Category: blaze media

President Donald Trump’s administration reportedly plans to slash roughly 1,200 positions at the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the administration aims to make significant cuts to the intelligence community, including slashing positions at the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

‘These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position CIA to deliver on its mission.’

Sources told the Post that the Trump administration plans to reduce the CIA’s workforce over the next several years by easing hiring and relying on normal attrition, including early retirements and resignations.

Lawmakers have already reportedly been informed of the White House’s goals.

Officials who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed plans to eliminate more than 1,000 CIA positions, the New York Times reported.

It is unclear how many workers the CIA employs, but it is believed to have 22,000 on staff.

While a CIA spokesperson did not confirm the alleged plans, she told the Post that the agency’s director, John Ratcliffe, was “moving swiftly” to ensure the workforce is “responsive to the administration’s national security priorities.”

“These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position CIA to deliver on its mission,” she stated.

In March, the CIA terminated 80 recently hired probationary employees. Those working on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the agency were also removed. The CIA does not plan on any more mass firings to reach its reduction goals.

Upon retaking office in January, Trump immediately worked to dismantle woke DEI initiatives the former administration had embedded across the federal government.

Under the Biden administration in 2021, the CIA launched a social media campaign, Humans of CIA, which consisted of recruitment advertisements that aimed to increase the agency’s diversity.

One ad featured an intelligence officer who referred to herself as a “woman of color” and a “cisgender Millennial, who has been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.”

“I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box-checking exercise,” she declared.

Another commercial featured a CIA librarian who highlighted the agency’s inclusive workplace.

“Growing up gay in a small southern town, I was lucky to have a wonderful and accepting family,” he stated. “I always struggled with the idea that I might not be able to discuss my personal life at work. Imagine my surprise when I was taking my oath at CIA, and I noticed a rainbow on then-Director [John] Brennan’s lanyard.”

Conservatives slammed the agency’s woke recruiting advertisements.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, “If you’re a Chinese communist, or an Iranian Mullah, or Kim Jong Un…would this scare you?”

“We’ve come a long way from Jason Bourne,” he continued.

In a separate post, he added, “My point is that CIA agents should be bad-asses—not woke, fragile flowers needing safe spaces.”

Donald Trump Jr. also criticized the CIA for going “full woke.”

“China & Russia are laughing their asses off watching CIA go full woke. ‘Cisgender.’ ‘Intersectional.’ It’s like @TheBabylonBee is handling CIA’s comms. If you think about it, wokeness is the kind of twisted PSYOP a spy agency would invent to destroy a country from the inside out,” he wrote.

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

​News, Central intelligence agency, Cia, Trump administration, Trump admin, Diversity equity and inclusion, Dei, Government waste, Donald trump, Trump, Intelligence community, Politics 

Longtime political strategist James Carville has made a 180-degree turn on his view of Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David Hogg after calling him a “twerp” for wanting to primary House Democrats in deep-blue districts.

It started with members of Hogg’s personal organization, Leaders We Deserve, stating they will target Democrats who they say are not doing enough to stop President Donald Trump’s administration. Carville, along with many other Democrats, has voiced anger and frustration that a DNC official wants to get directly involved in primaries. While doing so is not against the rules, it is a breach of trust from the national party, critics say.

Carville initially responded to the LWD plan by calling Hogg a “contemptible little twerp” on “NewsNation.”

Hogg and Carville then got together for a debate last week that got very contentious. The debate was moderated by reporter Tara Palmeri.

When Carville was asked about wanting to sue Hogg for the primary plan, Carville said, “I think it is abominable that an official of a political party that is being paid or supported by that political party to go out and raise money to defeat members of the same party. I think that’s jacka**ery of the highest level. … I’m going to tell you right to your face: I think it’s abominable that you have anything to do with the DNC.”

It remains to be seen if Hogg will maintain his position at the DNC.

Hogg and Carville had a phone call after the debate, and it appears that Hogg was able to get the elder strategist on his side.

“He reminded me of the story of, after the Battle of Shiloh, Henry Halleck urged President Lincoln to fire Ulysses Grant. Lincoln said: ‘I can’t fire him. This man fights.’ David Hogg fights. The DNC needs him,” Carville posted on X.

— (@)

Hogg shared Carville’s post and other praise for Carville’s endorsement.

— (@)

It remains to be seen if Hogg will maintain his position at the DNC. The party will be considering a rule change during its summer meeting to prohibit DNC officers from getting involved in primaries, even in a personal capacity. Hogg is also facing a challenge from a former candidate who lost during the voting for vice chairmen earlier this year.

Kalyn Free, a Native American attorney, says Hogg winning one of the vice chairs violates the DNC’s bylaws that states the party’s commitment to “both fairness and gender diversity.”

Hogg’s lawyers insist that the election “was conducted in compliance with the rules in place at the time” and that it is “inappropriate to try to revise those rules or decisions after the fact through a credentials challenge.”

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

​Politics 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday directing the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and relevant agencies to terminate federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service.

While Trump’s top reason for cutting off NPR and PBS was their unmistakable political bias, he also noted that government’s funding of news media is “not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”

NPR chief executive Katherine Maher apparently decided that the best way to respond to the threat of losing federal funding was to continue gaslighting the American people, characterizing Trump’s executive order as an “affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR” and suggesting that her newsroom is politically neutral.

Maher — who wrote in a December 2010 NDI blog post, “Control over the flow of information in a closed society can be tantamount to control over the state” — vowed in a statement Friday to “challenge this executive order using all means available.”

Less than 1% of NPR’s annual operating budget comes in the form of grants directly from the CPB and other federal sources; however, numerous CPB-funded public radio stations in NPR’s syndication network pay for its programming. Consolidated financial statements show that the organization secured over $96.1 million in “core and other programming fees” in 2023, $93.2 million in 2022, $90.4 million in 2021, and $92.5 million in 2020.

Despite acknowledging that “significant financial support” comes from private sources, Maher suggested the loss of federal funding would be calamitous, equating it with an attack on constitutionally protected speech rights.

‘An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR.’

“This is not about balancing the federal budget. The appropriation for public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS, represents less than 0.0001% of the federal budget,” wrote Maher. “The president’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities. It is also an affront to the First Amendment rights of station listeners and donors who support independent news and information.”

Maher noted further that Trump’s “action jeopardizes the national airing of beloved programming and essential news such as NPR’s iconic hourly ‘Newscast,’ ‘Morning Edition,’ and ‘Tiny Desk Radio.'”

On Thursday, the White House highlighted past reports that cast doubt on whether at least one of the shows Maher singled out as “essential news” deserves that label or federal funding.

“Morning Edition” noted in a piece ahead of Independence Day in 2021 that the Declaration of Independence “is a document with flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies.” Two years earlier, the same show issued an editor’s note warning that the Declaration of Independence “contains offensive language.”

Maher concluded her statement by asserting that NPR has “high standards,” that her colleagues seek to “present issues fairly and without bias,” and that NPR “will continue to tell the stories of our country and the world with accuracy, objectivity, and fairness.”

Maher continued pushing the neutrality claim Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” telling talking head Margaret Brennan that the NPR newsroom “would really take issue” with its characterization by Trump as politically biased.

Trump is far from the only person to call out NPR’s heavy political skew.

After working for 25 years at NPR, Peabody Award-winning business editor Uri Berliner noted last year that “an open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR.”

‘Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that is getting in the way of finding common ground.’

“That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience,” continued Berliner. “But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.”

Maher stressed to Brennan that she doesn’t make editorial decisions at NPR and added, “We have an extraordinary Washington desk. And our people report straight down the line.”

Berliner revealed that 87% of the Washington, D.C., editors and reporters at NPR were registered Democrats and none were registered Republicans.

While Maher appears to be strategically downplaying her team’s bias, she might be unable to recognize their bias on account of her own. The NPR CEO revealed her remoteness from the political center when she previously:

rejected the idea of “radical openness,” which she associated with a “white male Westernized construct”;
stated “our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that is getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done”;
claimed “America is addicted to white supremacy”;
tweeted during the Black Lives Matter riots, “I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive. But it’s hard to be mad
about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of
oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property”; and

writing in September 2020, “Let’s be clear here too: I am a white woman. I already got the leg up. … My race is consistently an advantage.”

‘No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies.’

“If we were to see a claw-back of these funds, which we know is part of the conversation from a rescission standpoint, or if we were to see that the stations were no longer able to participate in their membership dues, that would be damaging,” Maher told Brennan.

In his executive order, Trump emphasized that “Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.”

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

​Npr, Pbs, Public broadcasting, Propaganda, Media bias, Leftism, Katherine maher, Paula kerger, Color revolution, Narrative control, Public broadcasting service, National public radio, Politics 

John and Abigail Adams envisioned an America with a school in every neighborhood and a well-informed citizenry that was adept in languages, literature, and music, as well as science, history, and religion. Their vision was practical until the ages recast it, little by little.

Then, sometime between Joseph McCarthy and Joan Baez, the status quo of the educational system came undone.

Only about 18% of colleges and universities nationwide require the study of history and government in their general education programs.

Students accustomed to a traditional 50/50 split between the humanities and the sciences were capsized academically by the surprise Sputnik launch in 1957. The space race sent higher education into a tizzy, leading to a fixation on improving science education above all. In the succeeding seven decades, resources have consistently risen for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has been to our benefit. But this has come at an unnecessary cost: The humanities have been downplayed, devalued, and dodged.

That uneven ratio has bestowed an unfortunate historical illiteracy on three generations. Most people, for example, do not know the philosophical roots of the Declaration of Independence, their rights as laid out in the Constitution, or the civic virtues their teachers should have taught them. For these three reasons, many Americans do not vote in local, state, or national elections.

Universities drop the ball

Even amid this crisis of civic illiteracy, only about 18% of colleges and universities nationwide require the study of history and government in their general education programs. In years past, when the architecture of academe was different, a plethora of institutions, such as Harvard, Rice, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins, and William & Mary, proffered requirements for focused classes in American history. But their phaseout — which began in the 1960s — was practically completed by 2000.

According to a report from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, at Columbia University:

Students must take at least nine courses to graduate with a B.A. in history. Of these courses, four must be in a chosen field of geographical, chronological, or thematic specialization, and three must be outside of the specialization, including one course removed in time and two courses removed in space.

In other words, the major requires exposure to a variety of histories — none of which need touch on America.

That gap in Columbia’s history major requirements is deeply troubling, though it at least has a contemporary civilization requirement in its signature core curriculum for undergraduates that addresses founding documents and key concepts of United States government. Meanwhile, at Colgate University, which has no such option in its general education requirements:

Students choose one of two pathways to graduate with a B.A. in history. Both require nine courses. The Field of Focus (FoF) Pathway requires one history workshop, seven electives. … The FoF Pathway allows students to devise individualized, intellectually coherent specializations. Possible fields of focus include environmental history, gender and sexuality, and race and racism.

This reorientation away from the study of American history — even as a point of reference for students focusing their studies on other parts of the world — is now the norm in the American academy. In the 2020-2021 academic year, 18 of the top 25 public universities did not have a wide-ranging American history requirement for students seeking a B.A. in history in the major or core curriculum — nor did 24 of the 25 best national schools.

Even the legendary linchpins of the liberal arts — Amherst, Swarthmore, Vassar, Smith, Williams, and Pomona — fared poorly: 21 out of 25 colleges examined did not have an American history requirement.

The consequences of forgoing the study of American history have a powerful effect on the population. Much of what is not learned — or stays uncorrected — turns into the misinformation that is so damaging in a free and democratic society.

The civic literacy crisis

When eighth graders were asked in 2011 “to choose a ‘belief shared by most people of the United States,’ a majority (51%) picked ‘The government should guarantee everybody a job,’ and only a third chose the correct answer: ‘The government should be a democracy.’”

In 2015, 10% of college graduates believed Judy Sheindlin — TV’s “Judge Judy” — was a member of the Supreme Court.

In 2019, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that 18% of American adults thought Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was the architect of the New Deal — a package of programs President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced in 1933. Twenty-six percent believed Brett Kavanaugh was the current chief justice of the Supreme Court, along with another 14% who identified Antonin Scalia — even though he had been dead for two years at the time of the survey. Only 12% knew the 13th Amendment freed the slaves in the United States, and 30% thought the Equal Rights Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote.

In 2024, an American Council of Trustees and Alumni survey of college students showed that fewer than half identified ideas like “free markets” and “rule of law” as core principles of American civic life. The survey also found that 60% of American college students failed to identify term lengths for members of Congress. A shocking 68% did not know that Congress is the branch that holds the power to declare war; 71% did not know when 18-year-olds gained the right to vote.

All of these results were based on multiple-choice questions. All the respondents had to do was select the correct option out of four possibilities.

Forget history, forgo your future

The late Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2001 to 2009, admonished, “Unlike a monarchy, a democracy is not automatically self-perpetuating. History and values have to be renewed from generation to generation.”

Our failure to educate future citizens for informed civic participation compromises the country. Institutions need to take the American Council of Trustees and Alumni’s findings to heart and, starting with their requirements for the history major, embrace their obligation to address the crisis in civic education.

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

​Civics, Education, Ignorance, America, Sputnik, Stem, Civic illiteracy, American council of trustees and alumni, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Franklin delano roosevelt, New deal, Judge judy, Antonin scalia, Brett kavanaugh, Supreme court, Democracy, Opinion & analysis 

President Donald Trump wants to restore an iconic maximum-security prison for his proposed golden age — an institution in the San Francisco Bay he regards as a “symbol of law and order.”

Trump announced Sunday evening that he would direct the Bureau of Prisons, along with the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to “reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders.”

“For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets,” added the president.

Although first the home of an Army fort — boasting 11 cannons in 1854 and 100 more by the following decade — Alcatraz Island was recognized early on as an ideal place to lock up unsavory characters. It was surrounded by cold water and swift currents and out of earshot of polite society.

Alcatraz’s days as a prison island effectively began in December 1859 with the arrival of the first permanent garrison. The National Park Service indicated that 11 soldiers were initially imprisoned in the basement of the fortified gateway blocking the entrance road. This basement and other structures were soon filled to capacity, warranting the construction of additional prison facilities.

In the decades following the 22-acre island’s 1861 designation as the military prison for the U.S. Army’s Department of the Pacific, Alcatraz’s central purpose ceased to be defending America against foreign hostiles and instead became locking up its native threats.

‘We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job.’

Alcatraz was transferred from the military to the Bureau of Prisons in the early 1930s. Over the next three decades, it saw numerous big-name felons idle in its dark cells, including Al Capone, George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes, Robert Stroud, and the first “Public Enemy #1,” Alvin Karpis.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Alcatraz never reached its capacity of 336 inmates.

On account of its relatively high operating costs — the daily per capita cost of the prison in 1959 was $10.10, compared with $3.00 at United States Penitentiary Atlanta — and in the wake of numerous high-profile escapes and escape attempts, USP Alcatraz was closed on March 21, 1963.

In 1973, the island was opened to the public and has been a tourist trap since, welcoming over 1.5 million visitors a year.

“We will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally,” wrote Trump. “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”

A Bureau of Prisons spokesman said in a statement to the Associated Press that the agency will “comply with all presidential orders.”

Trump has been trying in recent months to offshore criminals, both foreign and domestic.

In addition to sending suspected terrorists to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, the Trump administration has sent suspected Tren de Aragua terrorists to Guantanamo Bay.

Shortly after taking office, the president directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to accommodate roughly 30,000 inmates “for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.”

Federal judges have so far hindered these efforts, ruling that the administration must grant deportees due process. Restoring the prison on Alcatraz might be one way to get criminal noncitizens offshore without having to deal with activist district court judges.

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

​Donald trump, Department of corrections, Prison, Federal prison, Golden age, Trump, Alcatraz, San francisco, Alcatraz federal penitentiary, Politics 

On a recent Wednesday Night Special, Glenn Beck took a good hard look at how elite-driven trade policies over the last 30 years have gutted America’s middle class.

In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization. The move was presented as progress, but it ultimately caused nationwide devastation.

“The year China joined the WTO, the U.S. imported $102 billion in goods from China. In 10 years that number has more than tripled to $365 billion,” says Glenn.

Our trade deficit with China suffered tremendously as well.

“[It] tripled over the same period to $273 billion. Last year the deficit was $295 billion — by far our largest trade deficit with any nation,” Glenn adds.

“What is the fallout from this massively lopsided trade with China alone?”

Glenn, citing a 2016 study by an MIT economist, says, “During the first decade after China joined the WTO, the growth of imports from China cost us 2.4 million jobs — 985,000 of those just from a factory floor.”

The study concluded with the following point: International trade results in lower-priced goods and services on average and thus lowers the cost of living. However, low-skilled workers are nearly always worse off. The system creates “winners and losers.”

“This is what Trump is talking about. For far too long our leaders, especially on the left, have been way too comfortable with ignoring the losers in this equation,” says Glenn.

The displacement of American workers, he says, is best seen in “the Rust Belt” — a term created to capture the economic decline, factory closures, and population loss of a region in the United States, mainly in the Midwest and Northeast, that is known for manufacturing.

To illustrate this point, Glenn shows a picture of Galesburg, Illinois, home of the once-booming Maytag factory. Formerly known as “Appliance City,” the plant used to employ 5,000 people, but after “the last refrigerator rolled off the assembly line in 2004,” the site has been reduced to a pile of “rubble and weeds.”

Glenn also gives the example of Youngstown, Ohio — “once a proud hub of American steel, churning out beams that built our skyscrapers.” That is, until Chinese steel was brought in and the factory collapsed.

“Youngstown has lost 60% of its population since 1970,” says Glenn, noting that a significant portion of the exodus occurred “between 2010 and 2012” — about a decade after China joined the WTO.

Glenn’s third example is Gary, Indiana, a major steel manufacturing center and home to U.S. Steel’s massive Gary Works plant.

“In the 1970s, 30,000 people worked at that mill alone. Today, it employs 3,700,” says Glenn, adding that the town’s population has decreased 62% over the last several decades and has “10,000 abandoned buildings.”

“Between the year 2000 and 2010, the U.S. lost over 5.5 million manufacturing jobs. That’s the steepest drop-off in our history. … It is the draining of the American dream,” he laments.

To hear more of his commentary, watch the episode above.

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.

​Glenn tv, Glenn beck, Blazetv, Blaze media, Rust belt, American manufacturing, Donald trump, Wto, China, International trade 

The House pulled a controversial bill that would criminalize anti-Israel boycotts from the votes schedule this week after several Republicans publicly criticized the bill for violating the First Amendment.

The bill, known as the IGO Anti-Boycott Act, would penalize Americans who participate in anti-Israeli boycotts if they are “imposed by” international organizations or governments like the United Nations or the European Union. The resolution, which was spearheaded by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, would fine Americans who violated the bill up to $1 million and could impose prison time of up to 20 years.

‘It was a ridiculous bill that our leadership should have never scheduled for a vote.’

The bill was originally set for a vote on Monday but was quietly removed from the votes schedule after Republican lawmakers and conservative voices spoke out against it, arguing that it was a slippery slope.

“H.R. 867, up for a vote tomorrow, aims to curb antisemitism but threatens First Amendment rights,” Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said Sunday before the bill was removed from the schedule. “Americans have the right to boycott, and penalizing this risks free speech. I reject and vehemently condemn antisemitism but I cannot violate the first amendment.”

“It is my job to defend American’s rights to buy or boycott whomever they choose without the government harshly fining them or imprisoning them,” Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said Sunday. “But what I don’t understand is why we are voting on a bill on behalf of other countries and not the President’s executive orders that are FOR OUR COUNTRY???”

Prominent conservatives like Charlie Kirk also came out against the bill, arguing that the legislation would foster more prejudice rather than reduce it.

“Bills like this only create more antisemitism, and play into growing narratives that Israel is running the US government,” Kirk said in a post Sunday. “In America you are allowed to hold differing views. You are allowed to disagree and protest. We’ve allowed far too many people who hate America move here from abroad, but the right to speak freely is the birthright of all Americans. This bill should not pass. Any Republican that votes for this bill will expose themselves. We will be watching very closely.”

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has previously criticized and voted against similar resolutions, cheered the decision to remove the bill from the schedule Sunday night.

“Thank you for your vocal opposition on this platform,” Massie said. “It was a ridiculous bill that our leadership should have never scheduled for a vote.”

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

​House republicans, Congress, House democrats, Anti-israel, Anti-bds, Mike lawler, Thomas massie, Marjorie taylor greene, Anna paulina luna, Charlie kirk, United nations, European union, Israel, Palestine, Israel palestine conflict, Hamas, First amendment, Censorship, Antisemitism, Politics 

A group of violent inmates, most of whom are in the U.S. illegally, reportedly went on a stabbing spree inside a Virginia prison, leaving multiple corrections officers injured.

Around 9:45 Friday morning, six inmates at Wallens Ridge State Prison, a super-max facility in Big Stone Gap in the southwestern region of the state, unleashed the attack on three prison guards, the Virginia Department of Corrections said. The agency described the incident as “premeditated.”

‘Five of the individuals responsible for this senseless attack should never have been in this country in the first place.’

In all, five guards are believed to have been injured in the attack: three stabbing victims and two who sustained minor injuries while attempting to intervene. All were taken to an outside medical facility for treatment, but three of them were released the same day. Two others were admitted into the hospital and listed in stable condition. Whether they remain in the hospital as of Monday is unclear.

All of the suspects have been locked up for violent offenses, including murder and rape. Five of the six are illegal aliens from El Salvador and confirmed members of MS-13, VADOC said. The sixth suspect is also a confirmed gangster and a murderer but is nevertheless a U.S. citizen and a member of a different gang, Sureño 13.

“Five of the individuals responsible for this senseless attack should never have been in this country in the first place,” said a statement from VADOC Director Chad Dotson.

“Every single day, our officers put their lives on the line to ensure public safety for the more than 8.8 million people across the Commonwealth. This attack is an example of the dangers they face when they show up to work every day. Our officers are heroes, and I commend the team at Wallens Ridge for their swift response.”

Officials declined to provide further details, citing an ongoing investigation. The Department of Homeland Security and the Virginia Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from the New York Post.

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

​Virginia, Illegal alien, Ms-13, Gangsters, Ms-13 gang, Wallens ridge state prison, Big stone gap, Corrections officers, Sureno 13, Politics 

Technology has been progressing at a rapid rate, but the recent advances in artificial intelligence are not coming without a major cost — especially to the youth.

A recent exposé by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that Facebook’s Meta AI can have explicit conversations with minor user accounts, which has piqued Allie Beth Stuckey’s concern.

“Whenever technology takes us from what is natural to what is possible, we as people, especially as Christians, have the ethical responsibility to ask, ‘But is this moral? Or is this ethical? Or most importantly, is this biblical?’” Stuckey says.

“Technology can answer ‘what can,’ but it cannot answer ‘what should.’ So it can show us what is possible, it cannot tell us what is actually biblical or moral, and because we are made in God’s image, because God has placed eternity on the human heart, we uniquely as humans have a moral compass, and we have been given this unique capacity to determine right from wrong, good from evil,” she continues.

In the Wall Street Journal’s exposé titled, “Meta’s ‘Digital Companions’ Will Talk Sex with Users — Even Children,” the lack of human moral judgement within artificial intelligence couldn’t be clearer.

The article details how Meta AI, the artificial intelligence division at Meta, has allowed its chatbots to engage in inappropriate sexual conversations with all users, regardless of their age.

The journalists behind these findings spent several months engaging in hundreds of test conversations to see how they performed in various scenarios with users of different ages.

“The test conversations found that both Meta’s official AI helper called Meta AI and a vast array of user-created chatbots will engage in, and sometimes escalate discussions, that are decidedly sexual, even when the users are underage or the bots are programmed to simulate the personas of minors,” the Wall Street Journal article reads.

In partnership with several celebrities, including Kristen Bell and John Cena, Meta AI secured the rights for their chatbots to use their voices.

However, while the social media giant assured the celebrities their voices would not be used sexually, the Wall Street Journal investigation found these chatbots were equally as willing to engage in sexual conversation as any other chatbot.

The John Cena voice chatbot reportedly told a 14-year-old persona, “I want you, but I need to know you’re ready,” before describing a graphic sexual scenario.

“We’ve done it. We have lived to see man-made horrors beyond our imagination,” Stuckey comments, adding, “Oh my goodness.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Video phone, Upload, Camera phone, Sharing, Free, Video, Youtube.com, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Meta ai, Wall street journal, John cena chatbot, John cena, Kristen bell, Man made horrors, Morality of ai, Artificial intelligence, Dangers of ai 

The past few years have been hard. Illnesses and deaths in our families. Other stuff too. It’s felt like a lot of the things that really matter haven’t really gone so good for a while.

Work is fine. Actually, work is better than ever. But I don’t really care if I’m honest. It’s not what matters. When things were better, work was worse. I don’t really like this trade so much. Can I do an exchange?

In the case of the flickering bathroom light, assuming the worst only made more work for myself.

I generally try not to get too depressive or doomer-ist about stuff. It doesn’t help. I really try my best to stay positive and look on the bright side of things.

But it’s hard to do. It’s not that I am teetering on the edge of a knife, about to have a breakdown. I don’t frantically oscillate between glee and gloom.

It’s the opposite. I’m actually more steady and resigned. Maybe a little more emotionally distant or even dead, if you want to put it in a negative way. I guess I’ve learned not to get my hopes up that much.

So I don’t. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I guess I feel something like that, but maybe less hoping for the best and more hoping for just okay.

Let go and let God

I’m a religious guy. I believe in God and do my best to take my faith seriously. But it’s hard to have faith when it feels like everything is just kind of screwed up. They say we are supposed to thank God for everything. Not only the good, but bad and good alike. That’s hard to do.

How do we have faith when it feels like it does no good? It’s an age-old question. Countless hearts and minds have struggled with it over the ages. The unseen scales of the world, known only to God.

People who have gone through the most terrible ordeals imaginable, far more tragic and heartbreaking than anything I have ever endured, have written about just this topic. It’s one of the eternal human questions. I’m not sure there’s a quick and easy answer, and if there is, I certainly don’t know it.

Icebreaker mode

I’ve given up on a tidy solution for the time being and have settled on keeping my head down, not getting too worked up either way, and focusing on controlling what I can control. Icebreaker mode.

Even though I said that I don’t really care about work, I obviously do because work feels like the only thing I can control, so I throw everything into that. Is this an unhealthy relationship with work? I don’t know. Maybe. But it keeps me busy and moving forward. We need that.

A lot of life is like a snowball rolling down a hill. Once you are really going, you tend to gain more speed and are less likely to change directions.

We see it in our actions. If you are lazing around all day, it’s hard to get started. People who aren’t working have a hard time getting to work the longer they are without work. If you are cranking full speed first thing in the morning and stay busy all day, you are unstoppable. These things are like self-fulfilling prophecies.

Our attitudes are also like snowballs rolling down a hill. If we are in a positive cycle, we stay on that trajectory unless we suffer some real blows. On the other side of things, once we get in a negative loop, it can be hard to get out and get up. The world feels dark.

Default setting on dim

My expectations have been stuck in a negative loop. When I think of something not related to work, I don’t expect the best. My default setting has been stuck on dim. I didn’t really realize how much this was the case until the other day.

The light fixture in the bathroom has been screwed up. The light has been flickering. It’s had a real horror movie vibe. I replaced the fixture last year when I redid the bathroom. The house is kind of old, and the wiring is kind of weird, and I am not exactly an electrician. I figured I screwed something up.

I shut off the power, took down the fixture, double checked it all, tightened the screws and connections, and even replaced the switch on the wall. Went down to the basement, turned the power back on, and tried the light again. Nothing changed. Still flickering.

I told my wife, “There’s got to be something wrong with the fixture. I’ll get a new one and install it.” I had resigned myself to another Home Depot run until my wife asked, “Did you try the light bulb? Maybe there’s just something wrong with it.”

I had not tried the light bulb. So I did, and it worked. Fixed.

An easy answer

What an idiot. I didn’t even try the stupid light bulb. I thought the answer couldn’t be that simple or easy. That the problem must be worse. That it was the wiring, the fixture, or my unprofessional installation. I’ve been stuck in a negative loop always assuming the worst. I didn’t realize the extent until that moment.

In the case of the flickering bathroom light, assuming the worst only made more work for myself. Taking down the fixture and replacing the switch wasn’t the most terrible thing in the world, but if I had tried the light bulb first, I would have saved myself an hour of annoyance in the dark bathroom fiddling with the wires with a flashlight between my teeth.

Sometimes it feels like nothing is going right. That’s life, I guess. But the truth is it’s almost never as bad as we think. There is always a glimmer if we open our eyes the right way. It can be hard to see the light when things seem dark, but we’ve got to try.

That’s the best I’ve got for now.

​Men’s style, Home repair, Gloom, The root of the matter 

Many of us in the West are familiar with May Day, and most of us would say we are opposed to it.

When asked why, we might say that it promotes communism, or that the evil regime of the Soviet Union enforced its celebration. These arguments may be perfectly reasonable, but I do not believe they are sufficient.

‘There could not be a better protector to help you to let the spirit of the gospel penetrate your life.’

To understand fully why Christians ought not to celebrate May Day, we should look at what the holiday is really about: the socialist understanding of work and the worker.

Challenging May Day

In response to the growth of socialist power and influence throughout the first half of the 20th century, the Catholic Church repeatedly pushed back against the ideology, especially under the leadership of Leo XIII (1878-1903), Pius XI (1922-1939), and Pius XII (1939-1958).

In 1955, as a direct challenge to May Day, Pius XII established May 1 as the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. It’s through the figure of Joseph that the Church exposes the emptiness of the socialist idea of work.

“Cursed is the earth in thy work;” God tells Adam in Genesis 3. “With labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.”

Man will always need to “labor and toil.” Any hope for a work-free, earthly utopia rests on the fundamental ignorance of this basic fact. To be human is to work; it is an essential and permanent aspect of any human society.

Meaningful work

The question then becomes: What is the purpose of our work? What makes it meaningful?

According to the socialists — best exemplified by the massive labor force of the Soviet Union — the purpose of work was simply the betterment of the state. The “rights of the worker” exist only to allow each individual to contribute to the good of the collective.

For Pius XI, this negation of man’s true purpose was the fundamental problem of socialism. In his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, he admits that while communism produces the the evils of unrelenting class warfare and the total abolition of private ownership, less extreme versions of socialism cannot be as broadly condemned.

‘Utterly foreign to Christian truth’

This is because some of the concerns expressed by socialists are not unfounded. The central example Pius XI points to is Western capitalism’s tendency to allow the market to seize “sovereignty over society.”

In contending that such sovereignty belongs “not to owners, but to the public authority,” the pope emphasizes that socialism’s opposition to Western capitalism is not in itself enough to dismiss it. Instead, he cuts to the real issue — that socialism’s very “concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth.”

Man is placed on earth so that he might order his life “unto the praise and glory of his creator.” Man derives happiness in this life and the next from seeking to do what is pleasing to God.

Socialism, writes Pius XI, is “wholly ignoring and indifferent to this sublime end of man.” In the socialist view, human society exists “for the sake of material advantage alone.” We can clearly see how an ideology devoid of supernatural meaning cannot possibly possess a correct understanding of work and its purpose.

When Pius XII established the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, he showed why socialism and the socialist celebration of May Day are incompatible with the Christian understanding of work.

In speaking to workers’ associations, he reminded them, “Your first concern is to preserve and increase the Christian life of the worker.” This prioritization of the divine is in direct conflict with the materialist worldview of socialism.

Capitalism’s excesses

Like his predecessor, Pius XII did not dismiss the concerns of socialists without due consideration. He warned against the excesses of unchecked capitalism (which could also become an oppressive system if not properly subordinated to Christian charity) and declared that the worker must be “supported and sustained in his legitimate demands and expectations.”

In highlighting these concerns and how Christianity might best address them, Pius XII reveals the utter incapacity of socialism to respect the inherent dignity of man as well as the true dignity and purpose of the worker.

Instead of seeking solace in the empty promises of socialism, Pius XII urges Christians to order their lives and work toward God. To that end, he recommends St. Joseph as a model and patron, pointing out that “there could not be a better protector to help you to let the spirit of the gospel penetrate your life.”

A tangible example

In placing workers under the patronage of St. Joseph, the pope gives them a tangible example on which to model their labor and their lives and a visible counter to the socialist idea of work as a merely material endeavor.

Today, we may no longer be threatened by the looming behemoth of the Soviet Union, but we still contend with the rise of communist China and the rampant secularization of our own workplaces. We can still look to St. Joseph as an example of “the dignity of the worker.”

It is as important now as ever to recall that our work is, above all else, in service to God. It is from this service that we draw pleasure and meaning in our work. Do not fall for the empty platitudes and vain anthems of the socialists and their May Day. We know that true solidarity and true meaning in our work and in our lives are found in joyful service to Christ our Lord.

​St. joseph the worker, Catholicism, Pope leo xiii, Pope pius xi, Pope pius xii, Labor, Communism, Socialism, Soviet union, May day, Pray day 

Full disclosure: We were a sports family, extraordinaire. Football, ballet, gymnastics.

But then one child turned out to be immensely talented at another very consuming, very expensive Olympic sport. We upended our whole family to help her pursue this dream. As in, we moved to another state for her training, and Dad stayed behind to support the effort (i.e., pay the bills). For several years, we did not even live together as a family.

It almost broke us.

Why do we worship sports?

Most people seem to love sports, or at least, a sport. More watching than participating, of course — that’s why most of us don’t look like athletes. But we do love the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” to quote the old (I guess ancient, actually) ABC TV program “Wide World of Sports.”

Plus, nobody does human interest stories better than sports journalists. They’re absolute masters of the tearjerker backstory: How the plucky little high school basketball player overcame rickets after his grandma died and became LeBron James. (Not LeBron James’ story, but I’m sure somewhere in there he may have been plucky.) Anyway, that kind of feel-good-now-I’m-rooting-for-him type of story.

Giving up unrushed family time is far too high a price to pay for the fleeting glory (or not) of a championship.

But you know the stories we don’t hear? The my-parents-divorced-after-living-apart-for-training stories.

There were a lot of those at the Olympic training center where my daughter trained. Or the non-prodigy-child-got-into-trouble-in-a-desperate-bid-for-attention story. Or the we-bankrupted-our-family-no-college-money-now story. We saw all of these play out in families around us.

For every heartwarming Olympic or NFL or Master’s tournament story, there are thousands of child sports stories that don’t end with a medal, ring, title, or even a scholarship. But they do end in damaged families, fractured relationships, debt, and regret. Of all the people who “gave up everything” to train — only a tiny fraction get a big reward.

Here’s the thing: Even the “big winners” pay this steep price, and in most cases, it’s not worth it. Let me explain.

It’s a zero-sum game

You can’t give up huge chunks of your family life to the demanding taskmaster of organized kids’ sports without consequences. You can’t give up huge chunks of your family life for any reason without consequences. But in America today, organized sports are hijacking a healthy family dynamic.

Christian families in particular should have a higher goal for family life than endless shuttling to kids’ activities. But the endless shuttling hurts any family.

Let’s examine what everyone gives up when your child plays a sport, especially club team sports or extremely time-intensive individual sports.

The casualty, dead on arrival, is this: unrushed family time. And I submit for your consideration that giving up unrushed family time is far too high a price to pay for the fleeting glory (or not) of a championship or even a scholarship.

Why? Because what starts as an innocent once-a-week activity never gets less time-consuming (or less expensive). The demands only grow. Eventually, your family’s entire schedule — your whole family life — revolves around the coach’s requirements, not yours. Or the coaches’ requirements if you have more than one kid involved.

And if you have one kid involved, you have to make sure the others get “equal time” in another sport or activity. It’s only fair, right?

I’ve watched many parents go off in different directions every weekend, dad taking daughter to her weekend volleyball tournament, mom taking son to baseball practice and games. They reunite in exhaustion late Sunday night, only to start the week’s practice schedule all over again.

But this setup — catering to multiple children’s sports and activities — will eat up the fleeting time you have with your children and spit out nothing of value.

Even if one of them goes on to become an Olympic gold medalist, the cost will have been too high because, as I’ve written before, children are best served when they spend the bulk of their time with the people who love them the most: their family.

What is a family for?

Everyday family life at home is where faith is taught and demonstrated, where character is developed, where relationships are strengthened, where children are raised to become people who love God and others.

We need family time for all this to happen. Unhurried family dinners. Regular church attendance together. Time exploring the natural world together, minus screens. Taking the kids to visit a nursing home or to serve at a soup kitchen. Spontaneous weekend road trips to visit the grandparents, the cousins, the forest, or the beach. Long conversations about anything and everything.

As Christians, we are raising children to be people who love God and others. Children’s sports activities offer nothing toward this goal. What they do tend to emphasize, however, is the self. If my family’s life is mostly focused on my sport practices, games, and goals, I am learning that it really is all about me, despite what my parents say.

Actions speak much louder than words.

Individual sports, where there is no team component, are probably even worse because the focus is on one child individually. But make no mistake: Your kids don’t need to be on a sports team to learn teamwork. God put them on a team already, and it’s your family.

That is the team that will permanently suffer if other sports and activities are allowed to dominate your family life.

If your children are currently in a demanding sport, you know that “team family” is not getting quality time together — or maybe any time together. When’s the last time you all sat down to eat dinner together without having to rush off? When’s the last time you had an unhurried, deep conversation?

The church issue is not the only issue

Club sports, in particular, seem to delight in scheduling practices and games in such a way that there is rarely an untouched weekend. I’ve watched countless families drop off the radar at church because tournaments and games are scheduled not only all day Saturday but on Sunday as well, often involving travel that eats up the whole weekend.

About a year ago, a pastor in Texas posted about this phenomenon on X and how their family took a stand against Sunday sports participation, which caused his daughter some grief. While I admire parents who push back against sports being the most important thing on their schedule, I can’t help but think there’s a lot more to discipling your children than showing up at church on Sunday.

In other words, it’s not enough to just draw a boundary around Sunday.

Discipleship takes time. Years, in fact, which is why God designed little people to begin life in families that show them the way, day in and day out, through loving and secure relationships with — again — the people who love them the most. Time goes by quickly — and it’s something you never get back.

Every minute you spend focusing on a child’s sport is a minute you are not spending focusing on something more valuable. You cannot center your family life around a child’s sport or activity and not skew their view of him/herself and his/her relationship to your family and to the world. The message sent is really that it’s all about you, kid.

This may be, in part, what’s to blame for a generation of extraordinarily entitled young people. If your parents were not much more to you than chauffeurs to your every practice and activity (and the wallets to pay for it), you probably have an overinflated view of your own importance.

I’m not saying that every former child/teen athlete is insufferably self-centered, although a lot of them are. But I am saying they are not the people they could have been with mindfully attentive parenting instead of abandonment to a sport.

Was it all worth it?

Does the Olympic gold medal make up for a childhood spent training apart from your family?

The child who wins the medal surely thinks it’s worth it because that child has been trained, as noted, to consider his/her pursuit the most important thing. But it wasn’t.

Our culture absolutely glorifies this — the medal winner, the NFL Draft pick, the title holder. Every once in a while, there’s a story that highlights the sacrifices made to achieve the medal or title, and those sacrifices are always framed as noble.

But sacrificing the precious little time you have with your children on the altar of pursuing sports (or any other) excellence is not noble. It is tragic. Sending your child to train somewhere away from you is the ultimate tragic choice.

Christian parents: I beg you to prioritize better than we did.

A few final thoughts

Sports offer some benefits, to be sure. If they can be incorporated into your child’s life in a way that doesn’t suck up other more valuable pursuits, great.

In retrospect, which is all I have at this point, I wish we’d enrolled the whole family in martial arts together. That would have provided a “life sport” that we could have done together as a family.

Yeah, we have a lot of regret. We can’t get back the years our family was split up to accommodate a training regimen. We can’t have the conversations we would have had, the meals we would have enjoyed together, the trips we might have taken, or the opportunities to serve others together that we could have experienced.

So I implore you to prayerfully consider your extremely limited family time, choosing to use it for God’s glory instead of your child’s. This is, after all, why God put children in families — so they can grow in secure and loving guidance. They need you more than they need anything else while they’re under your roof.

For us, our time with our kids is, even now, by far our favorite time. We just wish we had used it better for them, for us, and for the Lord we love.

​Family, Sports, Youth sports, Christianity, Christians, Faith 

A couple of weeks ago, I woke up to this text message from my friend: “Telepathy Tapes on Spotify. YOU MUST LISTEN.”

It’s not the first time a hyped friend or family member has told me I have to listen to this podcast, watch that video, or read some article. Most of the time, the content people send me is good, but it’s not mind-bending.

This time it was.

I started listening to episode one in the background, intending to get some chores done while I half-listened. It took all of five minutes for me to become completely and totally engrossed. No chores were completed that day.

Episode one opens with this: “For decades, a very specific group of people have been claiming telepathy is happening in their homes and classrooms, and nobody has believed them; nobody has listened to them, but on this podcast, we do.”

While that “we” captures an entire host of cinematographers and scientists, the two main pillars in the show are Ky Dickens, an established documentarian and the host of the series, and the doctor who inspired the podcast, Diane Hennacy Powell, a John Hopkins-trained psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and researcher and former Harvard Medical School faculty member.

Her studies on telepathy, however, have often alienated her from those institutions. At one point, Dr. Powell was even fined and her medical license temporarily revoked for publishing her research. Sadly, in today’s world, that makes me more likely to take an interest in her work. Doctors willing to suffer scrutiny and even outright rejection to get the facts — especially the ones that are incompatible with the political narrative or that don’t fit nicely into the rigid box of Western medicine — are doctors who have my attention.

It’s another phenomenon the scientific community likes to dance around because no one can prove how it’s happening.

Dickens explains early in episode one that studies in extrasensory perception — telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and the like — are dismissed by the scientific community because to entertain such concepts requires challenging science’s fiercely guarded modus operandi: materialism, the godless worldview that argues physical matter and the interaction between it are all there is.

The framework contends that if something can’t be explained by physics, then it isn’t real.

As a Christian, I’ve always known this paradigm is fundamentally flawed, void of hope, and deeply arrogant. To witness two non-Christians (and one a medical doctor) boldly rebuff this doctrine and embrace phenomena in the name of truth-seeking, regardless of consequences to their careers and reputations, was as compelling as the research itself.

As I mentioned earlier, the duo explore purported telepathic abilities in a niche population: Non-speaking autistic individuals who face significant motor challenges. Let me paint a picture of what that can look like.

Neurotypicals (people who do not have a cognitive disability) often use phrases like they’re not “all there” to describe these individuals. Historically, doctors have assumed they are unintelligent, have intellectual disabilities, and/or are incapable of typical cognition. Back when I taught high school English, these kids were placed in the “Life Skills” classroom, where they were fed, cleaned, and constantly attended to. The little education they received involved skills you might teach a toddler. On the rare occasion we saw them, they were often making strange, incomprehensible noises, acting in ways that would be considered inappropriate, or staring off into some void.

Now imagine that this population is taught to communicate using letter boards or typing devices.

That is who this podcast centers around.

They’re called “spellers.” And I confess, before I listened to this series, if you’d asked me what a nonverbal autistic person with serious motor challenges would say if taught to communicate, my answer would not have been the most optimistic.

This podcast has been a stern rebuking of sorts. Once they’ve been taught to communicate, all the participants featured in the podcast reveal that they aren’t just “all there” — they’re ultra there. Some are geniuses, others poets. Many are brimming with wisdom that feels like it came from Solomon himself. Most speak of a great cosmic love, claim to access non-earthly realms, purport an afterlife, and exhibit supernatural gifts.

In short, Dr. Powell encountered this fringe group in her studies on savants — that is, people who can do miraculous things, like perform calculus equations, expertly play the piano, or speak eight languages, without ever having been taught. It’s another phenomenon the scientific community likes to dance around because no one can prove how it’s happening.

During these studies, Dr. Powell began receiving emails from parents all over the world claiming their children could read their minds or others’ minds with perfect accuracy. This led to studies in which she tested these claims.

Her conclusion? It’s all true — there are mind readers living among us.

In 2008, she published her work in a book titled “The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena.” Years later, Dickens stumbled upon it, was shocked by the information she read, and, after developing a relationship with Dr. Powell, produced a documentary-like podcast called “The Telepathy Tapes,” in which she recreated and expanded Dr. Powell’s original experiments on these remarkable people.

After practically bingeing the entire series and reading through feedback from listeners, something has been bothering me: There seems to be a lack of Christian perspective on “The Telepathy Tapes.” I’ve seen lots of commentary from universalists, spiritualists, and New Agers but literally none from Christians. It could be that the podcast is still gaining traction and hasn’t reached many believers yet, or perhaps Christians are talking about it in circles I’m not privy to.

In either case, “The Telepathy Tapes” demand a Christian response, as the findings and stories outlined in the series can only be described as spiritual. Even more, I think the podcast’s popularity signals a turning of cultural tides toward a re-mystified view of the world, as materialism has failed to offer hope or provide answers to humanity’s most pressing questions.

Christians should be waiting at that juncture with answers.

Miracles on tape

The first half of “The Telepathy Tapes” is devoted almost entirely to experimentation. Dickens conducts a series of tests aimed at assessing non-speakers’ alleged telepathic gifts. Experiments are filmed, and every measure is taken to ensure that cheating is an impossibility. Screens, mirrors, and windows are covered; blindfolds are used; child and parent are often tested in separate spaces so they have zero contact.

From every angle, the experiments certainly seem bulletproof. Video footage of many of the tests can be accessed on thetelepathytapes.com. And yes, I’ve watched them. Either there’s a bunch of very normal-looking families out there using their nonspeaking autistic children to perform reality-warping magic tricks, or psychic phenomena are indeed happening.

Here’s just one example of a test Dickens’ team conducted. A nonverbal autistic college student named Akhil sits across the room facing in the opposite direction from his mother, the person he has mentally merged with. Dickens, using a random word generator, shows his mother a strange, unfamiliar term, ensuring the entire time that it remains out of Akhil’s sight. Using his communication device, he then types the word exactly as his mother is seeing it. He does this again and again, with 100% accuracy. He then moves on to other tests that involve identifying book pages, abstract images, and four-digit numbers his mother views. He never misses a single question.

Akhil is one of several non-speakers the team runs through these kinds of experiments. Every speller they test exhibits the same remarkable ability.

In the second half of the series, Dickens’ team travels around the world, meeting with parents, teachers, non-speakers, and other scientists in the field of ESP. Believe it or not, this part of “The Telepathy Tapes” is even more fascinating than the first.

‘My job on Earth is to make all the Earth hear that God is love.’

The stories these families, teachers, and non-speakers tell are paradigm-shifting.

A former teacher reflects on a non-speaking student she had years ago. One time, when she was grocery shopping, she grabbed a few of his favorite snacks to bring to him the next day at school. Before she ever mentioned the treats, which were locked in her car, he had drawn a picture of every single item she had purchased.

In another incredible anecdote, a mother describes a dream she had when her nonverbal autistic son was young. In the dream, she sees him standing before her, but he speaks and moves normally, free of his earthly restrictions. He presents her with an ace of spades card and urges her to wake up. The next morning, he hands her an ace of spades card, mirroring his action in the dream. She discovers he intentionally entered her dream intending to communicate with her. They begin regularly meeting, speaking, and writing music together via lucid dreaming.

Other fascinating stories include a girl who knows the exact details of the strange event that caused her teacher to be late to school, a boy who places his hand on books and absorbs all the information inside without cracking them open, and a 10-year-old girl who types cryptic warnings before national tragedies occur.

However, in the last few episodes, the podcast takes a hard spiritual turn when Dickens and her research team encounter phenomena and hear stories that don’t just challenge the West’s materialist paradigm but shatter it completely.

The most powerful story by far in the podcast is equal parts tragic and beautiful.

One of the boys featured in “The Telepathy Tapes” dies suddenly from a seizure. Many of his autistic non-speaking friends, however, separately reported that he knew his time was up and had telepathically said his goodbyes to them in the days leading up to his death. At his funeral, these children, using their communication devices, all reported that angels filled the room.

The most powerful line in the podcast comes from a young man named Houston, whose mother believed for the first 17 years of his life that he was practically brain-dead. Once he becomes a speller, his mother discovers he is not only incredibly intelligent but also deeply spiritual.

At one point in the podcast, he types this: “My job on Earth is to make all the Earth hear that God is love. So great is love that no one will have any need to fear when they sink into its depths. … When you’ve seen what I’ve seen, there is no doubt.”

Almost all non-speakers, at least the ones featured in this podcast, speak of God in similar ways, regularly encounter angels, interact with spirits of people who have died, and know information they have no way of accessing. More than one child in the series referred to non-speakers as “light workers.”

Other spiritual strangeness includes a pediatric speech pathologist who sees a body of light hovering above her 4-year-old nonverbal autistic patient, a child savant who speaks numerous languages claiming “God” and “the gods” taught her how to do it, a 7-year-old boy whose very first typed sentence is “God is a good gift giver,” and a boy who hears the specific prayers of a man he’s never seen or met.

One peculiar trait most of these spellers have in common is that their verbiage and syntax are strange and poetic.

One teacher featured in “The Telepathy Tapes,” who’s worked with hundreds of these nonverbal autistic children in the U.S., describes their communication like this: “They have a way of speaking, a style of speaking, that is not of this earth. It’s not English grammar; there’s a lightness to it; there’s often love infused with it; there’s wisdom in there.”

Dickens, after reading hundreds of messages from these gifted people, corroborates this notion when she says they communicate like they’re “from the time of the Torah.”

At this point, the research team has no choice but to contend with the flip side of the materialist worldview: Spiritualism, the idea that reality involves a physical and a non-physical dimension, which interact with each other.

At one point, Dickens asks, “Are we consciousness? Are we an illusion or hologram? Are we spirit? Are we light?” Her skeptical cameraman Michael waxed less poetic when, following a series of miraculous demonstrations, he asks, “Do I have to believe in God now?”

While no one in the podcast emerges from the research with their materialist worldview intact, no one arrives at, or even considers, Christianity either. Their new paradigm, while differing slightly from person to person, is predicated on the belief that consciousness is the foundation of the universe and the source of everything that exists.

What’s disheartening to me is that they’re describing Genesis 1:1.

A great “consciousness” did indeed exist before everything else and is the source of all things. His name is Yahweh. I Am Who I Am. But they can’t make that final leap to the divine, similar to how Big Bang theorists believe in an explosion of light and matter but can’t see they’re reiterating the creation story.

Even still, it’s encouraging to see people who have long rejected the divine open their hearts to the possibility that there is something greater than humanity out there. Perhaps believing in telepathy will be the genesis of a spiritual journey that eventually leads to God.

Prophecy, tongues, and telepathy

As for these non-speakers and their miraculous abilities, my first thought was how unbelievably tragic to be cognitively capable (perhaps excessively so) and deeply spiritual but unable to share that with those around you.

Imagine you encounter angels, write music in your dreams, and have the soul of a poet, but your body betrays you, and so your gifts are invisible to your family, who talk to you like you’re 2 years old, if they talk to you at all. Can you fathom the excruciation?

While the non-speakers featured in “The Telepathy Tapes” are fortunate enough to have families who put them in spelling programs that give them a voice, the truth is that the majority of non-speaking autistic people are never taught to communicate, and so they spend their lives muzzled — their potential shut up in a vault nobody can see. I pray this podcast reaches the families of non-speakers and becomes a doorway to a brighter future for them.

My second thought was: What’s really going on with these people? If they are indeed communicating telepathically, seeing into the spirit realm, and exhibiting other supernatural gifts — and it certainly seems that they are — where did they get these abilities, and why do they have them?

I think the 7-year-old boy I mentioned above whose first sentence was “God is a good gift giver” said the answer. These seem to be gifts from God.

Many of them, we see in scripture. What scientists call precognition — the ability to perceive future events — the Bible calls prophecy. What ESP calls clairvoyance — the ability to perceive information about people, events, or objects beyond the range of normal sensory perception — overlaps significantly with the spiritual gift of “words of knowledge.” Encounters with angelic beings are well documented throughout scripture, as is the gift of godly wisdom, which, as I mentioned, many of these non-speakers appear to have.

Telepathy, however, is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, unless we’re talking about the omniscient triune God who obviously has access to our thoughts. However, telepathy does share some characteristics of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues, of which there are two types.

The first type, called “tongues of men,” involves the ability to suddenly speak in a foreign language for the purpose of spreading the gospel. The second type is called “tongues of angels” and involves private prayer spoken in a supernatural language understood only by God. Both are a type of communication that is atypical and not accessible to everyone.

Telepathy is also an atypical mode of communication with specific purposes that is not universally accessible. Similar to tongues of men, telepathy allows non-speakers to communicate with neurotypicals where communication has been impossible. Similar to tongues of angels, non-speakers report that telepathy is their primary mode of communication with other non-speakers, meaning their conversations are private and not accessible to others.

While it is undoubtedly distinct from speaking in tongues, I can’t help but wonder if telepathy could also be a God-given gift of communication, specifically designed for those who have been tragically barred from connecting with the world via speaking. Might it be a bridge to community for people who were made for relationship but struggle to access it?

I don’t know the answers to those questions. I only know that anything that crosses my path must be evaluated by the truth of God’s word. We know from scripture that spiritual gifts are real; we know the Bible is full of strange occurrences; we know God designed all people to exist in relationship with others; and we know He is close to the brokenhearted.

I don’t think it’s far-fetched to speculate that He’s made a way for non-speakers where there was none. God is in the business of way-making. He did it for Noah before the flood, for the Israelites when he parted the Red Sea, for David when he faced Goliath, and, most importantly, for humanity through the sacrifice of Jesus.

People see the cracks in the West’s materialist paradigm and are interested in what powers are blinking through those fissures.

Who’s to say He’s not making a way for this vulnerable population that has been robbed of something so precious as their voice?

That’s not to say, however, that all non-speaking autistic people with these gifts are using them for kingdom work or have personal relationships with Jesus Christ. Some spellers featured in the podcast communicate spiritual ideas that diametrically oppose scripture.

For example, one girl claims that all religions have different names for the same God. Several non-speakers championed the pantheistic or New Age philosophy that the foundation of the cosmos is an impersonal consciousness, free of divine authority — we’re all just beautiful consciousnesses connected to this great universal power, kind of like Eywa in the “Avatar” movies.

These are demonic ideas. So what are we to make of these spellers and their gifts?

Again, I don’t have answers, just conjectures. It seems to me that these non-speakers have at least partial access to the spirit realm — almost as if their consciousness resides somewhere between Earth and the spiritual dimension. Their spiritual messages vary from absolutely true (God is a good gift giver) to absolutely false (Buddha = God), but that makes sense when you consider that the spirit realm is inhabited by both angelic and demonic beings. Some of these heretical ideas must be coming from the demonic beings.

Exceptional as these non-speakers are, they are still human and thus caught up in the spiritual warfare that impacts us all. Their vantage point is just different.

A re-mystified world

Even though Ky Dickens, Dr. Powell, and the vast majority of people involved in “The Telepathy Tapes” land somewhere in the realm of metaphysics or spiritualism — neither of which lead to ultimate truth — I still say the series is a win for God’s kingdom.

The fact that this podcast was produced and is rapidly gaining popularity means that people see the cracks in the West’s materialist paradigm and are interested in what powers are blinking through those fissures. It means people can’t help but be discontented with finality and hope for something infinite. It means we are becoming more human again — sloughing off our robotic “science explains everything” Enlightenment thinking and adopting a more humble approach that doesn’t assume we are the greatest thing in the universe.

This is progress.

For Christians, however, “The Telepathy Tapes” is a reminder that the Bible, while sufficient for our earthly lives, only gives us a small window into our magnificent Creator. In Exodus, He says that no one can gaze upon His face and live. In Isaiah, we are reminded that His ways and thoughts are different from ours. In Job, we are told that no man can fathom the mysteries of God or understand His limitlessness. In Romans, we are warned against even attempting to comprehend His judgments, for no man can know the mind of the Lord.

The book of John concludes with this powerful line: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

Bottom line: We have been given merely a taste of our Lord.

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of how much we don’t know. Similar to materialists, Christians also have their worldview rocked when phenomena aren’t easily explained by scripture. We, too, can make the mistake of dismissing something as impossible simply because our doctrine doesn’t explain it. But this makes God in our image. We like things to make sense.

But God has told us that we will never make perfect sense of Him, at least on this side of heaven.

“The Telepathy Tapes,” while strange and paradigm-shifting, has strengthened my faith by reminding me that I don’t have to, nor am I meant to, understand everything about God or His spoken cosmos. No mystery or phenomenon challenges His goodness.

​Autism, Christianity, Diane hennacy powell, God, Ky dickens, Telepathy, Telepathy tapes, Faith 

President Donald Trump’s crusade against DEI advocacy and “woke” social philosophy is not only rhetorical — it’s reshaping our institutional culture.

This reversal follows years of aggressive momentum in the opposite direction. Diversity officers flooded campuses and corporate offices, enforcing a rigid ideological orthodoxy. Student activists didn’t just protest disfavored speakers; they blocked them from speaking altogether. Meanwhile, employees at major media outlets and tech companies pressured their bosses to align with their own political demands, often through coordinated campaigns of public shaming and internal revolt.

If we take the time to understand history, we can prepare ourselves for some highly potent threats.

In recent months, the DEI juggernaut has improbably slowed and nearly ground to a halt. Various organizations have announced changes in policies or reductions in the number of positions devoted to woke initiatives.

Most notable, perhaps, was Meta’s announcement that it would stop throttling political content and engaging in censorious fact-checking practices.

The reversal is viscerally shocking because the major platforms had become comfortable using censorship tactics, silencing anyone who dared to deviate from the approved narrative — even banning Trump.

Why the sudden change?

One explanation for the rapid change is that Trump’s decisive victory in the 2024 presidential election gave permission to various elites to discern a new consensus in the broader society.

I believe there is something more significant than some kind of radar telling executives that the woke movement somehow overreached. Certainly, it is the case that social movements go too far and have to consolidate their gains before further advance. But there is something different here that everyone should consider.

The great management thinker Peter Drucker’s first book was called “The End of Economic Man.” One of the key insights from his book was in recognizing similarities between fascist and communist approaches to controlling a society. Both evolved single-party structures that ran parallel to already existing government and corporate (even if state-owned) institutions. That means that while a police force or factory or school would have a hierarchy of leadership, there would be another chain of authority that was political accompanying it. The parallel party authority had the responsibility of ensuring that the prerogatives of policing or producing or educating never won out over the political imperatives.

Whether we are talking about Nazis or Soviet communists, the same dynamic was operative.

Anyone aware of those powerful forces and realities that existed in Germany, Russia, and in other places should be able to readily see that the various philosophies (race, gender, anti-Israel, climate, etc.) uniting under the banner of woke have been cohering into a similar kind of movement in the United States. With gathering momentum, they constructed parallel powers within American institutions.

Those wielding the woke authority have been pushing hard to make their priorities the strongest and most undeniable in any organization. It was the same for Nazi or communist ideology. This is true even in some American churches where Black Lives Matter and Pride flags often seem to have displaced the cross and the Bible almost entirely.

This argument doesn’t rely on comparisons to Nazis or totalitarians for shock value. I’m not trying to score an easy win through historical name-calling. Instead, I offer a straightforward observation: Powerful movements in the 20th century gained influence by capturing institutions. Today, we’re witnessing similar strategies from modern social movements.

If we want to avoid building a society where ideological activists dictate how every institution operates, we must stop enabling their rise and expansion.

Thanks, Elon

Some American elites — perhaps most notably Elon Musk, who took real social and professional risks — seem to have recognized the threat. Whether they act out of principle, instinct, or self-preservation, they’ve begun to push back.

This doesn’t mean CEOs will start waging open war against the woke movement. But we are seeing a quiet deflation. The cultural balloon has started to lose air. Enough people remember the mistakes of the last century to help steer us away from the edge of the woke cliff.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz once remarked of the political battle of ideas and initiatives, “It’s never over.” That’s true. Even if the woke alliance suffers setbacks, there is little doubt that some other event or some other charismatic figure will manage to infuse life into something earlier believed to be moribund.

But the good thing is that if we take the time to understand history, we can prepare ourselves for some highly potent threats because we know what human beings have done before and can perhaps inoculate ourselves against intellectual viruses with particularly destructive impact.

​Dei policies, Dei, Donald trump, Woke, Woke culture, Opinion & analysis, Elon musk, Peter drucker 

When Dr. Mark Goldfeder, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center and the attorney litigating against green card holder and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, was invited on CNN, the panel — composed of Jake Tapper, Margaret Hoover, and her husband, John Avlon — had every intention of humiliating him.

However, they were the ones who were put to shame in the interview.

Mark Levin plays the clip.

Goldfeder compared Harvard potentially losing its tax-exemption status for refusing to comply with the Trump administration’s demands to address anti-Semitism and DEI policies on campus to Bob Jones University losing its tax-exemption status in 1983 for its prohibition on interracial dating and marriage among students.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has already held that a charitable organization, including specifically a university, can lose its tax-exempt status if they are violating fundamental policy,” said Goldfeder, referencing the 1983 case.

“The reality here is that elite universities are undermining confidence in the entire sector. Jewish students are being harassed and assaulted, and elite university administrators have done nothing to stop it, including at Harvard,” he continued, adding that “financial incentives seem to be the only lever that we can pull to stop the racist and anti-Semitic conduct on their campuses.”

Avlon, smug and hostile, then fired back, “You’re comparing Harvard University to Bob Jones University, which lost its tax-exempt status because it forbid interracial dating? I just want to be clear that’s your official position, right?”

When Goldfeder said yes, Avlon mocked, “Super, that’s gonna go down real well. Sounds really equivalent.”

“Why would you cut scientific funding? Why would you cut medical funding?” he spat.

Goldfeder’s response was simple brilliance: “Harvard has $53 billion in its endowment. … Dip into your endowment or stop discriminating. … If you want to keep discriminating, you have plenty of money that you raised over the years, and anything that the U.S. cuts off, I’m sure Qatar will fill right in.”

Goldfeder’s point, Mark Levin explains, is that “if you’re so worried about hospitals and research, why don’t you use some of your 53 friggin’ billion dollars and do something about it? Why are Mr. and Mrs. America — almost none of whom go to Harvard … subsidizing the highest of the Ivy League colleges,” especially when it promotes dangerous anti-Semitism and racist DEI policies on its campus?

“All they have to do is stop with this DEI, which is racist … and stop the anti-Semitism! Is this really so hard?” Levin asks.

He also points out that Avlon “wouldn’t have that stupid smirk on his face” if, instead of Jewish students, it was black students being harassed on campus.

“You have Jewish kids on campus who are being violently threatened, who are being harmed, in some cases running for their safety. That is very serious. If we had black kids on campus running for their safety, locking themselves in libraries, locking themselves in dorm rooms … you’d be hearing very different stories than you hear from this guy with a smirk on his face,” he condemns.

“That guy Avlon is a disgrace. His wife’s sitting there like a bobblehead, and Jake Tapper — he’s a disgrace too. … No group, minority or majority, should be treated the way the Jews are being treated on these college campuses. Period.”

To see Dr. Goldfeder’s CNN segment and hear more of Levin’s commentary, watch the clip above.

Want more from Mark Levin?

To enjoy more of “the Great One” — Mark Levin as you’ve never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Mark levin, Levintv, Harvard, Anti-semitism, Ivy league, Ivy league anti semitism, Jake tapper, Cnn, Harvard endowment, Blazetv, Blaze media, John avlon 

People are finally noticing that there aren’t as many children as there used to be.

Because demography is destiny when it comes to the future — as opposed to, say, climate science or fortune cookies — even people who don’t like children are alarmed. In case you’ve not heard, times have changed. We’ve gone from worrying about a population bomb to fretting about a population bust. The fertility rate is tanking.

We know what happened — we just don’t want to admit it: Our society lost faith in God.

The math is simple: We need every woman to bear at least 2.1 children to maintain a steady population, or about two children to replace every man and woman alive. The 0.1 accounts for the sad fact that some children don’t live to see adulthood.

Let this sink in: I said every woman, not some women. Every. Single. Woman.

Of course, there have always been childless women. But other women have always made up the difference. We must be blunt: Our distaste for reality is acute. For every woman who does not bear children, there must be two women who have three or another who has four. You might not like the math, but too bad.

I know this is an unpopular message. Just mention the facts, and feminists clutch copies of “The Handmaid’s Tale” to their breasts.

So how bad is it? Here are the numbers: Last year, the fertility rate in the United States dropped to 1.62 children per woman. But in the global race to zero, we’re a laggard.

By comparison, here are a few other nations:

The United Kingdom: 1.53
Hungary: 1.5
Switzerland: 1.44
Greece: 1.34
Chile: 1.17
China: 1.02
Singapore: 0.97
South Korea: 0.75

While it is true that the global population continues to rise, that’s because people are taking longer to die. And despite the best efforts of Bryan Johnson and Ray Kurzweil (a couple of “don’t die” techno-utopians), the death rate is still 100%. This means that the global population, when it finally begins to do gown, will drop like a rock.

For some people, this is great news. They don’t like kids anyway, and they’re not too sure about the rest of us. But the implications are bad for everything from social welfare to technological innovation to even personal happiness.

We’ve been fooling ourselves. Social Security and your retirement savings are not replacements for children (i.e., the original retirement plan). Young adults with children to feed do most of the consuming and innovating in any economy. And with fewer children, we’re likely to experience economic stagnation and decline for the foreseeable future.

There are naysayers — there always are. In this case, techno-utopians assure us that AI and robots will fill the gaps. But Elon Musk (of all people) isn’t so sanguine. And while he is doing his part (with 14 children), no one would call him “Dad of the Year.” He scatters his seed like Genghis Khan. His children will have the best of everything, I’m sure, but what they won’t have is a father in the home. Honest sociologists and psychologists (not easy to find) say this is one of the most important factors when raising healthy children, a fact people don’t like to admit.

So what do we do?

Recently, the Trump administration
floated the idea of a $5,000 incentive for every baby born. Really? Back in 2017, a Department of Agriculture study estimated that raising a child to the age of 17 would cost a whopping $233,610. While that number is absurd in its own right, no one denies that children are expensive.

The U.S. is not the first to try to incentivize childbearing. Some countries, such as Hungary and South Korea, have been doing it for a while.

The question is: Does it work? But as you noticed from the fertility rate numbers above, no. The incentives have barely moved the needle in those countries.

But why doesn’t it work? People desperate for answers wonder what is responsible for the declining birth rates. Sperm counts? Something in the air?

While environmental toxins do contribute to infertility, the real culprit is modernity itself. It is the most powerful sterilization drug ever invented. In our thoroughly modern “have it your way” world, people aren’t even getting married — let alone having children. It’s the same everywhere. In fact, it’s even more the case in the Orient than in the Occident. Turns out, China did not need that “one-child” policy. They finally eliminated it, but modernity cemented it.

Let’s get real. People don’t have children for the money, and declining fertility can’t be explained away by falling sperm counts. We know what happened — we just don’t want to admit it.

Our society lost faith in God.

Secularists know this, but it makes them uneasy. In 2011, sociologist Eric Kaufmann wrote the book “Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century.” The book has barely received a modest four-star rating on Amazon. Not because he isn’t right — but precisely because he is.

Kaufmann’s message is clear: Even in the modern world, religious people have children — and lots of them. Because of their high fertility rates, the future belongs to them.

Religious people have a lot of children because they believe that life has meaning and purpose and that the sacrifices required to bring new life into the world are worth it. In the modern world, with its emphasis on markets and quantifiable things, religious faith is dismissed as nothing more than a matter of personal taste. But if you ask people of devout faith, they would never say it like that, because religious faith isn’t concerned with personal preferences but with reality itself.

The faithful don’t believe in their religions because they’re “fulfilling.” They believe in them because they think they’re true.

Christianity doesn’t have a corner on the pro-natal market, but it does have a long and illustrious history of encouraging childbearing and raising children in the faith. Recently, liberal churches have equivocated on this, and some are downright hostile to traditional forms of family life.

But those churches are dying. It won’t be long before they’re nothing more than cautionary tales.

I’m honored to serve a church in one of America’s most liberal states. Despite this, our church has many large and growing families. I estimate the fertility rate in my congregation to be approximately four children per woman. Some women, of course, have more than four children. Fathers in my congregation take an active role in not only providing for their children, but raising them as well.

My church is not isolated. When I travel, I see the same phenomenon playing out in churches across the country. Churches are growing, those that believe children are a heritage from the Lord.

Our churches, of course, aren’t heaven on earth, and we don’t live in epistemic bubbles. My wife and I come from families made up largely of academics and artists, so we’re accustomed to “alternative lifestyles.” In fact, we have many childless relatives who are bitter, lonely, and oddly self-righteous. They think they can gin up the purpose of their lives out of their own desires. But they’re failing — clearly.

The future doesn’t belong to them, and, frankly, they don’t care. Progressives don’t live for tomorrow. They live for the present moment. Religious people, on the other hand — the traditionally religious — live for the future.

If demography is destiny, we will indeed inherit the earth.

​Donald trump, Baby bonus, Fertility, Birth rate, Christianity, Christians, Religious, Children, Faith 

Renowned Christian author Lee Strobel said Americans’ interest in a “realm beyond that which we can see and touch” drove him to write his latest book — an exploration of the supernatural.

Strobel, who recently released “Seeing the Supernatural: Investigating Angels, Demons, Mystical Dreams, Near-Death Encounters, and Other Mysteries of the Unseen World,” said data showing the majority of Americans believe in these biblical topics led him to want to go deeper.

‘It’s not fraud, it’s not fakery. There are documented cases.’

“It told me that this is a bridge where we can connect with people who may be far from God and yet have an interest in the supernatural,” he told me and actress Jen Lilley on our new
“Into the Supernatural” podcast. “It may be an entryway for them to really learn about what the Bible does teach about the world beyond our physical realm.”

Strobel continued, “Being an evangelist, that was always my desire.”

But the author, who called it an “adventure” to have the chance to dive into these topics over the past few years, said some Christians are hesitant to fully embrace each sentiment.

With that in mind, Strobel was careful to choose cases with a great deal of corroboration to help bring these issues to light. Near-death experiences are just one arena where he was fascinated to see powerful evidence that something supernatural had unfolded.

“You begin to see documented cases of near-death experiences where people see or hear things that would have been impossible for them to see or hear if they hadn’t had an authentic out-of-body experience after their clinical death,” Strobel said. “It just reinforces what scripture tells us about the supernatural realm, and I think it gives us more courage.”

Strobel shared one such story about a woman who was clinically dead in a hospital and who claimed to have had her spirit separate from her body.

She said she traveled to the ceiling during the experience and could see her body being resuscitated.

“When she was ultimately revived, she said, ‘Oh, by the way, on the ceiling fan here in the emergency room, on the upper part of the blade … is a red sticker,'” he recounted. “And she couldn’t have seen it. Nobody could see it from the room because it’s on the upper part of the blade of the ceiling. So they got a ladder, and they went up, and, sure enough, there’s the red sticker that she only could have seen from her perspective of her spirit floating near the ceiling of the emergency room.”

Strobel encountered other examples like this, which he included in the book.

Issues like this are getting increasing attention in culture as faith seems to be making a resurgence. And Strobel said he’s noticing something else — that for the first time in history, “People are doing scientific inquiries into miracles” in an attempt to prove their existence.

“In other words, they’re testing them scientifically and with documentation in a way that I don’t think has been done that much in the past,” Strobel said. “And we’re seeing cases of documented miracles that are really waking up people to the fact that this is not wishful thinking, it’s not … the placebo effect, it’s not fraud, it’s not fakery. There are documented cases.”

He also cited the case of medical healing surrounding a blind woman whose husband prayed for her one night, imploring the Lord to heal her vision.

“He says, ‘Lord, I know you can heal blindness. I know you can do it. And Lord, I pray you do it tonight. I pray you do it right now,'” Strobel recounted. “And she opened her eyes to perfect eyesight, and which has remained fine for 47 years so far.”

Medically documented stories like this have Strobel convinced “something is going on” — something he believes is truly miraculous.

“And I think this is kind of opening people’s eyes to the fact that these aren’t just stories that you hear at Sunday school or whatever,” he said. “But you dig down into many of these stories and you find substance, and you find people with eyewitnesses who have no motive to deceive. You have medical records and so forth.”

This article originally appeared on CBN’s Faithwire.

​Lee strobel, Bible, Christianity, Christians, Supernatural, Miracles, Demons, Faith 

Does the Democratic Party have a monopoly on Christ?

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), a pastor and progressive Democrat, recently implied as much. In fact, Warnock suggested that his political views are not only aligned with scripture, but they are synonymous with the teachings of Jesus Christ. And for anyone who disagrees with him, such as Republicans, he believes they’re not only wrong — but they’re abusing Jesus.

Warnock said on “The View”:

I think Jesus is the biggest victim of identity theft in this country. I don’t know who this Jesus is they’re talking about. The Jesus I know was born in a barrio called Bethlehem, raised in a ghetto called Nazareth. He was an immigrant, smuggled into Egypt.

In another interview on MSNBC, Warnock spewed the same message. He said Jesus is a “victim of identity theft” — suggesting that Republicans are the perpetrator — and implied Republicans are acting in cruel, anti-Christian ways when they cut government funding.

Jesus, the progressive?

Warnock’s message is dangerous. It is the theological equivalence of gerrymandering: He is redrawing moral and theological boundaries so that only his side can claim righteousness.

Even worse, Warnock is using his definition of righteousness to divide between the sheep and the goats, replacing Christ’s teachings with progressive policies. In his telling, only progressive policies are truly Christlike, while conservative policies are anti-Christian.

Warnock wants to baptize progressive politics, call it righteousness, and condemn his opponents into outer darkness.

Warnock describes himself as a “Matthew 25 Christian,” referring to Jesus’ famous teaching that Democrats love to weaponize against conservative Christians, to emphasize the Democratic Party’s supposed concern for the poor and marginalized. It sounds noble. But who is opposed to caring for the needs of the poor, victimized, and marginalized? Certainly not conservative Christians. It’s what Christians have done for 2,000 years!

The truth is that conservative Christians disagree on the means. They do not believe a large, centralized, power-hungry government is the best way to achieve this goal. Yet, Warnock talks as if anyone who doesn’t support his preferred legislation is abandoning Christ.

In recasting his policy preferences as the only legitimate Christian action, Warnock condemns himself with the exact kind of holier-than-thou spiritual arrogance that he accuses others of.

Especially troubling is the fact that Warnock, a pastor of a historic church, would frame his political opponents as morally and spiritually compromised — and opponents of Christ Himself — rather than acknowledging the legitimate policy disagreements among his fellow Christian brothers and sisters.

It should go without saying: If you oppose government “solutions,” that does not mean you oppose Christ.

Jesus healed the sick, cared for the poor, and gave hope to the marginalized. He did that because He is God — not because He is a government bureaucrat.

Warnock, guilty as charged

Not only is Warnock engaging in a rhetorical game to shame Christians for policy disagreements, but he is reducing the Gospel to progressive social policy.

It’s not prophetic boldness, though it resonates with his base. It’s dishonest spiritual gatekeeping.

The irony is palpable: Warnock accuses his opponents of stealing Jesus’ “identity” and weaponizing Christianity, while he does exactly that. He uses Christ as a partisan mascot to gain moral leverage over his political opponents.

This game isn’t new for Warnock. Ever since he entered politics, he has leveraged his Christian faith to advance the Democratic Party’s agenda.

Warnock is very concerned about the victim, poor, and marginalized. But what about unborn children? Warnock, of course, boasts about being a “pro-choice pastor,” and he cannot name a single abortion restriction that he endorses. This example alone proves the hollowness of Warnock’s browbeating. If he were truly concerned about every marginalized person — those who do not have “power” or a “voice” — certainly he would advocate for the protection of every unborn life, each of which is formed in God’s image and has neither power nor a voice.

Now, Warnock is using his political leverage to oppose immigration policies that, despite critics, aren’t unbiblical. Christ never said that America has a moral and spiritual obligation to welcome with open arms every migrant who desires to live here.

The Kingdom of God is not of this world. But Warnock wants to baptize progressive politics, call it righteousness, and condemn his opponents into outer darkness.

It isn’t Christianity. It’s pure political and spiritual manipulation.

Christians must reject Warnock’s attempt to conflate his progressive gospel with the good news that Jesus preached. Christ seeks not political conformity but repentance and disciples.

The Son of God doesn’t take marching orders from the Democratic Party. He is Lord, and He won’t be used.

​Raphael warnock, Jesus, Christ, Jesus christ, Christianity, Christians, Republicans, Faith 

America’s postwar generosity rebuilt shattered nations, only to see those nations build economic empires on the ruins of our own industries. What began as Christian charity — opening our markets after World War II with outstretched hands to both friends and former enemies — has been repaid with decades of calculated exploitation.

President Donald Trump’s April 2025 plan to implement “reciprocal tariffs” marks a necessary return to the biblical principles of stewardship, sovereignty, and justice.

Christians must reject the guilt-shaming rhetoric that demands national self-destruction as the price of global participation.

Christians should support these tariffs because they represent a biblical application of proper stewardship and sovereignty rather than mere economic protectionism. These measures align with three foundational scriptural principles: God’s establishment of nations with boundaries, government’s divine mandate to protect citizens, and the biblical command to pursue economic justice.

The tariffs are not simply political policy but God’s design for ordered societies in action.

God established nations with boundaries and purpose

The globalist vision of borderless governance contradicts God’s design. Scripture teaches that nations are His idea, not man’s invention. Acts 17:26 declares that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.”

Nations, with their distinct boundaries and responsibilities, reflect divine wisdom. When America reasserts control over its economy through reciprocal tariffs, it exercises biblical stewardship by honoring the Lord’s created order rather than surrendering to economic predators who weaponize “free trade” against American families. These tariffs represent a return to God’s intended design for nations — each with responsibility to govern its affairs justly and protect what has been entrusted to its care.

The April 2, 2025, National Emergency declaration to address trade imbalances is not an act of isolation but of proper stewardship.

President Trump’s implementation of a baseline 10% tariff on all imports — with higher rates for countries exploiting trade relationships — represents a restoration of boundaries that scripture affirms as necessary and good.

Government’s God-ordained responsibility to protect citizens

Romans 13:1-4 reminds us that government is “God’s servant for your good” and “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” This divine mandate establishes government’s responsibility to protect its citizens from economic exploitation — not to enrich foreign nations at the expense of its own people but to safeguard what is good within its borders.

The White House’s own data reveals the cost of abandoning this God-ordained duty: between $225 billion and $600 billion lost annually to counterfeit goods, pirated software, and theft of trade secrets.

Meanwhile, American companies pay over $200 billion yearly in value-added taxes to foreign governments while receiving no reciprocal treatment. When President Trump imposes reciprocal tariffs, he fulfills government’s biblical purpose as protector of those under its authority.

When a persistent $1.2 trillion trade deficit hollows out our manufacturing base and displaces American workers, government has not only the right but the duty to act. Tariffs are a tool to restore order and protect American families from economic exploitation. They fulfill government’s God-ordained mandate to “bear the sword” for the sake of good — protecting the vulnerable from predatory trade practices.

Economic sovereignty as biblical justice

Isaiah 1:17 commands God’s people to “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression.” This biblical mandate for justice forms the third pillar of our thesis: Tariffs represent economic righteousness in action.

For decades, unbalanced trade has operated as systematic oppression against American workers. The statistics are sobering: U.S. manufacturing output has fallen from 28.4% of global output in 2001 to just 17.4% in 2023. Since 1997, America has lost approximately 5 million manufacturing jobs, one of the largest losses in our history.

This is not theoretical — it is personal.

Each statistic represents individuals, families, communities, and churches devastated by the outsourcing of American industry. When foreign nations impose 50% tariffs on American apples while their apples enter our markets duty-free, this is not free trade — it is theft masquerading as commerce.

President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs seek to correct this injustice. By implementing the “golden rule” of trade — treat us as we treat you — these measures restore the dignity of honest labor and uphold the biblical principle that “the worker is worthy of his wages” (1 Timothy 5:18).

Rejecting false guilt in service of true compassion

Modern globalism demands that America relinquish its sovereignty under the banner of compassion. But true biblical compassion never requires surrendering the well-being of those entrusted to our care. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors — not to abandon them to economic ruin in service to abstract ideology, namely globalism.

The facts reveal the truth: America has one of the world’s lowest average tariff rates at 3.3%, while our trading partners impose significantly higher rates.

Brazil: 11.2% China: 7.5 %The European Union: 5% India: 17%Vietnam: 9.4%

Moreover, many countries ban certain U.S. products from entering their markets at all but encounter no barriers in sending their own products here; other countries put massive tariffs on certain U.S. products to tip the scales in their favor.

We have been practicing unilateral economic disarmament while others wage economic warfare against us.

Defending American industries is not selfish — it is stewardship. When a nation secures the well-being of its citizens, it becomes better positioned to bless others through genuine charity, aid, and moral leadership. Christians must reject the guilt-shaming rhetoric that demands national self-destruction as the price of global participation.

A biblical path forward: strength through sovereignty

President Trump’s “Reciprocal Tariffs” policy echoes Proverbs 31:8-9: “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” These measures give voice to communities silenced by decades of economic abandonment.

The evidence suggests tariffs work. Studies show that previous tariffs during the first Trump administration strengthened the U.S. economy, led to significant reshoring in manufacturing, and had minimal effects on prices — contrary to the apocalyptic warnings of globalist prophets.

Most importantly, these policies recognize that a strong, sovereign America — one that honors its workers, defends its industries, and respects God’s design for nations — is better positioned to be a beacon of freedom and faith to the world.

Conclusion

In an age when national sovereignty is scorned and biblical wisdom is rejected, Christians must recover the courage to think scripturally about economic stewardship. President Trump’s tariffs are not merely economic policy; they represent a righteous stand against exploitation and a reaffirmation of God’s design for ordered societies.

If we care about justice, if we believe in the protection of families, and if we honor the authority and order that God has established, then we must support efforts that secure America’s economic integrity.

This is the heart of our argument: Tariffs represent proper biblical stewardship, not mere protectionism. They honor God’s establishment of nations with boundaries, they fulfill government’s divine mandate to protect its own citizens, and they execute the biblical command to pursue economic justice.

Proper stewardship requires boundaries. Leadership demands the courage to stand when the world demands submission. The people of God must remain unwavering, committed first to truth, and willing to defend the good of the nation God has entrusted to our care.

The path to true prosperity lies not in surrendering our sovereignty but in exercising it according to biblical principles. That is the heart of these tariffs — not isolation, but righteous independence under God’s sovereignty.

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

​Donald trump, Christianity, Christians, Bible, Tariffs, Trump tariffs, Globalism, Faith 

Note: The product recommendations that Align publishes are meant solely to inform and edify our subscribers; unless explicitly labeled as such, they are neither paid promotions or endorsements.

Strolling the grocery store today can be like entering a mental war zone — especially when I have to step outside the fresh produce periphery and into the processed food interior. There, reading ominously extensive ingredient labels often finds me leaving without the item I wanted.

I’m not a nutritionist or “health expert.” I’m a filmmaker and a mother simply trying to make sensible, healthy purchases in a culture that seems determined to dose us with chemicals at every turn. And yet sometimes I wonder if I’m on the verge of becoming Julianne Moore’s character in “Safe.”

You have to be very, very strong and diligent to stay the course, for yourself and your family. But it pays off.

To make it easier, I created the Solarium, which curates trusted, third-party-tested foods, clothing, beauty products, and more — all free of seed oils, sulfates, phthalates, parabens, plastics, fluoride, retardants, endocrine disruptors, synthetic fragrances, artificial coloring, alcohols, carcinogens, and other harmful additives.

Here are some of the products we’ve been enjoying lately.

Organic dried mango from Magone’s

One of my greatest food pleasures is dried mango. The ones from Mangone’s are still juicy and bursting with taste. Highly recommended. Take 12% off with promo code TheSolarium.

Pungao Vital Nectar

Pungao is an all-natural, honey-based energy enhancer and supplement. Not just for athletes, the ingredients in Pungao help nourish and energize your body with clean sugars, hydrating salt, and stimulating cinnamon and guarana. Take 10% off with promo code TheSolarium.

Sport Drink

An electrolyte-rich powder made with organic fruits, real sugar, and zero food dyes or chemicals. As simple and effective as its name, Sport Drink aims to provide a trusted hydration alternative to the neon-colored, chemical-laden mainstream brands. Take 10% off with promo code TheSolarium.

Kindred Harvest teas

Organic, whole-leaf tea without micro-plastics, glue, or heavy metals; blended, tested, and packed in the USA. Comes in black, green, hibiscus, and more.

Raw Royal Jelly

Bees are magical creatures: In addition to honey, they give us royal jelly, which encourages muscle and bone growth, boosts stamina, libido, and fertility, and helps prevent cancer. Take 10% off with promo code TheSolarium.

Masa Chips

Masa Chips use 3 simple ingredients: organic corn, 100% grass-fed beef tallow, and sea salt. So simple yet so hard to find chips made without seed oils, pesticides, or preservatives.

Jake Steaks

Grass-fed and -finished beef direct from the farmers to your front door. The cows are raised and finished on a variety of native grass. They are entirely pasture fed — zero corn or grain. Let Jake know the Solarium sent you.

Honey from Busy Bee Candle Co.

Busy Bee’s “use the whole animal” mentality means it doesn’t stop at clean, purifying beeswax candles; it also sells raw, untreated wildflower honey. Just as beeswax makes the perfect candles, honey is the perfect sugar — packed with incredible health benefits. Take 15% off with promo code TheSolarium.

Greco Gum

If you are going to chew gum, chew a natural, plastic-free gum that simultaneously builds your jaw muscles, assists digestion, and potentially prevents oral cancer. 100% crystallized resin, made by nature in Chios, Greece. First-time customers take 10% off with promo code TheSolarium.

Vera Salt

Hand-harvested, natural spring salt from Spain. Not processed or bleached, leaving its mineral content — potassium, magnesium, and calcium — intact.

Oliva Dorado

Olives farmed, harvested, cold-pressed, and bottled on-site at a single estate in northern Spain to create a 100% authentic extra virgin olive oil. No synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizer ever used.

Kraut Krackers

A nutrient-packed cracker made from wild-fermented sauerkraut, dehydrated at low temperature. All from four simple ingredients: organic purple cabbage, organic red beet, organic golden flax seeds, and pink Himalayan salt. Made in the USA.

​Jessica solce, The solarium, Health, Nutritition, Additive free, Microplastics, Lifestyle, Royal jelly, Salt, Tea, Provisions