Albert Mohler: Religious Freedom and Discrimination; Chastity, family life and the future of religious freedom...more

Albert Mohler: Religious Freedom and Discrimination: Why the Debate Continues    This is a first for me—writing a book review while flying over the northern reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. I’m returning to the United States after responsibilities in the United Kingdom, speaking mostly to pastors and other Christian leaders. Everywhere I went, from central London to rural Kent, the same urgent question was asked: “Can religious liberty survive the LGBTQ moral revolution?”

Winston Churchill famously believed in the basic cultural unity of those he called the “English-speaking peoples,” meaning, most specifically, Britain and the United States. We’ve historically shared a basic commitment to moral truths including human dignity and liberty, and these commitments have been enshrined in our laws and social life. But Christians in both countries now face the prospect of a disastrous collision between the new sexual liberty prized by the LGBTQ revolution and religious liberty—long recognized in the United States as the first and most foundational freedom.

Long before the Obergefell decision legalized same-sex marriage, the inevitability of the collision was anticipated by both sides in the debate. LGBTQ advocates had already made clear their intention to advance from the legalization of same-sex marriage to press for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in all relevant civil rights laws and regulations. Even then, the collision with religious liberty was inevitable. Even then, we were warned religious liberty would have to give way to newly constructed and judicially mandated sexual liberties...

Chastity, family life and the future of religious freedom   ...Chastity is now central to the public argument for religious freedom because such families need their freedom of association and freedom of action to raise the next generation to live the same strong family life. They need freedom to teach their own way of life: marriage till death do us part, and raising their children to do the same. Much as the Amish fought and won their freedom of association and way of life, so too other religious communities are now finding they too must fight and win a freedom which they had assumed was theirs without asking. It had been so. It is no longer.

If we want our religious freedom we have to be able to make the argument for teaching chastity as a way of life, not as a “risk reduction strategy”. Chaste family life is easy to defend in the public debate because it is far superior to all other ways, by any measure of human thriving. Teenagers (who have yet to experience life and learn its hard lessons by experience) need to understand that there are lifelong consequences for “sowing wild oats”, as the most important chart in all the social sciences makes clear...

111 terminally ill patients took their own lives in first 6 months of California right-to-die law ...A snapshot of the patients who took advantage of the law mirrors what’s been seen in Oregon, which was the first state to legalize the practice nearly two decades ago. Though California is far more diverse than Oregon, the majority of those who have died under aid-in-dying laws in both states were white, college-educated cancer patients older than 60...

Petya ransomware slams Windows PCs shut in massive attack   ...The malware forces an infected PC to reboot as soon as it finishes encrypting files, so you'll see the ransom demands as soon as possible. Researchers at Recorded Future said there's also a hidden Trojan on Petya that steals victims' usernames and passwords. 

This is the second global ransomware attack in the last two months. It follows the WannaCry outbreak that ensnared more than 200,000 computers, locking up hospitals, banks and universities. Like WannaCry, the GoldenEye and Petya attacks affect only computers running the Windows operating systems.

Microsoft released patches for all Windows operating systems after the global outbreak, but people who've updated their computers could still be affected, according to Anomali, a threat intelligence company. That's because Petya can also spread through Office documents, taking advantage of yet another vulnerability and combining it with similar wormholes a la WannaCry...

Obama’s cyber security expert: Russia didn’t hack elections  ...When we asked if Trump worked together with the Russians to influence the elections, Daniel said he doesn't think Trump did anything...