimes that means granting grace where none is earned. Sometimes it means resisting a culture sinking into decay.

Always, it means standing firm — steadfast in mercy, steady in might — until right overcomes wrong and heaven defeats hell.

​Forgiveness, Christianity, Christian mercy, Progressivism, Leftists, Christian, Erika kirk, Charlie kirk, Faith 

Could be some awkward times in Hollywood moving forward.

We recently saw nearly 4,000 Hollywood stars sign an open letter pledging to boycott Israeli-based film groups and productions. The who’s who of Hollywood included Emma Stone, Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, and many more.

Emma Watson became a star for one reason and one reason only — JK Rowling.

Now, roughly 1,200 actors are firing back.

A group including Debra Messing, Mayim Bialik, Liev Schreiber, Gene Simmons, and Howie Mandel signed a dueling open letter attacking that cultural boycott.

“We know the power of film. We know the power of story. That is why we cannot stay silent when a story is turned into a weapon, when lies are dressed up as justice, and when artists are misled into amplifying anti-Semitic propaganda.”

Imagine if some of these warring factions meet on a film or TV set moving forward. Yikes …

Sorry not sorry

Jimmy Kimmel is back after falsely claiming MAGA killed conservative icon Charlie Kirk. You’d think with all that “free speech” he’s once again enjoying, he could’ve spared a few words for a sincere apology.

After all, Kimmel didn’t like it when Aaron Rodgers falsely alleged that he might be on a certain pedophile’s list.

In fact, as Megyn Kelly points out, Kimmel lectured the NFL star on his manners for never saying he was sorry.

“And when I do get something wrong, which happens on rare occasions, you know what I do? I apologize for it. Which is what Aaron Rodgers should do, which is what a decent person would do.”

Good advice all around. We’re waiting, Mr. Kimmel.

RELATED: Mission: Impossible (to sit through); Final Dud-stination; RIP Joe Don Baker

Mike Malloy/Damon Packard/Cinerama/Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images

Moranis plays ‘Balls’

You can’t keep a good Dark Helmet down.

Rick Moranis, the Canadian comic who brought the Darth Vader-esque villain to life in 1987’s “Spaceballs,” is ending his semi-retirement.

He’ll play Dark Helmet once more for the “Spaceballs” sequel, set for a 2027 release. The studio behind the film sent out a black-and-white cast photo, not unlike the still that triggered the media machine behind 2015’s “The Force Awakens.”

This time, the photo features returning franchise stars like Daphne Zuniga, Bill Pullman, and, of course, Moranis.

The busy actor took a knee on his Hollywood career following the death of his wife, Ann Belsky, from breast cancer. Being a dad took top priority, and he mostly left Hollywood behind. He’s done a modest amount of acting work since then, including voice-over appearances. The “Spaceballs” sequel will be his biggest gig in years.

Let’s hope the comedy sequel is more “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and less “Caddyshack II” …

He’s a man, man!

Media outlets have spent years telling us who the next 007 will be. It was never based on, you know, actual facts, just rumors, wish-casting, and clickbait.

That’s journalism in 2025! (Hard news coverage is no better.)

Now, we’re getting our first real information about the next James Bond. It’s … no one you’ve ever heard of. Ta-dah!

Director Denis Villeneuve and his team crave a “fresh face,” AKA an unknown star, to step into the iconic role. That’s the best news out of 007-ville in some time. The only other clues? The next Bond will be male and British.

Dylan Mulvaney need not apply.

Millions of woke voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced …

JK ok with Emma

Don’t call it a comeback. Maybe just a backpedal.

Emma Watson became a star for one reason and one reason only — J.K. Rowling. The British author wrote the “Harry Potter” books, and Watson snagged the role of Hermione for the movie adaptation back in 2001.

It’s that simple.

Yet, when Rowling dared to disagree with the actor on some trans-related issues, Watson indirectly scorched her views on social media. So did some of her “Harry Potter” cast mates.

That was then — 2020 — when the woke mind virus rampaged Hollywood and elsewhere. Post a black square for BLM … or else.

Now, Watson is singing a more sympathetic tune.

I really don’t believe that by having had that experience and holding the love and support and views that I have means that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with. … It’s my deepest wish that people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.

With age comes wisdom. It’s also safer to praise Rowling today following woke’s significant decline and the author’s refusal to bow to the cancel culture mob.

That’s courage, Hollywood-style.

​Hollywood, Culture, Entertainment, Jk rowling, James bond, Toto recall 

We were promised a “green” utopia, free of fossil fuels, powered by sunshine and breezes. However, the net-zero hobbits living in this imaginary Shire were blissfully ignorant of hard realities dictated by physics, engineering, and economics.

Once trumpeted by corporate giants and governments alike, the vision of a world without greenhouse gas emissions is crumbling. It’s pseudoscience coupled with false assurances incapable of sustaining the weight of one reality after another. Major airlines, energy companies, and financial institutions are abandoning net-zero commitments that were always destined to clash with the demands of business imperatives and people’s needs.

Becoming mainstream again is the understanding that affordable and reliable energy, prosperity, and human freedom are inextricably linked — a non-negotiable connection.

Anti-fossil fuel crusaders assured the public that jet travel could be reshaped through “green” fuel and futuristic aircraft. But in 2024, Air New Zealand shattered that illusion by declaring its 2030 emissions target impossible to achieve.

Another blow to the green version of a Middle-earth fantasy came from Airbus, which pushed into never-never land fantasies with its plans to deliver a hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035.

The necessary technology simply does not exist — neither for airplanes nor so-called sustainable fuels in commercial quantities.

The airline industry’s capitulation is not an isolated incident. It’s a major domino falling in a long line of corporate and governmental U-turns signaling a great awakening.

Over the past 24 months, major banks and investment firms have staged an exodus from climate alliances, no longer willing to bear the costs or regulatory risks of practices that discriminate against enterprises such as traditional energy companies.

The Net-Zero Banking Alliance, once a beacon of green aspirations, has lost some of its largest members, including HSBC and UBS, and all the largest U.S. banks, among them J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup.

The climate industrial complex, through its organs at the United Nations, sought to impose anti-fossil fuel goals on the global shipping industry via the International Maritime Organization. However, in 2025, the United States took a bold stand by formally opposing the IMO’s position.

Across the Atlantic, Scotland made headlines in April 2024 by abandoning its ambitious target to cut emissions by 75% by 2030. At Germany’s Munich Motor Show in 2025, Stellantis — parent company of brands like Jeep, Peugeot, and Vauxhall — declared it would no longer aim to produce only electric vehicles by 2030.

The company called the European Union’s 2035 zero-emission mandate “unrealistic.” Others have cut back or canceled production of EVs, most recently Acura’s ZDX, which was sent packing shortly after the Japanese manufacturer and General Motors ended a joint EV venture.

RELATED: Trump’s climate policy shift could save American farmers from disaster

Photo by JamesBrey via Getty Images

The Science-Based Targets initiative was supposed to be the gold-standard arbiter of net-zero commitments. Yet energy giants like Shell, BP, and Enbridge have quit advisory groups linked to the Science-Based Targets initiative, recalibrating their strategies toward pragmatism in the development of oil and natural gas. BP, for example, slashed future spending on net-zero ventures while upping investments in traditional hydrocarbons by nearly 20%.

All these reversals share a common cause: the profound disconnect between activist goals and economic reality. On paper, it sounds charitable to promise emissions cuts and decarbonized operations by mid-century. However, these pledges assume nonexistent technology, rely on unaffordable energy sources, and require disruption to economic activity that no rational executive team can tolerate. Financial institutions have realized that lending to developers and users of fossil fuels is vital for national security, especially in times of geopolitical uncertainty. Oil and natural gas continue to be essential for infrastructure, industrial processes, and the daily lives of billions. “Green” lending strategies that sounded good at climate summits failed to deliver returns under market pressure.

Becoming mainstream again is the understanding that affordable and reliable energy, prosperity, and human freedom are inextricably linked — a non-negotiable connection. The great climate scare is not ending with a bang, but with quiet, commonsense calculations.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Net zero, Carbon emissions, Carbon footprint, Green energy, Climate change 

At least one person has died and 9 others were injured in a mass shooting at a church in Michigan on Sunday morning, according to local authorities.

The fatal shooting occurred at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, a suburb of Flint, Michigan.

‘THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!’

The Grand Blanc Police Department said in a statement, “[There] has been an active shooter at the church of Latter Day Saints on McCandlish Rd. There are multiple victims and the shooter is down.”

The police department noted that the church is “actively on fire.”

The Grand Blanc Police Department stressed, “There is NO threat to the public at this time.”

Citing Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye, CNN reported: “A gunman drove his car into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and opened fire on congregants during a large service.”

USA Today reported, “He then exited the vehicle and fired ‘several rounds’ at people inside the church, Renye said at an afternoon news conference.”

Renye added that responding officers “engaged in gunfire” with the shooting suspect and said, “That suspect is no longer with us.”

Citing the police chief, USA Today reported that the suspect “is believed to have deliberately set the fire” at the Michigan church.

RELATED: Two ‘MONSTERS’ arrested in shooting of children’s baseball coach were granted citizenship under Biden, DHS says

Multiple reports stated that nine victims suffered gunshot wounds and were rushed to local hospitals.

According to USA Today, the church was “engulfed in flames” and police expect that there will be more victims.

Paul Kirby, an alleged victim of the church shooting, told the New York Times that it was the “scaredest I’ve ever been,” noting that it sounded like an explosion when the vehicle collided with the place of worship.

“When he went outside to help, he said he saw a man about 10 to 20 yards away from him getting out of his truck and starting to fire at people,” the New York Times reported. “He said a bullet went through the glass door beside him and a piece of shrapnel hit his leg. He then ran inside, gathered his family and others, and ran out the back of the church.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck stated on the church shooting in Michigan: “Evil feels unleashed, with bloodshed now a daily sorrow. We mourn with all who mourn. Yet I hold fast: evil never wins. Christ will bring ultimate justice and reign in peace. May He find us worthy. May He save the Republic.”

President Donald Trump reacted by saying, “I have been briefed on the horrendous shooting that took place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Grand Blanc, Michigan. … The Trump Administration will keep the Public posted, as we always do. In the meantime, PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”

Vice President JD Vance stated on the X social media platform, “Just an awful situation in Michigan. FBI is on the scene and the entire administration is monitoring things. Say a prayer for the victims and first responders.”

“We are heartbroken,” Grand Blanc Township Supervisor Scott Bennett said at a Sunday news conference. “This kind of violence doesn’t happen in our community, and we are heartbroken that it came to Grand Blanc Township. And we’re going to do everything we can to support the families, the victims, and our community getting through this situation.”

The investigation included members of the local police, Michigan State Police, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Shooting, Mass shooting, Church shooting, Michigan shooting, Michigan church shooting, Donald trump, Jd vance, Crime 

Why is human life valuable?

Alex O’Connor, an online atheist whose popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, recently said this: “I call myself an ethical emotivist, by which I mean that I think ethical statements — statements like ‘Murder is wrong’, ‘Charity is good’, or ‘You shouldn’t steal’ — are expressions of emotional attitudes, and nothing more. They are not objective truth-claims.”

What Christianity provides, and atheism lacks, is an objective standard that can be universally held up to defend human life.

O’Connor, by all accounts, is an upstanding member of society. Not only does he not kill or steal, but he has become famous for treating his debate opponents with respect, especially in comparison to famous atheist polemicists like Christopher Hitchens. He should be applauded for that.

But in his morally relativistic view, human life is only as valuable as his emotions, or anyone else’s emotions, permit.

Tyler Robinson, the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk, had a very different set of emotions from Alex O’Connor. Whatever respect O’Connor subjectively chooses to show for human beings, Robinson allegedly chose the opposite. Robinson allegedly believed — subjectively — that the value of human life ended where his political resentments began.

If you’re Alex O’Connor, what would you say to a political assassin? How would you convince him that he’s wrong to devalue human life?

Objectively, you couldn’t. Because O’Connor doesn’t think the statement “human life has value” is objectively true, but rather a matter of personal tastes. Even if he personally finds Robinson’s alleged views and actions repugnant, he couldn’t point to any objective standard to justify that.

The trouble with atheism isn’t that atheists personally live immoral lives. Everyone has met atheists who are good spouses, good parents, and good citizens. The problem is that atheism can’t provide an objective defense to the proposition that all human life should be valued by everybody all the time.

According to atheist Richard Dawkins, “We are survival machines — robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”

People discard machines routinely without any thought at all — laptops, phones, iPads, cars, and many other things. Drive down to the local junkyard and look at the decaying and forgotten corpses of old Toyota Camrys. No one mourns them, no one gave them a funeral, no one had moral qualms about throwing them away.

If Dawkins’ description of human beings as “survival machines” and “robot vehicles blindly programmed” is accurate, then why would human beings be any different from those Toyota Camrys?

Atheism has no answer to that question — but Christianity does.

RELATED: Why atheism can’t explain the one thing that matters

AlessandroPhoto/iStock/Getty Images Plus

In his landmark work “Theology of the Body,” Pope John Paul II said this:

Man, whom God created male and female, bears the divine image imprinted on his body “from the beginning.”

This is a restatement of Genesis 1:26, which is the foundation of Christian anthropology. In this verse, God declares: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Man has objective dignity because man bears the divine image.

Romans 5:8 goes on to say: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” This shows that even serious moral failings do not eliminate the objective dignity of a human being.

“Dignitas Infinita,” a Vatican document released in 2024 and approved by Pope Francis, further states that “every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter.”

If Christianity is true, then God is the author of truth itself. And if God is the author of truth itself, and he has assigned infinite dignity to all human beings, then that dignity is a universal truth not dependent on the emotions or whims of any person.

Of course, this does not guarantee that Christians will live by that. Many so-called Christians have warped ideas of what their faith demands. Some use it as a cloak for their political ideology. Vance Boelter, who allegedly murdered former Minnesota Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, seemingly had no respect for human life.

But what Christianity provides, and atheism lacks, is an objective standard that can be universally held up to defend human life against anyone who threatens it. It provides an objective way to say “Tyler Robinson is wrong,” instead of “I personally don’t like what Tyler Robinson [allegedly] did.”

This matters deeply at the societal level, and the data bears it out.

According to Pew Research, in 1972, 90% of U.S. adults identified as Christians, while 5% identified as religiously unaffiliated. By 2022, the percentage of Christians had shrunk to 63% while the religiously unaffiliated percentage had risen to 29%. This is mirrored in other Western countries, often even more precipitously: 90% of Canadians in 1971 identified as Christian, according to census data, with only 4% identifying as non-religious. By 2021, the Christian percentage was just 52% and the non-religious percentage had risen to 34%.

Of course, “religiously unaffiliated” or “non-religious” are nebulous terms that might not refer to atheism in the strictest sense, but at best, they refer to a vague and subjective worldview that, like atheism, allows for someone to assign his own subjective morality, or lack thereof.

The effects of this shift can be seen with the explosion of abortions in the U.S. that coincided with the acceleration of secularism in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortions skyrocketed from 744,000 in 1973, the year Roe v. Wade was handed down, to a peak of 1.6 million in 1990, and to this day they remain well above the 1973 levels, though they have mercifully declined in recent years.

Euthanasia has gained immense popularity in the secular age as well. A horrifying report in the Atlantic — hardly a conservative publication — described how Canadians of all walks of life are requesting doctors to kill them in order to end some form of physical or emotional suffering they are experiencing.

In fact, under Canada’s euthanasia law, mental illness alone will be sufficient for eligibility by 2027 to terminate one’s own life with the help of doctors.

Mass shootings have dramatically increased as secularism has spread. While humans have been killing each other since the fall of man, such killing has usually had a clear motive of some kind: defeating another nation in battle or seeking some form of regime change.

Mass shootings, however, represent a nihilistic form of violence apparently driven by narcissism that has no clear precedent in human history. According to the Violence Project, there were only five mass shootings between 1965 and 1969, but that number rose to 33 between 2015 and 2019 — a shocking increase of over 600%.

Nearly everyone condemns mass shootings, though unfortunately, the same cannot be said about abortion or euthanasia.

But in an atheistic paradigm, can that condemnation be based on anything other than personal emotions, as O’Connor admits his opposition to murder is based on?

RELATED: How the godless elite let the truth slip about atheism

Viktor Aheiev/iStock/Getty Images Plus

As people increasingly treat the value of human life as subjective, consistent with O’Connor’s “emotivist” view, it seems that more and more people are willing to subjectively insert exceptions into their worldview — situations where life can, in fact, be discarded like an old Toyota Camry.

Does this prove Christianity? Not by itself. Just because something would be helpful if it were true doesn’t mean it’s true.

But at the very least, it should make people open to hearing the arguments for Christianity. It should make people want it to be true, and it should move them to investigate the evidence for why it might be. Many people dislike religion and plug their ears when the topic comes up. But the alternative is too dark to just casually accept without any consideration.

Why is human life valuable? In today’s chaotic age, a subjective answer to that question is simply not enough.

​Atheism, Tyler robinson, Christianity, Christian, Charlie kirk, Charlie kirk assassination, Alex o’connor, Faith 

The world is engaged in a spiritual battle, which Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck and Catholic YouTuber Taylor Marshall believe requires immediate action — and not through a political avenue.

“The biggest failure of our time is that Christianity has become more political or more social. And it’s not an interior renewal. It’s not an encounter with Jesus Christ risen from the dead. And ‘How do I live for you daily?’” Marshall tells Glenn.

“It’s too casual,” Glenn agrees, noting that many people are held in high esteem within the church despite their clearly incompatible views.

“In my church, there was Harry Reid. He was for abortion. How the hell does that work?” he asks.

“Part of the problem is, because of original sin and our concupiscence in our flesh, we’re all in a battle ourselves, right? We’re all tempted towards evil, selfishness, power grabs, control. Natural man is an enemy of God,” Marshall says.

“That’s one of the things we’ve lost in Christianity is the concept of war, battle, spiritual struggle … we need to get back to this understanding that we are in a spiritual battle and our enemies are not principally other people,” he continues.

“Our enemies are the dark evil principalities. The demons, the diabolical. That is ultimately what we are fighting against,” he adds.

And with this understanding, Marshall believes it’s time to really “unite.”

“Not just in a generic way, ‘unite,’ but we need to unite structurally,” he says.

“I mean, think of like, the Republican Party. We’re 45,000 different groups. Nothing, I mean, nothing gets done anyway, but nothing would for sure get done. There needs to be a unity. There needs to be a Christendom,” he explains.

“And as a Catholic, I think this is the way forward,” he adds.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Free, Sharing, Upload, Video, Video phone, Youtube.com, The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Spiritual warfare, Taylor marshall, Demons, Demonic, Spiritual battle, Jesus christ, Religion, Original sin, Glenn beck podcast, Harry reid, Abortion, Politics, Conservatives, Conservative podcast 

Charlie Kirk’s memorial service was wasn’t just a remembrance — it was a revelation.

The memorial service was Christian nationalism in nascent, immature form. Not everyone who spoke was a Christian — and Christian nationalism does not require that. Yet what stood out most was that even people who do not share Charlie’s faith in Jesus showed open respect for the gospel. Everyone at the service was operating under the Christian gaze.

As the left grows more openly hostile to Christian belief, the right is becoming more consistently Christian.

The truth is this: We cannot make America great again without making America Christian again, which in turn means making America biblical again.

MAGA needs MACA and MABA.

No neutral ground

For too long, Republicans spoke in vague religious clichés, paying lip service to an undefined faith in a nameless god. But Kirk’s memorial service was different. We saw speaker after speaker dare to define his faith in explicitly Christian terms.

This marks a seismic shift in a very short period of time. At the memorial, civil magistrates openly proclaimed the lordship of Christ as public truth. Media influencers called on us to repent of our particular sins particularly. A new widow forgave her husband’s alleged killer, in accord with Jesus’ teaching, and civil magistrates promised to use their power to terrorize evildoers, in accord with Romans 13.

As the left grows more openly hostile to Christian belief, the right is becoming more consistently Christian.

The lines are more clearly drawn than ever before. Both the service itself and the events of the last two weeks illustrate this reality.

Perhaps the most important part of the memorial was that Charlie Kirk’s legacy was accurately portrayed. Charlie consistently emphasized the cultural, political, and civilizational impact of Christian faith. Unlike many pastors, he was willing to connect the dots, linking his Christian beliefs to every sphere of life: economics, marriage and family, immigration and nationhood, limited government, and more.

For him, the Christian faith was not a private set of religious ideas but a comprehensive system of truth that works in the real world. He challenged people (especially college students) with a biblical worldview, demonstrating that Christian faith offers coherent and compelling answers to both the pressing personal and political questions of the day.

That conviction came through in the memorial service, and for that I am grateful.

Third-wayism fails

It’s now becoming painfully obvious that the “third-wayism” of so many “Big Eva” leaders has been exposed as untenable.

Third-wayism treats both sides of the political spectrum as morally equivalent, with each side getting some things right and other things wrong. Third-wayism advocates attempt to remain neutral, in order to avoid controversy and causing offense.

But in reality, there is no middle ground between progressive/secular and conservative/Christian political commitments. Those who want to avoid the culture war will still be drawn into it — just on the wrong side.

Third-wayists try to stay above the fray, but in doing so they actually compromise with evil. Because they insist on balancing left and right, if the left radicalizes and moves farther left, the third-wayist must also shift leftward in order to remain in the “middle.” In the process, third-way advocates end up justifying extreme progressive positions simply to maintain their supposed neutrality.

They are constantly chasing an Overton window that keeps moving leftward.

RELATED: How JD Vance exposed the convenient theology of progressive Christians

JimLarkin/iStock/Getty Images Plus

At its core, third-wayism attempts to treat progressivism as equally compatible with the Christian faith as conservatism. It’s true that there exists a kind of Christ-less conservatism that reduces faith to cultural nostalgia or civic religion. This kind of “bar-stool conservatism” should be critiqued and rejected. But in general, conservative positions overlap with biblical truth, whereas progressive positions stand as its direct antithesis.

Conservative, or traditional, Christian theology simply cannot mix with progressive politics any more than oil can mix with water.

Third-wayism is not humility or evangelistic wisdom. Rather, it’s a form of the fear of man disguised as humility. It seeks to ingratiate itself with the left — never to the right. It’s surrender rather than engagement, following rather than leading. It lacks substance and depth. It has no coherent political philosophy of its own. Its positions are dictated by how far to the left the progressive zeitgeist is willing to go. Third-wayists are easily manipulated precisely because of their refusal to take a firm stand. The third-wayist cannot draw a line in the sand.

The third-wayism dynamic, therefore, produces the familiar “coddle the left, punch the right” tendency, where progressive evils are gently excused while conservative shortcomings are harshly condemned. It assumes there is neutrality in the culture war when, in reality, there is none.

The third-wayist paradigm that has dominated the church in recent decades has allowed the culture to keep moving leftward without resistance. It never actually fights the battles that most need to be fought.

Christian faith, however, is not a private sentiment that can remain above political conflict.

Christ or chaos

The Christian faith is a fighting faith. It’s a civilization-building, culture-transforming faith. It claims to be public truth, rooted in hard-edged historical fact. It’s inherently political because it makes demands on rulers and the ruled alike. It includes an ethic that governs all of life, including political life.

America is dividing between those who embrace a consistently Christian vision of life and those who oppose it.

When King David commanded the kings of the earth to “kiss the Son,” there was no third way. When the apostles proclaimed “Jesus is Lord,” they were not splitting the difference between competing political poles. When Jesus said all authority in heaven and earth belong to him, he left no middle ground. When Christians say that life in the womb must be protected, there is no third option; the baby will either live or be murdered. When Christians say men are men and women are women, there is no place for the third-wayist to run and hide from the truth.

The gospel does not call us to neutrality. It calls us to allegiance. Third-wayism, by pretending otherwise, only serves to mask compromise as virtue. Third-wayism is a denial of Jesus’ lordship.

Charlie’s legacy is at the heart of this moment. Charlie never took the third way. He took the Christian way. He refused to compromise with the madness and folly of the left. Charlie’s ministry and martyrdom are a sign that the time for fence-sitting is over.

The lines are drawn.

America is dividing into two camps: one that bows to Christ and one that rages against him. The future belongs to those who have the courage to say what Charlie Kirk said with his life — that Christian faith is not optional if we want a civilization worth living in. America is dividing between those who embrace a consistently Christian vision of life and those who oppose it.

Which side are you on? Only two options are on the table — not three.

The memorial service revealed something profound: a clear contrast between two moral and spiritual visions of America and the need for courage in identifying with the one that aligns with biblical truth rather than cowardly compromise. Charlie embodied that courage, and his legacy continues to press the church and the nation toward a faith that is not abstract but applied — a faith that shapes culture, politics, economics, and civilization itself.

The memorial marked more than the remembrance of one man. It revealed a cultural realignment that Charlie helped bring about. His courage in connecting Christian faith to every dimension of life is the kind of legacy that points the way forward.

​Charlie kirk, Charlie kirk legacy, Christianity, Christian, Jesus christ, God, Bible, Faith 

I have one short story to share about Charlie Kirk, my friend.

He became a friend of mine because I interrogated him one time. Nineteen-year-olds are my specialty. I asked him some questions he couldn’t answer. And he was already becoming famous. And I noticed his reaction. He asked, “What should I do?”

And I said: Well, you have to suffer. If you want to grow, you have to suffer. It’s hard to learn — into the night, crack of dawn in the morning. Start with the Bible. Read the classics. Study the founding of America. In those places you will find that there’s a ladder that reaches up toward God. And at the bottom of it are the ordinary good things that are around us everywhere. If we can call them by their names — they have being, and the beings of the good things are figments of God. You will find that article in Aristotle. You will find it in the Bible. You will find it in Madison and Jefferson.

“How do I learn that?” he asked. I answered, “You have to suffer. You have to study. You have to think.” I thought I’d never hear from him again.

I keep a list in my head of the six or eight young people who are the best I ever saw. Charlie is the only one on that list who was never a full-time student at Hillsdale College.

Within a month, he got hold of my cell phone number, and he texted me a copy of a certificate of completion of a Hillsdale College online course. He would go on to do that 31 times.

I keep a list in my head of the six or eight young people who are the best I ever saw — and I’m very privileged that I get to know many inspiring young people. Charlie is the only one on that list who was never a full-time student at Hillsdale College.

We will miss him dearly. He can’t be replaced.

Just like I told Charlie years ago, a good thing is a thing that has being. An assassin is not a thing that has being. The assassin must give up his humanity to destroy something that has being. Charlie lives on. The assassin will die.

RELATED: How Charlie Kirk’s life shows the power of self-education

Photo by Michael Ho Wai Lee/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

My wife and I have set up a scholarship in the hope that Charlie’s children will go to a good college. I have one in mind. And this May 9, we at Hillsdale College are going to give Charlie and Erika the greatest respect a college can give: an honorary degree.

Charlie has suffered enough. He’s gone to the Lord. He deserves his reward.

Editors’ note: These remarks were delivered at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday, September 21, and were originally published at the American Mind.

​Opinion & analysis 

Fort Worth city councilwoman Elizabeth Beck decided to mock Charlie Kirk’s death in an Instagram post, so BlazeTV host Alex Stein sent his secret weapon — his girlfriend, Paige, also known as “Pre-Paid Wireless” — to call out Beck’s disgusting actions.

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Beck immediately went to Instagram to post a story making fun of the Turning Point USA founder and point out that he supported the Second Amendment.

And Paige — along with many other Texans — is not happy about it.

“Hi, my name is Paige,” Paige began in the city council meeting. “Honestly, it feels like there’s no point in trying to reason with people who are so soulless and so far gone that they openly mock the tragic assassination of someone that they don’t agree with.”

“But the two city council members who did just that need to be publicly shamed and know that this type of behavior will not be accepted in this country. But you know, one of the best parts of social media is that it shows you who people really are,” she continued.

“And hate-filled leftists can’t help but to post every thought they have online, exposing how they truly feel about people who don’t agree with them. Councilwoman Beck quickly took to her Instagram after it was announced Charlie Kirk had been shot and posted ‘unfortunate’ with an out-of-context quote from Charlie Kirk about the Second Amendment on her story,” she added.

Paige went on to explain that the councilwoman made it “clear that if you support the Second Amendment and are tragically killed by a mentally ill man with a transgender boyfriend, that you deserved what happened to you.”

But that’s not all Paige exposed.

Paige also called out Beck for allegedly calling the volleyball coach “a white, skinny, dumb b***h” for not letting her daughter join the volleyball team after missing tryouts.

“Are you starting to see how these people operate?” she asked, adding, “They will call you names such as racist, bigot, white supremacist even if you don’t give them their way.”

Want more from Alex Stein?

To enjoy more of Alex’s culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Free, Upload, Video, Camera phone, Sharing, Youtube.com, Prime time with alex stein, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Charlie kirk, Charlie kirk murder, Charlie kirk assassination, Charlie kirk leftist reaction, Leftism, Evil, Leftist mocks charlie kirk, Alex stein girlfriend 

About a month ago, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference to announce that about “1.6 million illegal immigrants have left the United States population.”

That’s a fraction of the number of people who arrived in the years that the Biden administration essentially opened the border. But it’s a lot of people, and it engendered much eye-rolling among journalists who compared Noem’s claim to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s declaration that President Trump’s drug interdiction policies had saved 258 million lives, roughly 75% of the U.S. total population.

The foreign-born population in the US declined from 53.3 million at the beginning of the year to 51.9 million by the end of June — a decline of 1.4 million in just six months.

However, in the weeks since Noem’s announcement, several data points have since emerged that suggest her estimate may be reasonably accurate. It might even be too low.

Numbers don’t lie

In August, the Pew Research Center estimated that the U.S. foreign-born population dropped from 53.3 million at the beginning of the year to 51.9 million by the end of June — a decline of 1.4 million in just six months. The Pew report noted that the January count of 53.3 million was “the largest number ever recorded” and that the decline this year will be the first decline in the immigrant population since the 1960s.

About the same time, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that the foreign-born population fell by 2.2 million in the first seven months of the year. The center estimates that 1.6 million of those who left were in the country illegally. If this estimate is correct, it would indicate that about 600,000 immigrants left, despite having the option legally to stay.

The center’s report indicates that it relied in part on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks the number of foreign-born workers. The bureau’s data shows that the number of foreign-born workers peaked in March at 32.2 million, before falling to 30.8 million by August — a decline of 1.4 million. Even so, the level remains historically high, and numbers appeared to stabilize in late summer.

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office updated its demographic projections, based on changes in immigration patterns and enforcement since the beginning of the year. It lowered its projection for the population in 2055 from 372 million to 367 million. The current population is about 350 million, so their projection suggests that the U.S. will add only 17 million new residents over the next 30 years. That will be the slowest population growth in the country’s history.

RELATED: American jobs first: Hefty new H-1B visa fee will likely curb legal immigration, especially from India

Photo by filo via Getty Images

The Congressional Budget Office also projects that natural population growth (births minus deaths) will turn negative in 2031. At that point, any population growth will be almost entirely dependent on incoming immigrants. (Longer life spans play a minor role in such projections.) The office’s numbers still assume growth from immigration this year and in subsequent years. That certainly seems unlikely, at least for this year, given all the preliminary data showing that many immigrants have already left the country.

If the U.S. population declines this year, it will be only the second time in the nation’s history. The only other time was in 2021, at the height of the COVID pandemic.

Uncharted territory

There will be those who decry a lower population trajectory as a calamity and others who celebrate it as a blessing. But the truth is that we are in uncharted territory. Classical economic theory holds that the change in economic activity is the sum of the changes in population and productivity, implying that a population decline will lead to economic contraction.

However, many argue that there are conditions today that distort the classical theory. These include the negative impacts of a dysfunctional immigration system, declines in the proclivity of immigrants to assimilate, and a potential massive increase in productivity driven by technology, especially AI.

In other words, all these opinions about the advantages or disadvantages of slower population growth, or perhaps even a population that is declining, are nothing but speculation at this point. For 250 years, companies, institutions, governments, policymakers, and investors have been basing decisions on the assumption that our population will continue to grow each year. At a minimum, this new trajectory will require a major reset of those long-standing assumptions.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Immigration crisis, Immigration enforcement, Immigration, Border patrol, Border enforcement, Border crisis, Immigration and customs enforcement, Pew research center 

While we were in the throes of babies and toddlers, pregnancies and postpartums, my husband would often walk through the door after work with groceries, pour me wine, and hold the baby in one arm while he made dinner with the other. I remember on some days being too exhausted to reciprocate with much except an ardent feeling and expression of gratitude to him, for him. That image of him still stands in my mind as the image of heroic manliness.

Another good father and husband we know once said that when he arrives home, he says to himself, “It’s showtime.” It’s his way of reminding himself that the crux of his day belongs to the moment he comes home from work and crosses the threshold into home. Rather than collapse on a sofa with beer and TV and be done for the day, he intended instead to bring his greatest efforts to his home life. What these anecdotes exemplify is a proper ordering of work and home that translates into specific small acts of love that echo throughout the family.

For too long we’ve repeated the cultural lore in movies and media about the domineering and distant man and the oppressed and under-actualized woman.

The good of home

To say that home ought to have primacy over work for men and women is not to say work is unimportant or that we shouldn’t develop professional skills or seek to advance careers. A job doesn’t need to be seen strictly as a means to an end; it can be a good in itself insofar as it is ennobling and sanctifying, and care should be taken to ensure it be done well. But it is a subordinate good to the good of home. Home isn’t a mere launch pad for a man’s success in the world — rather his success in the world is for the sake of home.

If a man sees his work life as a parallel good, divorced from the good of home, the two disparate goods will tend to become rivalrous, for the family wants from the father what is the family’s due: to have a significance in his eyes greater than that of his career.

It’s not difficult to see how these two goods become inverted. Twenty-first-century Americans look to career for so much: an identity, the expression of some core passion, a measure of success and worth, a measure of where we stand in relation to others. It’s a compelling part of life, and the cultural stoking of its importance has coincided with the modern attenuation of home life.

These ambient messages grease the slide for us all to descend into an exaggerated view of work at the expense of home. Compounding that is the unavoidable fact that jobs often include deadlines and pressure that can understandably (and sometimes justifiably) claim a more immediate urgency than that of home life. All of this creates a tendency to subvert home for work, even without an explicit intention to do so.

Domino effect

But there are good reasons to be wary of such a tendency. When men fail to privilege home above work, as expressed in how they live each day, it has a domino effect on the family, and therefore society, in several ways.

Firstly, the husband can grow to see his family as a burden getting in the way of his higher purpose, which is his career. He begins to see his principal identity as derived from work and his primary relationships that of employer and employee. Home then starts to adopt similar characteristics; his family may be subconsciously reduced to the equivalent of employees in his charge.

Secondly, the mother’s mission is trivialized. She begins to sense her own work at home is not their common life’s work but merely her burden to endure in service of a higher mission that is his alone and to which she has not acquiesced. If work is a separate and vying good from home, it’s more natural that she begins to want that separate good for herself even at the expense of home life, which now has diminished in value for her as well.

Thirdly, their unity of purpose dissolves. The often tedious work of home is elevating and ennobling when acknowledged by both husband and wife as a taking part in an extolled good, valuable in itself and for the sake of their ultimate end of beatitude. Without this unity of purpose, these duties seem merely menial and heavy — and merely menial and heavy work will quickly feel suffocating and oppressive for whoever shoulders it. Resentment calcifies like a tumor as husband and wife become competitors rather than allies.

RELATED: Rob Konrad: Former Dolphin who swam for his family

Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images

Finally, there are repercussions for society that might be obvious but are worth spelling out. Sons will learn about manhood and daughters about their worth in the eyes of men in large part based upon the axis on which a father orients his life. Both will begin to understand God’s love through their father. Far less than their father’s job promotion, children will remember how he prioritized their mom and them in the small details that make up the composition of their childhood. It’s not the work of one evening or a trip to Disneyland, but it’s the quiet, persevering work of a lifetime. This work, cheerfully and generously done, will reverberate into society and future generations. The neglect of it will as well.

Ordinary love story

The stories we tell as a culture about the dynamics between husband and wife matter. When men and women are united in giving pre-eminence to home, the story can be one of families working in concert, with generosity and gratitude exchanged back and forth in a currency that multiplies with each and every exchange. It’s the story of ordinary people living their quiet shared purpose, a purpose that saturates their hearts and inclines their wills toward God and one another. This love story is transformative and extraordinary precisely because of the seemingly everyday subjects and acts that constitute its operations.

For too long we’ve repeated the cultural lore in movies and media about the domineering and distant man and the oppressed and under-actualized woman, both wanting to break from the tedium of middle-class values. The modern response to this story of dissatisfaction has been that we’ve valued home too much and at too great an expense. What this critique fails to see is that when home feels like a prison, it’s not because we’ve given it too much importance but because we’ve given it far too little.

This essay originally appeared in the Family Revival Substack.

​Family, Fatherhood, Men and women, Greatness, Lifestyle 

Shortly before 10 p.m. ET on Saturday, shots rang out in Southport, North Carolina, a seaside community 50 miles east-northeast of Myrtle Beach. Video provided to Blaze News by Duncan Grey Baker shows law enforcement saying at least three people are dead and multiple additional victims are injured. According to Baker, who is on the scene, the suspected gunman fled the scene by boat, and the Coast Guard and other law enforcement vessels are in pursuit.

According to a Facebook post by the City of Southport, a shelter-in-place order was issued at 9:53 p.m. local time. The post said the shooting took place in the Southport Yacht Basin.

— (@)

Further video shot by Baker shows victims being transported to a staging facility and the massive police presence on the scene.

— (@)

— (@)

Citing a conversation with Southport City Manager Noah Saldo, the Wilmington StarNews reported that “a boat pulled up to the American Fish Company restaurant and fired into the crowd. Then the boat took off, he said. He confirmed that several people were taken to the hospital.”

This is a developing story.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Mass shooting, North carolina, Southport, Crime 

Let’s dive into a driving-related danger you’ve probably never considered: brake dust.

That gritty, black buildup on your wheels isn’t just an eyesore — it’s also a health hazard. New research is pulling back the curtain on how this stuff is quietly damaging our respiratory systems. Buckle up — this is worth your attention.

EVs and hybrids don’t get a free pass, either — regenerative braking reduces pad wear, but extra weight means even more dust when the brakes engage.

Every time you hit the brakes — whether you’re driving a gas-powered SUV or an electric vehicle — tiny particles from your brake pads get launched into the air. A study from the University of Southampton took a close look at this dust and found it’s not just grime — it’s a toxic mix that might be worse for your lungs than unfiltered diesel exhaust. We’ve spent years blaming tailpipes for dirty air, but the real troublemaker could be hiding on your wheels.

Copper stoppers

So what’s in this brake dust? Most brake pads in the U.S. are classed as non-asbestos organic, a change made decades ago to ditch the cancer-causing asbestos of older brakes. Progress, right?

There is a catch, however. Today’s brake pads rely on copper fibers to manage the heat and friction of stopping your car. As they wear down, those copper particles — mixed with other nasty stuff — float into the air. Breathe them in, and they don’t just hang out. The Southampton study shows this dust sparks inflammation in your lungs, kicking off a chain reaction that’s bad news for your breathing.

Slow smolder

Here’s the deal: Inflammation is your body’s distress signal. But when it’s constant — like from inhaling brake dust every day — it’s like a slow smolder in your airways. Over time, that irritation can make breathing harder, worsen conditions like asthma, or even set the stage for bigger problems.

Researchers are starting to talk about possible links to lung cancer. And if you’re already dealing with allergies or smog, this is just another hit to your chest.

EVs and hybrids don’t get a free pass, either — regenerative braking reduces pad wear, but extra weight means even more dust when the brakes engage.

This hits close to home. Picture kids playing near busy roads, commuters stuck in gridlock, or even washing your car in the driveway — you’re all in the path of this stuff. Unlike tailpipe emissions, which face extensive regulation, brake dust and other non-exhaust pollutants are still flying under the radar globally.

RELATED: How female crash-test dummies could save thousands of lives

Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty Images

Fuel to flames

So how does this affect your lungs daily? If you’re healthy, it might just be a slight cough. But for the millions with asthma or COPD, it’s like adding fuel to the flames. Those copper-laced particles are tiny enough to slip deep into your lungs, where they linger and cause trouble.

Over years, that could mean more doctor visits, extra inhalers, and a higher chance of lung scarring — damage that sticks around.

What can you do about it? Next time you need brake pads, opt for low-copper or copper-free ones. Keep your wheels clean to cut down on what’s swirling around your garage. But the real solution? Automakers and regulators need to step up — clean air shouldn’t end at the tailpipe.

Brake dust may be small, but its impact on your lungs is anything but. Stay aware, breathe easier, and let’s keep this discussion moving.

​Brake dust, Lifestyle, Consumer safety, Auto industry, Emissions, Align cars 

The American Academy of Pediatrics, like other institutional medical organizations, demands respect and submission to its pronouncements about public health.

The AAP is extraordinarily influential — perhaps even more powerful than the American Medical Association — because it asserts itself as the authority on our children’s health. The reason it wields more power is because parents — especially first-time parents, even if they’re willing to question “medical authorities” in general — often fold like a cheap suit at the disapproving frown of their own pediatrician.

That’s what makes the latest power play from the AAP especially revolting.

The AAP is unquestionably political and firmly left-wing. Its stance on the ridiculously named “gender-affirming care” is proof.

“The science still supports gender-affirming care; children will still need it,” Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the AAP, said this year. “The American Academy of Pediatrics remains unwavering in our support for transgender and gender-diverse youth and their access to the same standard of compassionate, evidence-based care as every other child.”

Now, the AAP is going to war against states that allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccines, framing its stand as a “public health” issue.

Religious gurus?

To make its argument against religious exemptions to vaccines, the AAP essentially deems itself a source of theological and doctrinal experts.

The AAP said recently:

Among the major world religious traditions, none include scriptural or doctrinal guidelines that preclude adherents from being vaccinated. Just as with other types of doctrines, those related to vaccines might even be developed by small communities or individuals in ways that are completely independent from antecedent scriptural or doctrinal traditions but are, nonetheless, thought of as “religious” commitments by those who hold them.

In other words, the AAP believes that only dumb hicks from small towns believe their faith should inform how they, as parents, care for their children.

It’s sheer arrogance. But not only that, I don’t think parents should listen to the AAP, because its moral authority on the matter of childhood vaccines is compromised — at best.

Protecting pediatricians — not children

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed this year that thousands of physicians had Medicare reimbursements altered based on childhood vaccination rates. He called it coercion. Others call it corruption. But there is no dispute that pediatricians receive financial incentives for increased vaccine uptake, sometimes amounting to many thousands of dollars a year.

Until pediatricians stop financially benefiting from a patient’s choice to use Big Pharma’s products, their advice must be examined with considerable suspicion.

The larger reason to dismiss the AAP is that, thanks to the Make America Healthy Again movement, vaccines are finally under well-deserved scrutiny. Research questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines has existed for years, but it has been actively suppressed by Big Medicine and Big Pharma.

RELATED: Jab first, ask questions later: Vaccine truths your doctor won’t tell you

SementsovaLesia/iStock/Getty Images Plus

As more research comes out, the childhood vaccine schedule is not looking good. Even President Donald Trump is questioning it. The AAP and other similar organizations unforgivably ignore these facts as they seek to protect their fiefdom over vulnerable young parents and their even more vulnerable babies.

Make no mistake: The AAP doesn’t want your kids to be able to go to school unless you inject them with highly questionable and unnecessary substances (a great reason for homeschooling, if you ask me) — and your pediatrician will likely push you hard in that same direction.

I know all about that. I’m an original MAHA mom who visited the pediatrician armed with a list of vaccine questions over 30+ years ago. That doctor was arrogant, dismissive, refused to answer them, and told me I’d be sorry when my child died.

But my child did not die. She is still alive and thriving, more than three decades later.

Vaccines 101

If this is new to you — or if you’re unsure of your own convictions — the rest of this essay will help you.

The starter information that I’ve compiled below — some very practical, some philosophical (even more important for a strong foundation) — is especially designed for soon-to-be parents, friends who are terrified to go against a pediatrician’s advice, or anyone else who has not yet seen through the lies we’ve been fed for so very long.

However, be warned: Once you start down this rabbit trail, your faith in the medical establishment may be shaken so hard you’ll realize that, ultimately, you are responsible for your family’s health. No pediatrician or medical organization — like the self-important, misinformed AAP pontificating about our faith traditions — have your child’s best interests at heart the way you do.

But take courage. There’s a world of information and support out here. Arm yourself with as much of it as possible.

“The Unvaccinated: Proof of What We Lost”: Outstanding starter essay to start getting your brain ready to shift paradigms.Committee of Homeland Security Hearing on Vaccines: Some of the latest intel.No vaccine has been proven to save any lives: I know it sounds shocking, but here’s how peer-reviewed medical journals lie about vaccine efficacy.“Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated: Serious and Irreversible Neurological, Developmental, and Immune-Related Health Risks”: Tip of the iceberg.“Eighth study of unvaccinated kids is a doozy”: A lot of information is being exposed.Vaccinated kids vs. unvaccinated kids — more: Some of the most recent truths to come to light.How vaccines affect autism and the brain: The nitty-gritty.“Why Is Every Newborn Forced to Get the Dangerous Hepatitis B Vaccine?”: More specifics.“SIDS: Maybe Babies Don’t Just Suddenly Die. Maybe It’s Vaccines That Are Killing Them”: Are we being lied to about SIDS? Probably.“100 Facts Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Vaccines”: Helpful notes to discuss with your pediatrician — if you’re still seeing one.A complete list of ALL vaccines, all the stuff in the vaccines, and the package insert for all vaccines: Exactly what it says.“Vax Time Religion”: Thoughtful essay well worth your time.

Trust in the medical industry is at an all-time low — and for good reason. They blame everyone but themselves — like the AAP targeting religious people — but the problem isn’t our lack of trust.

The problem is their lack of transparency. And not only is the medical industry not transparent, but the “experts” seem unwilling to consider solutions and ideas found outside of Big Medicine and Big Pharma. They think they know best, but they’re woefully uneducated on nutrition, movement, light, and other well-known natural remedies.

Ironically, these same people should be at the forefront of vaccine transparency because they claim to be guided by “science” and “truth.” And yet, they want to lecture us about our faith.

Now is the time to take back control of our health with professional healers who work with our bodies — not against them. That’s the philosophy we must adopt, whether we’re “religious” or not.

​Big pharma, Big medicine, American academy of pediatrics, Aap, Vaccines, Childhood vaccine schedule, Medical industrial complex 

A few weeks ago, I enjoined all of you men to do what the right-wing bodybuilders and broscientists of X do and sun your scrota, treating the testicles within to certain health-giving frequencies of light.

As silly as that might sound, red-light therapy is a pretty hot trend, and exposing your genitalia to it probably has testosterone-boosting effects. This week, I’m going to be counseling you avoid light — and not just for your nether regions.

A study from last year found a ‘significant relationship between outdoor light pollution and Alzheimer’s disease prevalence.’

The fact is that we’re exposed to too much light, of the wrong kind and at the wrong times, and it’s seriously screwing with our bodies and minds.

Apeman

My attitude to health, in a nutshell, would be this: Try to live, as much as you can, in the manner of your ancestors. Why? Well, because we’re the same as them, more or less. We Homo sapiens haven’t changed much from our days as hunter-gatherers 200,000 years ago. We’re still running more or less the same firmware, with a few important updates here and there.

What is different, however, is the environment you inhabit. It really kicked off about 10,000-12,000 years ago, with the Agricultural Revolution in the Near East. Now there were these things called farms and cities, and there was commerce and administration and taxes, armies and wars.

Once agriculture started to spread, the pace of change really started to pick up. Fast-forward to about 200 years ago and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and it starts to get really crazy.

All of a sudden you’ve got people living in communities of millions and a mind-boggling complexity. You’ve got people working in factories, eating food made in factories, wearing synthetic clothing made in factories, illuminating their homes and communities with electric light 24/7, bombarding their bodies with electromagnetic radiation 24/7, dosing themselves with ever-increasing numbers of medications, inhaling and swallowing billions of tiny pieces of plastic invisible to the naked eye.

The modern age

I’m not going to list all the changes here. The truth is that our bodies simply can’t cope — not fully — with the vast transformation our way of life has undergone in recent centuries and especially in the last hundred years. Keep in mind that this “modern” way of life is but a blip in human time. Our genes haven’t caught up yet, and maybe they never will. So it pays to treat your body, as much as you can, in the manner of your ancestors — to eat like them, move like them, and do the things they did.

Of course, you can go too far in your pursuit of an ancestral lifestyle — just look at the sad, sad story of the Liver King, a true cautionary tale for the “primal” community.

And I’m not saying the modern world doesn’t have its beguiling or useful aspects. I rather like the fact that I’m here, in my centrally heated living room, writing this article on my swish little iPad with its touch screen and magnetic keyboard. That’s pretty cool and useful. Then again, I suppose I could get used to writing in the manner of, say, Cicero: reclining on a couch in a toga, dictating to a slave while another one feeds me grapes.

Who loves the sun

The changes that have taken place in terms of light in the last century or so — to how we use and relate to light, natural and artificial — have been no less drastic than the changes to any other aspect of our lives, including the way we eat.

For the vast majority of human history, we organized our lives consciously and unconsciously around the natural diurnal rhythms of the planet. We woke up with the sun, and we went to bed when it became dark. There were seasonal changes, but they repeated, year after year. The invention of artificial light — fire, candles — didn’t really affect any of that much.

It was only with electric light that it become possible to defy the natural rhythms of night and day and the seasons and become what we are today: beings in possession of perpetual suns we can use to illuminate ourselves and our surroundings as much as we want, whenever we want.

Night moves

Banishing the darkness has had dramatic effects on our health.

Light governs the body’s circadian rhythms, also known as the “body clock,” which play a key role in regulating the secretion of hormones and processes of growth and recovery.

The main frequencies of light emitted by screens and LED lighting are blue, and these seem to have particularly bad effects on our bodies. Some scientists have suggested that blue light should be considered an endocrine disruptor — something as prone to mess with our hormones as nasty plasticizing chemicals, herbicides and pesticides, and many of the additives we find in ultra-processed food.

A study in the journal Environmental Research associates blue-light exposure with increased rates of breast cancer among women who do night work and sleep disorders among teenagers.

RELATED: LED astray: Yes, those harsh lights are the spawn of Satan

Photo by Bloomberg/Getty Images

Blue arrangements

In my piece on the boon of ball bronzing, I mentioned a study showing that chronic exposure to blue light could actually bring on early puberty in rats. This is a pretty worrying finding, especially since we know the age of puberty in the developed world has been decreasing for decades and children are being exposed to ever-greater quantities of blue light from the screens and electronic devices they play with all day long.

Large-scale studies clearly suggest exposure to artificial light could be having population-level effects. Research has linked nighttime light exposure to cognitive decline, for example. A study from last year compared rates of Alzheimer’s to satellite data for nighttime light levels across the U.S. The scientists found a “significant relationship between outdoor light pollution and Alzheimer’s disease prevalence. States and counties with higher levels of artificial light at night consistently had higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease.” Most worryingly of all, the association was strongest in the under-65s, a demographic that typically doesn’t suffer from this terrible disease.

So what can you do?

Doctor my eyes

In general terms, you should try to reduce your exposure to artificial light and do things that mimic the natural rise and fall of light levels. Go out and get sunlight early in the morning, or expose yourself to bright light with a SAD lamp. As afternoon draws into evening, begin to reduce levels of light in your home or workspace. Tell your body it’s getting closer to sleepy time. Turn off the main lights, turn on lamps, close the curtains — you could even light a few candles. I light my kitchen in the evening with candles, and it creates a wonderfully relaxing atmosphere. Begin to wind down your use of electronic devices that emit blue light.

If you have to spend your day or large portions of it staring at a screen, you can buy a pair of blue-light-blocking glasses. Ra Optics makes some very fetching blue-light blockers that don’t look at all silly. In fact, they’re basically indistinguishable from normal glasses or sunglasses. You could also buy one of Daylight’s very swanky tablets that has a blue-light-free backlight.

Alternatively, you can play with your device’s brightness settings or download a blue-light app like f.lux or Twilight. There’s also a built-in feature on Windows called “Night Light” that allows you to reduce levels of blue light in the evenings. You can even toggle it to come on automatically at set times.

Of course, you could just turn the bloody thing off. Imagine that. Our ancestors, fortunate creatures that they were, didn’t have to.

​Red light therapy, Screen time, Circadian rhythms, Body clock, Endocrine disruptor, Health, Lifestyle, Make america healthy again 

Investors are always looking for hot stocks. But what if the hottest stocks became that way via cursed baptism in a certain lake of fire?

Sulfur and brimstone are two commodities not many should be excited about adding to their portfolio. And yet the world of investing has a twisted fascination with companies that deal in vice. There’s one particular mutual fund that singles out investments in “sin stocks” like cannabis and casinos. The investment thesis is that buying into morally murky industries is a long-term win because addicts make loyal customers, and even in bad economies, people still want to get high.

If people are serious about making America great again, they must consider what their investments are funding.

But the Vice Fund is not actually all that unique — it is just saying the quiet part out loud.

There are hundreds of mutual funds and ETFs invested in the shady businesses of abortion drugs, pornography, strip clubs, and LGBT activism. But what you might not realize is that there is a good chance you own one of those funds in your 401(k), IRA, or other investment fund.

Don’t believe me? Type one of your ticker symbols into www.inspireinsight.com and see for yourself.

It’s easy to be deceived. These dirty funds have normal-sounding names from reputable companies like American Funds Growth Fund of America, iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, and Vanguard Large Cap Index Fund. The devil comes disguised as an angel of light, after all.

But don’t be too hard on yourself. If anyone should have known better it was me. I had the wool pulled over my eyes, too. A financial adviser working in the lofty private client group of a prestigious bank and a dedicated pro-life Christian, I was dumbfounded the day I discovered that I was personally invested in three abortion drug manufacturing companies.

The unsettling truth pierced my heart that every time a young lady went to Planned Parenthood and had an abortion, I made money on that transaction. I literally profited from the murder of an innocent child and was recommending all of my wealthy clients to do the same.

But it didn’t stop there: porn, LGBT activism, human trafficking, the list went on like a “hottest stock picks” newsletter from hell. How could this be?

According to a recent study by the faith-based investing organization Kingdom Advisors, $22.4 trillion of investment assets are owned by Christian church members in the United States, representing about 50% of the entire investment market.

I have two questions: How much of that money is invested right now in industries and activities that are diametrically opposed to the biblical values their Christian owners seek to live their lives by? And how different might corporate America be — and indeed our nation at large — if those Christian investors directed their capital away from the works of evil and into companies that did good instead?

What if major corporations got the message that 50% of the investment assets in America were off limits to any business that manufactured abortion drugs? Or pushed LGBT activist agendas? Or distributed porn?

What if the mutual fund, ETF, and 401(k) providers got the message that 50% of the investment assets in America refused to invest in funds that bought morally compromised stocks?

RELATED: How corporate America helped fuel the hate that killed Charlie Kirk

baloon111/iStock/Getty Images Plus

I believe things would be much different — and much better. Last month, Costco announced its decision not to sell the abortion drug mifepristone in any of its pharmacies. This decision is a huge pro-life victory and followed a sustained shareholder engagement campaign that began more than two years before by my faith-based investing firm, Inspire Investing.

Thanks to Biden-era shenanigans, in 2023, long-standing safety restrictions limiting mifepristone distribution were loosened to allow retail pharmacies to apply for a special exemption to dispense the abortion pill directly: a dangerous practice that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration itself says puts women in elevated danger of hospitalization and potentially deadly complications, regardless of what you believe about abortion and the effect on the baby.

In early 2024, CVS and Walgreens jumped on the abortion bandwagon and signed up for the exemption. Other large retail pharmacies such as Costco, Walmart, Albertsons, and Kroger, were considering following suit. That’s when our team snapped into action.

We leveraged our position as investors to lobby the investor relations department and made the strong case against getting into the abortion business. We gathered over 9,000 signatures from Costco members and investors ready to cancel their memberships if Costco started stocking mifepristone. We rallied a coalition, including faith-based investors, treasurers, and other financial officers from conservative states. We had numerous conversations with Costco’s management.

Liberal abortion activists were also hard at work, bringing their own firepower to bear.

In the end, goodness and common sense prevailed, and Costco made the rational decision to stay out of such a contentious and legally tenuous line of business, while also citing a “lack of demand from our members and other patients.” But it wasn’t only Costco. Walmart made the same decision, and we are hopeful that other pharmacies will be listening to reason as well.

This isn’t an isolated incident. You can read many more stories of the successes we’ve had, including details of the behind-the-scenes conversations influencing major corporations with conservative, biblical values in my book “Biblically Responsible Investing: On Wall Street as It Is in Heaven.”

If people are serious about making America great again, they must consider what their investments are funding. Is your own money working against you?

Will you invest the hell out of your money?

​Christianity, Christian, Hell, Investing, Money, Finances, Faith