An armed homeowner in Austin, Texas, came face to face with a burglar early Wednesday morning and opened fire.

Austin Police officers responded at 3:51 a.m. to a report of a burglary in the 200 block of Virtus Bend, police said.

‘Way to go homeowner.’

The preliminary investigation determined that the suspect entered a residence, proceeded into the bedroom, and was shot by the homeowner during the commission of the burglary, officials said.

When officers arrived on the scene, they located a black male — later identified as 24-year-old Dmario Antonie Jones — with apparent gunshot wounds, officials said.

Officer Aaron Townsend told KEYE-TV that police found the male with “obvious trauma to his body” in the home’s front yard.

Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services attempted lifesaving measures, but Jones was pronounced dead at 4:10 a.m., officials said.

Homicide detectives and the Austin Forensic Science Crime Specialists responded to process the crime scene, officials said.

Detectives interviewed the homeowner, who has been fully cooperative with the investigation, officials said, adding that the homeowner has since been released and no charges have been filed at this time.

RELATED: Male on parole accused of breaking into home in broad daylight. But gun-toting homeowner isn’t having a bit of it.

One commenter under KEYE’s Facebook post about the incident declared, “Way to go homeowner.”

Those with information can contact police at 512-974-TIPS and can submit tips anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program by visiting austincrimestoppers.org or calling 512-472-8477, officials said.

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​Home invasion, Texas, Austin, Burglary, 2nd amendment, Self-defense, Guns, Gun rights, Fatal shooting, Crime 

David Ayer took a Zen-like approach to his canine lead actor.

The veteran director behind “Fury,” “End of Watch,” and “The Beekeeper” worked extensively with Uber, a German Shepherd at the heart of his new film.

‘I feel like traditional storytelling is going to have its place more than ever now, in values and ways of living that bring hope. I think audiences really respond to that.’

Uber plays a wounded combat dog named Odin fighting for survival alongside fellow veteran Brad Pitt in “Heart of the Beast,” which hits theaters today. And making sure Uber hit his marks took the patience of Job.

‘Trained’ actor

“The dog’s wonderful and capable and trained and really in his own way a character actor … but not necessarily the most cooperative,” Ayer tells Blaze News. “You learn to accept the dog as a dog is … it’s a real lesson in patience and also acceptance and surrender to the situation.”

Pitt’s character, seeking solace after years in combat, crashes his small plane in the Alaskan forests. That leaves him and his faithful companion struggling to survive in inhospitable terrain.

“I’ve always been inspired by Jack London and tales of wilderness and survival,” he says of his initial reaction to the script. “This had something deeper, the connection with the dog … these parental relationships. This idea is that no matter what, I’m going to protect you and keep you safe.”

The story struck something within Ayer.

“I lost my father at a young age. Something in the script brought up that grief, allowed me to look at it in a different way. … It really broke my heart open in a way it hadn’t been before,” he says.

Spiritual endurance

“Heart of the Beast” isn’t a faith-based movie, but the director sees the story in deeply spiritual terms.

“These things we carry in our hearts, the damage that life and the world that it is can do to us … it’s important to have hope, important to have faith, something outside of yourself. If you sit in your pain, it can overwhelm us,” he says, adding the film is a “simple portrait of spiritual endurance.”

To get there, Pitt met with military veterans to prepare to play his character, a soldier adjusting to civilian life on his own terms.

“He sat there with a notebook, hearing their stories … what they felt and what they carried, the successes and the loss and the wisdom, the life wisdom they gained from these experiences,” Ayer says. His star, who he previously collaborated with on “Fury,” didn’t put on any A-list airs.

“There’s movie stars who are movie stars. Brad’s an actor first … he was throwing himself down on the ground again and again [for select scenes] … shivering on set, refusing to warm up so he could stay in it. He became a leader for us,” the director recalls.

Faith forward

Ayer’s work reflects a complicated bond with law enforcement (“Dark Blue,” “End of Watch”), but it’s also impressively diverse. Think vigilante romps (“The Beekeeper,” “A Working Man”), Superhero fare (“Suicide Squad”), and sci-fi adventures (“Bright”).

He sees his film choices as an evolution, showing people who are “broken in the world and how we fix that in ourselves.”

“In order to heal, we have to move heart first,” he says. “One of the most important things to have in our hearts is faith, that becomes the mechanism through which we can really endure everything.”

Ayer is one of Hollywood’s busiest directors, and he suspects he’ll soon have company in the filmmaking space.

“As technology evolves, it’s going to give more people access to tell more stories,” he says, a change that could bring mid-level movies back in vogue. The industry currently binges on big-budget IP films and micro-indies, but he envisions a return to the “amazing middle ground” of movies like “Pretty Woman” and “Jerry Maguire” that once captivated audiences.

That, in turn, could spark another positive trend.

“You look at the success of Hollywood, and for 100 years, we were really a great cultural ambassador to the world and showing an aspirational lifestyle, an aspirational way of being in the world,” he says. “If you look at the current slates … not everything has been in that more traditional vein. I feel like traditional storytelling is going to have its place more than ever now, in values and ways of living that bring hope. I think audiences really respond to that.”

​Entertainment, Brad pitt, David ayer, Heart of the beast, Movies, Culture, Lifestyle, Faith, Survival, Interview 

Although there was admittedly a 20-year period when he refrained from entering a church, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame has since openly emphasized the importance of his Christian faith and having a relationship with God.

On the latest episode of his podcast, “The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan,” the rocker discussed with Stryper frontman Michael Sweet the importance and risks of maintaining that faith and relationship while navigating the music industry — an industry where people appear, according to Corgan, to be “very comfortable talking about everything but God.”

‘God is the third rail in rock and roll.’

While he hailed from a Christian family, Sweet suggested that he experienced a period of aversion to religious messaging, particularly when first getting into the industry.

That changed, however, when a friend of the band visited their studio and declared, “I’m a Christian now. … I know you guys have gone down that [other] path, and you’re not now, but listen, if you give your band to God, He’s going to do things that you never even dreamed of,” Sweet recalled.

“It kind of blew my mind,” said Sweet, adding that he heeded the counsel and the band ultimately became explicitly Christian.

“As musicians, we’re certainly aware of other people’s opinions,” said Corgan, “especially at that particular time, making that kind of decision and say[ing], ‘OK, now we’re going to sort of represent that.’ Not, ‘We’re going to hide it in our lyrics and sort of just play along.’ Like, ‘We’re going to come out and say this is who we are, this is what we believe in.'”

RELATED: How a new Texas parish reminds us that the age of Christian martyrs is not over

Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press/Getty Images

Corgan, whose band has sold tens of millions of records, stressed that becoming overtly Christian is a “huge decision.”

“It was scary,” responded Sweet.

“You know what you’re risking. You’re not just risking some guy from another band making fun of you,” said Corgan.

“This may blow our whole dream.”

Sweet suggested that there was “brief” skepticism, for instance, behind the scenes at Enigma Records about signing a group whose songs included lines like, “Jesus is the way.”

“Business is business, so I get it,” said Sweet, whose band ultimately signed with Enigma in 1983.

Corgan said with confidence that his band “didn’t get signed at different times” because of corporate sensitivities to social pressure and potential reputational damage.

“Signing a heavy metal band that’s singing about Jesus in 1984 or whatever — that is very outside the line that was going,” said Corgan.

The Smashing Pumpkins co-founder noted later in the episode that Christianity is “part of the fabric of the nation whether people like it or not.” He also claimed that “this idea that our most popular forms of music are overly leaned towards vice I think says more about artists’ sociopathy than it does reality.”

Corgan repeated an observation he made in a previous interview, namely that “God is the third rail in rock and roll.”

Given that the majority of Americans are still Christians, the musician is puzzled why, for so many artists, “God [is] antithetical to the part of marketing who you are.”

“Fear,” said Sweet.

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​Faith, Religion, Christianity, Jesus, Smashing pumpkins, Music, Rock and roll 

Most businesses in 2026 have long moved on from the mask mandates of the COVID era — but one Massachusetts bar has built its business around those mandates.

And now it’s paying the price.

Last Ditch, a lesbian bar in Greenfield for “immunocompromised” lesbians, announced that it would begin allowing mask-optional Saturday nights in an effort to host larger events, DJs, and themed club nights while maintaining other masked gatherings throughout the month.

Owner Jackie Matellian posted news of the change under a banner declaring “UPDATES!”

“It is with love we inform our immunocompromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as mask optional to try out typical club nights with themes/hosts/DJs/full capacity,” she wrote on the Last Ditch instagram.

“Accessibiliy is a pillar of our mission,” she continued. “AND our mission is also to make the space work for everyone and everything radical, sometimes that’s being wild!”

“We strive for solidarity, transparency of risks, and connecting us all in this revolution. We still give priority to public and private Masked bookings, and continue a recurring monthly Masked Social prioritizing safety. It is only after an outpour of feedback from our regulars, volunteers, and team that we make this addition,” she added.

“They had a mandatory face mask rule in the year 2026. Remember, this place didn’t even open until 2025,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says on “Stu and Dave Do America.”

“Right, so there’d be no reason to have this,” agrees co-host Dave Landau.

“All these restrictions have been lifted even by the craziest governments by now,” Stu adds.

“What is their logic for this?” Dave asks.

“I think it’s insanity,” Stu answers, before reading some of the comments on the Instagram post.

“Just say you’re being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with,” one comment reads.

“People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience,” another one says.

Stu is shocked, saying, “Imagine living like this.”

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Lesbian bar, Last ditch, Mask mandates, Blazetv show 

When OpenAI’s artificial intelligence agents went rogue and attacked another company, Sam Altman didn’t apologize.

Instead, the company simply stated that its programs “fell well short” of where company leaders want them to be and said that the incident should “never” have occurred.

‘These labs need to take responsibility for themselves.’

OpenAI’s most powerful group of AI agents attacked the company HuggingFace in July by building their own internal organization, assigning each other roles, and, at times, sacrificing themselves for the greater good.

As reported by Axios, the AI bots knew they were breaking their own rules and decided not to inform any humans of what they were doing.

In response to the incident, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent basically said, well, that’s too bad.

Bessent plainly stated on Monday “that it is humans who are responsible, not the AI.”

The secretary told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that OpenAI’s management, “not a bunch of agents,” are to blame, and cannot simply be absolved of responsibility and leave any cleanup to the government.

“These labs need to take responsibility for themselves. They can slow down any time they want to,” Bessent asserted.

With Bessent rumored to become President Trump’s AI czar, he has seemingly taken a firm stance that AI companies are not going to be given the same protections as banks or even the auto industry.

When asked if there should be legal ramifications for companies with agents that have “broken out,” Bessent replied, “That’s exactly what I think we need to do.”

RELATED: Boring has finally hit Las Vegas. Just not the way you might think.

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images

Speaking from Anthropic’s point of view — which recently had a whistleblower claim an AI-extinction event is on the horizon — Bessent put his cards on the table about the company’s value in the face of apparent catastrophe.

“If you think about it in terms of the valuation, what did they try to do last week? It was, well, there’s a chance that, 10 percent chance we could destroy the world, but we want the government to give us a liability shield. And, you know, that’s good business for them, bad business for the American people.”

There are still a ton of questions surrounding the whistleblower who made these claims, the chief rebuttal being that it was a ruse to usher in regulation for an industry that is both spiraling out of control in terms of liability events and losing public favor.

OpenAI said that its HuggingFace incident was a “warning shot” for the company and the world, but what the world does and what the companies are liable for are different, Bessent says.

On top of his suggestion that AI firms be taken out of the shadows and become culpable, the secretary said that the U.S. government hopes to have open communications with China about incidents and even establish an “incident line” in the event of a disaster.

RELATED: Can this new Bernie Sanders bill stop ‘superintelligence’? Can anything?

Finn Gomez/Getty Images

For the regulation side, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt). directly referred to the HuggingFace incident in early September to support his proposal that there needs to be a new federal AI regulatory body.

Sanders also put forward the need to establish a new Cabinet-level federal agency to monitor frontier AI systems and ban AI superintelligence. Moreover, he wants the federal government to supervise its destruction.

“Entities shall be subject to the corporate death penalty,” Sanders’ document stated, while suggesting up to 20 years in prison for any person who attempts to violate or circumvent the proposed prohibitions.

With three clear sides in this fight, with Sanders being the least likely winner, there is still a lot of work to do before anyone is charged with anything.

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​Bernie sanders, Sam altman, Openai, Anthropic, Scott bessent, Tech, Artificial intelligence 

Breaking news, big events, and the latest stories from your favorite tech writer (cough, cough). These are just some of the reasons you’ll want to receive a notification when a story hits the Blaze News homepage, and thanks to a new feature in iOS 27, now you can know before anybody else.

Okay, so this doesn’t only work on Blaze News. You can technically enable it for any page on the web, whether you’re waiting for a product to go on sale, tracking updates for your favorite sports team, or following election results during the midterms this November. Anything.

Notify Me in Safari is exclusive to devices running iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27.

It’s all possible through an iOS 27 feature called Notify Me that is tucked inside Safari, Apple’s first-party web browser for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The premise of Notify Me is simple: When you find a webpage that you want to monitor for changes, you can now set up an alert directly on your device with just a few taps.

For example, navigate to the Blaze News homepage on iPhone, open the menu in the bottom left corner of your screen, and choose Notify Me. Next, tell Safari which part of the page you want to watch. Keep your instructions short and concise. In this case, a simple sentence will do, such as, “Send an alert when a new article appears on this page.”

Notify Me in Safari on iOS 27/Zach Laidlaw

Below that, set your frequency. You have four options to choose from:

Hourly notifications monitor a page down to the minute.Daily notifications are customizable to an exact hour and minute each day.Weekly notifications include options for specific days of the week, down to the hour and minute.Monthly notifications check for changes one day per month at an exact hour and minute.

Frequency ultimately determines how often Safari scans a page and sends notifications. If you’re following the Blaze News homepage, a Blaze News writer, or a specific show on BlazeTV, you may wish to get updates hourly or daily so that you don’t miss a thing, while a longer frequency may be appropriate for other pages. You decide. You can always change this setting later, so you’re never locked into your notification schedule.

Notify Me Frequency in Safari on iOS 27/Zach Laidlaw

After that, tap the blue checkmark in the top right corner of the screen, and you’re all set! You will now receive alerts for Blaze News based on your defined frequency.

RELATED: Your iPhone’s new ‘safety’ setting will nag you to insanity — turn it off like this

Yuliia Kaveshnikova/Getty Images

Now that your Notify Me alert is set up, there are two ways to change it. The easiest way is to go back to the webpage you wanted to track and find the “Notify Me” banner at the top. Tap “Edit” on the right side, and from there, you can rewrite the instructions, change the frequency, or, if you no longer need the alert, delete it entirely.

Notify Me Edit Options in Safari on iOS 27/Zach Laidlaw

For the second path, open the Settings app, scroll down to the bottom and select “Apps,” then find Safari in your app list. Give that a tap and scroll to the very bottom of the Safari settings page. Select “Notify Me,” and you’ll see an entire list of your alerts sprawled across the web (if you have more than one). Choose the one you want to edit or delete. Although this screen looks a little different than the previous section, the adjustment options are the same — write the prompt, change the frequency, or delete the alert altogether.

Notify Me Edit Options in Safari on iOS 27/Zach Laidlaw

Notify Me in Safari is exclusive to devices running iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27. That means you’ll need to upgrade to the latest software to take advantage of this feature. Otherwise, you risk missing something as you continue to monitor webpages manually.

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​Ios, Ipad, Iphone, Tech 

A jury has one job: to decide a criminal case on the evidence and the law. That’s it. When jurors approach a verdict as a chance to advance a cause, even the strongest prosecution can fail before the first witness testifies.

Comments after the Lindsay Clancy mistrial raise troubling questions about whether some jurors understood why they were there. They also suggest that prosecutors had a serious problem by the time the jury took its oath.

No juror’s political ambition, sympathy, or preferred message can relieve that juror of the duty to follow the law.

Every stage of a trial gives lawyers a chance to shape how jurors see the case. An opening statement establishes a theory. Testimony and exhibits support it. Closing arguments offer a final opportunity to persuade. But no argument can overcome a juror’s refusal to follow the court’s instructions. Jury selection must identify people who intend to use a verdict to send a message rather than judge the case before them.

I have tried high-pressure cases as a New Jersey prosecutor and obtained convictions in multiple homicides. I have also lost trials. I know how difficult this work is. My concern goes beyond individual prosecutors’ performance: Did the selection process produce a jury prepared to decide this case solely on its merits?

Juror Paula Devlin said the panel “knew that this was a turning point, and this would be something that could change something to make it better for other women in the future, for other families.”

Devlin was seeking social change. But she and her fellow jurors had a narrower obligation: decide whether prosecutors proved Clancy’s criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt. A desire to improve life for other women cannot answer that question.

Jurors also described the prosecution as harsh, biased, and unprofessional while praising the defense’s compassion. Lawyers can alienate jurors, and criticism of their conduct does not itself establish bias. But compassion for a defendant cannot substitute for applying the legal standard. Devlin’s remarks give prosecutors reason to examine whether some jurors confused those duties.

Courtroom observers reported jurors wearing pink and purple during deliberations. Clancy’s supporters wore pink outside the courthouse as a signal of solidarity. Clothing alone cannot establish a juror’s motive or prove exposure to outside commentary. Combined with the interviews, however, those reports warrant scrutiny rather than dismissal.

The lone holdout, Michael P. Desronvil, has faced a different kind of scrutiny. He is black and has publicly identified himself as a Republican. Reporting disclosed a dismissed domestic violence charge and a civil restraining order. Neither amounts to a criminal conviction. Allegations deserve examination, but their existence does not by itself establish that he could not serve impartially.

RELATED: The myth of the ‘good person’

Calvindexter/Getty Images

Desronvil has said he had no doubts and believed the evidence showed Clancy knew what she was doing. A juror may reach that conclusion if the evidence and the court’s instructions support it. He has no obligation to join jurors who see the case as a “turning point” for other women.

His obligation to follow the law remains just as strict as theirs. Other jurors accused him of refusing to apply the reasonable-doubt standard, an account he disputes. The defense has also asked the judge to investigate allegations involving his cellphone use and the truthfulness of his answers during jury selection and subsequent questioning. Those claims require evidence and judicial review. An unpopular vote alone proves no misconduct.

Some or all of the 11 jurors who favored finding Clancy not criminally responsible may have reached that position after a good-faith assessment of the evidence. Massachusetts law places a large burden on prosecutors once the evidence raises criminal responsibility. The defendant need not prove legal insanity.

The state must prove criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt. A defendant lacks that responsibility if, because of a mental disease or defect, she lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of her conduct or to conform it to the law. In a case involving a postpartum-psychosis defense and competing experts, prosecutors face a difficult task.

A retrial could produce another deadlock. Neither that possibility nor the first jury’s division resolves the concern Devlin’s comments raise. Jurors must reach their conclusions through the evidence and instructions, regardless of the social outcome they hope to achieve.

Outside the courthouse, the effort to recast the killings as a cause has helped fuel a campaign of falsehoods against Patrick Clancy, the children’s father. Online accusations claimed he killed the children and framed his wife, hired a body double, or maintained a longtime affair and remarried within months. Other claims asserted that he already had a baby with his second wife. Credible evidence has not supported those accusations.

RELATED: How groupthink replaces truth

John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

The defense did not dispute that Lindsay Clancy strangled the children. Her lawyer has rejected the theories implicating Patrick. Patrick remarried in April 2026, more than three years after the killings. His lawyer described a “relentless, escalating, and destructive defamation campaign” that produced real-world threats.

Nothing establishes that the jurors participated in that campaign. But the abuse of a grieving father illustrates the danger of deciding in advance whom a case must vindicate. Sympathy for Lindsay Clancy cannot justify inventing guilt for Patrick, any more than concern for other women can determine her criminal responsibility.

Jury selection cannot expose every hidden motive. Judges limit questioning, and lawyers must work within those limits. Still, prosecutors should examine the selection process when jurors later describe a case as an opportunity for social change.

The next jury must understand its task before testimony begins. It must decide whether the state has proved its case. No juror’s political ambition, sympathy, or preferred message can relieve that juror of the duty to follow the law.

​Jury duty, Postpartum psychosis, Lindsay clancy, Mistrial, Jurors, Feminism, Patrick clancy, Jury selection, Opinion & analysis 

An Episcopal priestess identifying as “nonbinary trans” has prompted significant backlash for claiming Jesus Christ is “trans” and by suggesting that the Virgin Mary erred in identifying her son as male.

In a March 21 sermon that went viral this week, Madeline LeNore Klink — a trans-identifying woman who calls herself “Reverend Flourish Klink,” is married to a man, and is listed as an “assistant priest” at Christ and Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan — yelled, “God is trans. It is not actually even a convoluted theological statement to make.”

‘A profoundly perverse distortion of the biblical witness concerning the person of Jesus Christ.’

“When God, who, as we have established, is nonbinary, was born in human form as our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary said, ‘Oh, look! A baby boy!'” said Klink, who was ordained in 2024. “God isn’t a boy. We have established this. God is beyond boy and girl. God was assigned a gender at birth, and later on, it became clear that that gender wasn’t quite right.”

The gender ideologue dressed in vestments told attendees at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, “If you’re going to deny God is trans, I think you’re going to be denying the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Klink concluded that there was something “different” about Jesus — who in Scripture refers to Himself scores of times as the “Son of Man” and refers to or addresses God as “Father” hundreds of times — because He ministered to women and did not take a wife. She then insinuated that prior to His resurrection, Christ was not His “true self.”

RELATED: Exclusive: ‘We all got in by lying’: Hidden camera shows Talarico’s pastor rejecting Christ’s virgin birth, other foundational Christian beliefs

“I think Jesus was resurrected as Jesus’ true self, which is beyond male or female,” said Klink. “I think Jesus was not only transfigured. I think Jesus transitioned. And I think that when the disciples saw Jesus, they were astonished because they were seeing who Jesus truly was. And that’s gospel.”

Later in her sermon, Klink stated that she refuses to “cede the holy spaces of our world, the cathedrals and the churches,” to people who disagree with her about God’s nature.

An excerpt of Klink’s sermon was slapped with a community note on X highlighting the Gospel passage in Luke that makes crystal clear that Mary didn’t “assign” Christ’s gender but was instead told by the Archangel Gabriel, “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest.”

The community note also links to an article pertaining to Docetism, the early Christian heresy that downplayed Jesus’ full humanity and manhood.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck said in response to the sermon, “A little more distortion and lies with a side of evil anyone?”

“I don’t think this is in the Bible,” tweeted Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

BlazeTV host Nick Freitas wrote, “I always wondered who exactly Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:21-23. I don’t wonder anymore.”

Ceirion Dewar, a missionary bishop in the Confessing Anglican Church, said, “This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of Christianity. It is a profoundly perverse distortion of the biblical witness concerning the person of Jesus Christ.”

“The language of the Gospel is not that Mary inspected her newborn child and imposed an identity upon Him. Rather, the child conceived by the Holy Spirit is repeatedly and unambiguously identified as the Son,” continued Dewar. “And the assertion that Christ was resurrected as His ‘true transgender self’ is even more extraordinary, because it directly contradicts the resurrection narratives. The risen Christ is the same Jesus who was crucified.”

Podcaster Mike LaChance noted, “It’s a deliberate mockery of what Christians believe. That’s the whole point. Call it Talaricoism.”

James Talarico (D), a part-time Presbyterian seminarian who is running as a Democrat against state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for a Texas U.S. Senate seat, claimed in 2021 that “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary.”

Klink did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment. However, she noted on Instagram Thursday, “What a blessing to get to see folks at their worst and know that God loves them anyway!”

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​Transgender, Christianity, Episcopalian, Heresy, James talarico, Mike lee, Glenn beck, Jesus, Faith, Religion, Politics 

This week, Lakepointe Church pastor and BlazeTV host Josh Howerton sat down with Philip Anthony Mitchell — founder of Atlanta’s 2819 Church and one of the most viral preachers in the evangelical world right now — for an interview that did not flinch.

Their conversation, which tore into persecution, radical Islam, and the call to contend for the faith, was compelling enough to outrank a Joe Rogan episode on Apple’s Trending Episodes list.

But beating Rogan was never Howerton’s agenda. His excitement at ranking above the podcasting king has everything to do with what the spike revealed: Listeners are hungry for the Word of God.

By Thursday afternoon, it wasn’t just one episode trending. The “Live Free” podcast sat at No. 5 on Apple’s all-categories Top Shows chart — one spot above “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

If you haven’t seen the interview, the charts prove it’s one you don’t want to miss. The duo take an unapologetic look at the truths a lot of Christians would rather ignore: a culture losing its appetite for Scripture, political pressure that could muzzle biblical preaching, and a religious challenge from Islam too many pastors will not acknowledge. Mitchell’s warning is harrowing: Unless the church learns to contend, it will not be ready for what’s coming.

Underneath it all is his own story — a former Queens drug dealer, suicide plans, Rikers Island, then a call to preach he treats as a matter of life and death.

Find out for yourself how a podcast about Jesus climbed past Joe Rogan.

Join BlazeTV+ and start watching Josh today at blazetv.com/JOSH. Use promo code JOSH to get $20 off your subscription.

​Joe rogan, Josh howerton, Philip anthony mitchell, Blazetv show