Friday, May 08, 2026

When you walk through fire...

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
 and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
-Isaiah 43:2

As sure as ever God puts his children in the furnace, He will be in the furnace with them.  -CH Spurgeon 

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Megadrought: We Just Experienced The Driest First Three Months Of A Year In US History   Winter wheat is dying in Kansas fields that should be green by now. Ranchers in New Mexico are selling cattle they cannot afford to feed. Reservoir levels along the Colorado River system are dropping weeks ahead of the season when mountain snowmelt is supposed to refill them. Across roughly 63% of the contiguous United States, drought rated moderate to exceptional on the federal scale has taken hold, and the first three months of 2026 were the driest the nation has recorded in 131 years of continuous measurement.
   This isn’t just a crisis. This is catastrophic.

Entire countries shifted their energy policies to fit the claims of these so-called experts. People were put out of work because their industries weren’t “green.” Millions in taxpayer money were funneled into companies offering something that would allegedly thwart the coming apocalypse, all for nothing to really happen. Thousands of acres are now desolate wastelands for wildlife because solar panels or wind turbines were placed there, destroying the scenery, driving off animals, and killing plant life.
   And now they’re telling us it’s really more of a thought experiment.   

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UK: 'Dark day' as retired pastor is convicted for preaching John 3:16 near abortion facilities  “We held a small, open air Sunday service near a hospital. We made no reference whatsoever to the issue of abortion. And yet the buffer zones law is so broad that holding a Sunday service has been found to be a criminal offence. And at 78 years of age I find myself, for the first time, convicted of a crime," he said.

Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen appeals to European Court of Human Rights after guilty verdict over Bible pamphlet   "The failure of the Finnish Supreme Court to uphold freedom of speech has set a dangerous precedent in my country and across Europe. I feel it is my duty to appeal this decision, to reinstate respect for the basic human right that all are free to peacefully express their views in the public square," Räsänen said, according to a press release from the nonprofit legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International.


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Supreme Court Delivers Major Blow to Left-Wing Lawfare   A Supreme Court decision that has largely flown under the radar could nonetheless prove to be a major victory for conservatives in the battle against left-wing lawfare and weaponized government in the years ahead.

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Illegal immigrants stole $1.2M in Apple tech outside Long Island mall: Feds  The trio — all illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic — were arrested and hauled before a federal judge in Central Islip on Thursday, where all three pleaded not guilty.
   Judge Anne Shields told the court that the evidence against the three is “very strong,” and the crime was a “well planned and violent attack” in broad daylight before remanding them without bail after prosecutors argued they posed both a danger to the community and a serious flight risk.

DOJ Investigating Fairfax County DA Over Deals With Illegal Aliens The woke, George Soros-backed prosecutor has come under fire due to the many criminal illegal aliens he has released who end up committing horrific crimes.

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Declining Birthrates, Immigration Drive Enrollment Crisis in US Public Schools   Districts across the country are forced to consider budget cuts, layoffs, and potential school closures.


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posted by Pat Dague @ 1:00 PM   0 comments

Thursday, May 07, 2026

Humility and love...

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
    and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.
 -Isaiah 57:15

Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes. The poorest... Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility.  -J.C. Ryle 

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Vatican Synodal Report Marks Tectonic Shift In Church Framing of Homosexuality The synod’s final report includes that testimony where two “married” homosexual men, who say they are Catholic, described the church’s role in creating an atmosphere of “solitude, anguish, and stigma that accompany persons with same-sex attractions and their families.”

In such a world, the pressure to rethink all cultural roles, particularly those of a previously prescriptive character, is intense. Teaching is reoriented around the child’s feelings. Physicians become “service providers.” And institutions that demand a sacrifice of the self to a greater good—the nation, the church, the family—become less plausible and must change or fade away. And in ministry, the model of pastor as fellow-struggler, whose spiritual battles need to be performed in public, emerges.  
   There are numerous problems with this culture of ministry...

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Crying “racist” also allows Democrats to avoid defending their unpopular policies, like open borders. In a recent California gubernatorial debate, the moderator asked if truck drivers should be required to learn English. Leading Democratic candidates equated that with racism.
   America’s embrace of judging people by their character instead of their skin color should be a point of bipartisan national pride. Instead, it’s an existential crisis for the SPLC in particular and the left more broadly.

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The Islamization of the New York Attorney General’s Office  AG James’ desperate courting of Islamists led her into an alliance with Mamdani, with CAIR and undermined the security of New Yorkers and their First Amendment rights. Some of the courtship has verged on the pathetic with AG James rushing to brag that, “for the first time in our state’s history, January is officially recognized as Muslim American Heritage Month!  This month, and every month, we celebrate the invaluable contributions, recognize the rich culture, and honor the traditions of our Muslim communities in New York.” Image

Overwhelming Opposition in Spain to Giving Amnesty to 500,000 Illegal Immigrants Even among those who voted for Sánchez’ Socialist Party, 40% are alarmed about the effect of granting amnesty, which will undoubtedly lead more people to decide to immigrate to Spain, causing even more societal upheaval (between the indigenous non-Muslims and the overwhelmingly Muslim immigrants), more crime (Muslims in Europe have much higher rates of criminality than non-Muslims), and greater expense (Muslim migrants have shown themselves determined to take advantage of every welfare benefit the government can lavish upon them).

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Border Patrol Raids Disney Cruise Ship, Finds Every Parent's Nightmare Lurking on Board - This Is What Dems Want Defunded  Disney needs to do a lot more vetting when hiring their crew members. Parents are likely mortified to know these monsters were lurking around their children.

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In any other area of medicine, promoting irreversible interventions for minors under conditions of evidentiary weakness and documented potential harm would provoke intense scrutiny. To treat this domain differently because it is politically charged risks subordinating clinical ethics to ideology. Where side effects include sterility, possible cognitive decline, and persistent psychiatric instability, aggressive promotion rather than cautious restraint becomes ethically questionable. Medicine’s first obligation is not affirmation but non-maleficence. When the long-term costs remain uncertain and, in some cases, demonstrably negative, the burden of proof lies with those advocating intervention, not with those urging caution.

How Women Have Led to the Erasure of Women    Modern sexual and family norms have blurred the meaning of womanhood, weakening motherhood and accelerating a cultural shift that treats biology as optional.

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What Nobody Will Tell You About The Massive Lithium Find Buried Deep In Appalachia  “We have simply made it too difficult to permit a mine here in the United States and that must change. If China wants a new mine, they can open one tomorrow. But it takes 29 years to bring a mine online in the U.S. – the second longest timeline in the world; that’s not sustainable,” a National Mining Association (NMA) spokesperson told the DCNF when asked about mining prospects for the Appalachian deposits. Image

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posted by Pat Dague @ 12:45 PM   0 comments

Wednesday, May 06, 2026

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation...

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. -2 Corinthians 5:17

Christianity does not consist in any partial amendment of our lives, any particular moral virtues, but in an entire change of our natural temper, a life wholly devoted to God. -William Law Image

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U.S. Becomes World’s Biggest Oil Producer During Strait of Hormuz Crisis  The United States overtook Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest exporter of crude oil over the past nine weeks, as Iran’s attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz choked off Middle Eastern oil shipments.

Report: Somali Pirates Team Up with Houthi Terrorists to Attack Key Oil Trade Route  “Somali and Houthi-linked groups are teaming up — using skiffs and new tech to strike ships with coordination not seen in a decade — while Saudi crude rerouted from the Strait of Hormuz has created a target-rich environment for them,” RTCOM Defense CEO Ido Shalev told Fox News Digital.

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'Clueless' socialist mayor in hot seat after video of 77-year-old beaten in downtown Seattle goes viral Seattle’s socialist mayor Katie Wilson is facing fierce blowback on social media after a 77-year-old man was seen on video being beaten by two individuals in a crime that was captured by closed-circuit television cameras, a tool that Wilson has denounced in the past as something that makes the community feel unsafe and "vulnerable." Image

The Pakistani Muslim Judge Who Protected 2 Trump Assassins  Judge Zia Faruqui had long worked to sabotage the Trump administration’s effort to fight crime in D.C., falsely describing it as a “constitutional crisis”, contending that “the rule of law is being flushed down the toilet” and threatening to stop authorizing criminal charges after arrests.
   It is debatable whether Faruqui, a member of the highly controversial Muslim Bar Association of New York ever met the basic standard for being appointed.

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More Home Health Fraud Has Been Uncovered in Ohio  The business model is simple: a 40-year-old Somali immigrant gets paid for spending time with, and maybe cooking for, his own 65-year-old mother. The middleman is one of thousands of “home health” firms that have the “NPI” number necessary to bill Medicaid.
 

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People are beginning to realize that the entire scheme has had no connection to the climate and is inextricably connected to aggregating political power, social dominance, and piles of money for the left. Our hope is that within a few years, we’ll never have to write about global warming again because justice and reason finally caught up with the shakedown.

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I do not think that A.I. will singlehandedly destroy college. But I do think that it will accelerate an already growing disillusionment with higher education.

AI praises 'black' students' essays, gives useful feedback to 'white' essays  Essays attributed to Black students received more praise and encouragement, sometimes emphasizing leadership or power. (“Your personal story is powerful! Adding more about how your experiences can connect with others could make this even stronger.”) ... When the student was identified as white, the feedback more often focused on argument structure, evidence and clarity — the kinds of comments that can push writers to strengthen their ideas.
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posted by Pat Dague @ 1:43 PM   0 comments

Tuesday, May 05, 2026

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits...

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
 my soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen for the morning...
-Psalm 130:5-6

Faith is that which, knowing the Lord’s will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits, content in ignorance as in knowledge, because God wills; neither pressing into the hidden future, nor careless of the knowledge which opens the path of action.  -George MacDonald Image

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Are America's college students doing to themselves what the Chinese Communist state does to its citizens?
   An Ivy League professor -- an old-fashioned liberal who actually cares about free speech -- recently warned me about what's happening in classrooms like his.
   He encourages class discussion of the great books he teaches in class -- but students are afraid to speak, not because they're afraid of the professor but because they fear each other Image

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Voters Blame Media for Inspiring Assassination Attempt, Dividing Nation   Six in ten voters think it’s likely that negative news media coverage of President Donald Trump inspired the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents Dinner on April 25, a new national Rasmussen survey finds.
   Of U.S. likely voters polled April 27-29 following the attack, 60% think it’s at least “somewhat likely” that hostile media inspired the armed shooter’s attack – including 41% who call it “very likely.” In contrast, just 13% consider it “not at all likely.”

‘Nice, Wholesome’ Dem PA Senate Candidate Arrested After Asking Member of Congress to Kill Trump, Threatens to ‘Slit’ Senator’s Throat   Chandler has since been charged with influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threat, as well as threatening a family member of a federal official. The FBI has raided his home looking for additional evidence.

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I Was Not Really Pro-Life (And What Changed My Mind)  However, I have a confession to make: I used to be one of those establishment pro-life types, the ones who are not committed to abolishing abortion entirely, but accepted all sorts of exceptions. I’d like to share what it took to make me an abolitionist.
   For years, I stuck with the usual conservative phrase: “I am pro-life, with exceptions in the cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother.”

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California’s Fuelmaggedon Exposes the Catastrophic Failure of Green Energy Fantasies  Decades of environmental mandates, refinery closures, and deliberate avoidance of pipelines have transformed California into an “energy island,” reliant on long-haul imports refined in Asia from Middle Eastern sources. When geopolitics disrupts that flow, there is no quick domestic alternative.


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Trapped by Zombies: Pregnant LA Mom Recounts Horrifying Trip to Store, Says She'll Vote Differently Now   She tells the all too familiar modern story of the dangers of walking the streets in the City of Angels — you might just find yourself staring straight at some scary-looking street dwellers, and there’s nobody around to help. Now, if you happen to be heavily pregnant and looking after your toddler daughter, it’s even more frightening.

Restaurants and Retail Stores Have Had Enough of Micro-looting Young anti-capitalists think it's a virtue to steal from big corporations. These are Hasan's people, the ones who make up his audience and they are having an impact. Lost of retailers, not just Walmart, are feeling the need to dial back on self-checkout. Target is another example, though they went out of their way to deny this change in their stores was about theft.


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Human-to-human transmission suspected on board hantavirus cruise ship, WHO says  “We do know that some of the cases had very close contact with each other and certainly human-to-human transmission can’t be ruled out so as a precaution this is what we are assuming,” Dr. Maria Van Kerhove, WHO’s director for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told reporters.

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posted by Pat Dague @ 1:32 PM   0 comments

Monday, May 04, 2026

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land...

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
    who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility;
    perhaps you may be hidden
    on the day of the anger of the Lord.
  -Zephaniah 2:3

To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven.   -J.C. Ryle

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The shibboleth that “diversity is our strength” is one of the worst canards of our time. There is a great deal of empirical data indicating that in general, cultural diversity is a weakness, not a strength. Culturally diverse societies (which can mean ethnically diverse, but doesn’t have to) are generally lower-trust societies, which inhibits economic growth. Western Europe is living proof of that proposition.

Medicaid Millionaires: How The Feds Pay Immigrants Billions To Hang Out With Their Families This poverty program is different from things like food stamps, because it has no monetary cap and its extent is decided not by politicians, but by any doctor willing to sign a form saying you could use some help around the house. It only takes one doctor who will say yes to churn out enough forms to bankrupt a state.



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Swedish Leader Demands End to Islamization: 'Demolish All Minarets, Ban Prayer Calls and Oppressive Clothing'   Her hard-hitting remarks, captured in a video that has gone viral across social media, reflect the deep and growing frustration among native Swedes with the cultural erosion, skyrocketing crime, parallel societies, and security nightmare created by mass migration from Islamic countries.


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Archdiocese of New York Agrees To Pay $800,000,000 in Sex Abuse Settlement  Two years after the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached an $880 million settlement with men and women who survived childhood sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests and clergy in their diocese, the Catholic Archdiocese of New York is following suit, agreeing to pay more than $800 million to its own sexual abuse survivors.
   So far, the Catholic Church has paid out more than $5 billion in settlements, which has bankrupted at least 19 dioceses. Image

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Protestant churches are experiencing a complex pattern of growth and decline across the world, with Western nations - particularly the UK - emerging as key areas of concern, according to new findings from the Pew Research Center.
   The data, drawn from surveys conducted in 24 countries in 2024, highlights how “religious switching” - when someone adopts a different faith from the one they were raised in - continues to reshape Christianity globally.

How Occultists Remade the World  As the Western world abandons its historic faith traditions, it isn’t becoming atheist, but agnostic, and it is within the vague milieu of agnosticism that these occult ideas travel. With the intellectual and spiritual coherence offered by religion fading, we may find that people turn to the wastebasket of occultism and its mysterious depths for answers the churches used to provide. Of one thing we can be sure, as the world braces for crises on every front, people will be looking for answers.

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Canadian Priest Says Hospital Asked Him To Consider Assisted Suicide Twice After Broken Hip However, despite the priest’s assertion that his condition is not and never was fatal, he says a doctor had raised the possibility of him taking his own life through Canada’s taxpayer-funded and government-run Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program in the event his injury worsened.

Appeals Court Blocks FDA Policy That Let Abortionists Traffick Deadly Illegal Drugs By Mail  A study last year found serious adverse effects caused by mifepristone abortions are ‘at least 22 times as high’ as the drug’s label admits.

Doctors Can Fraudulently Code ‘Trans’ Child Genital Mutilation To Bypass Bans: Report The report identifies eight codes that may be the most likely to hide child “transition” interventions from insurers and regulators, including hypopituitarism, other primary ovarian failure, testicular hypofunction, precocious puberty, other specified endocrine disorders, unspecified endocrine disorder, hormone replacement therapy, and hypertrophy of breast.


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Seductive doesn’t require supersmart machines. You could create a seductive AI companion today. Unlike Colossus, it wouldn’t be scary but winsome. You and your AI buddy would share inside jokes, light teasing, “remember when” stories of things you did in the past and fantasies or plans for the future. It would be like a best friend who’s always there for you and endlessly helpful.


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posted by Pat Dague @ 12:14 PM   0 comments

Saturday, May 02, 2026

How Long, O Lord, How Long?

How Long, O Lord, How Long? (Psalm 13) 
 Sovereign Grace Music

VERSE 1
O Lord, our God, to You we come
Will You still hide Your face?
We cry before You and on our knees we pray
How long, O Lord, how long?
 
VERSE 2
Our sorrows leave us weak and worn
Surrounded by our fears
We look to heaven through feeble faith and tears
How long, O Lord, how long?
 
CHORUS
Till Your glory fills our eyes
And our faith is turned to sight
Till our thirsty souls are satisfied
How long, O Lord, how long?
 
VERSE 3
Our foes and enemies rejoice
Injustice seems to reign
Lord, we are shaken and we are losing strength
How long, O Lord, how long?
 
VERSE 4
But we will trust Your steadfast love
Your grace will be our song
You bring new mercies with ev’ry rising sun
How long, O Lord, how long?

posted by Pat Dague @ 9:30 PM   0 comments

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints...

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
    and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment,
    and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
    but joy comes with the morning.
     -Psalm 30:4-5

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Why AI’s biggest threat is actually its power to seduce us — and the computers are already winning: Prof   We so often panic about how AI will outsmart us and take our jobs. But what if its ability to exploit mankind’s emotional quirks is more dangerous than anything else?
   “Seductive AI doesn’t depend on outsmarting people, but on essentially being lovable, being cute, being friendly, being sexy, so as to gain people’s trust and acquire influence over them,” Reynolds said.

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DOJ Launches West Coast Healthcare Fraud Strike Force Targeting Arizona, Nevada, and Northern California  The Healthcare Strike Force model has proven to be one of the most powerful tools in the federal enforcement arsenal, responsible nationally for the prosecution of over 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal healthcare programs and private insurers more than $45 billion.

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Trump DOJ launches investigations into 36 Illinois school districts over LGBT indoctrination The probe will “examine whether the schools have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of” whatever instruction they may be conducting on “sexual orientation and gender identity,” the announcement says, and whether they are limiting restrooms, lockers, and athletic teams to actual members of their designated sex.

TAKE ACTION PARENTS: Muslim Brotherhood’s War on America’s Children-The MSA Takeover of U.S. High Schools-Texas Student Fights Back  The Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim Students Association (MSA) is now aggressively infiltrating America’s high schools and junior highs, turning taxpayer-funded public schools into recruitment hubs for Sharia and Islamic indoctrination as the next phase of its civilization jihad.

Lesbian Communists Hijack New Hampshire Public School Curriculum    Translation: How do we consolidate and centralize our totalitarian grip on the education system so that not a single thoughtcrime is any longer possible?


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Bill in India smooths way for government to seize church assets   A sweeping foreign funding bill in India could hand the government control over faith-based schools, hospitals and charitable institutions built over decades, church leaders said.

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posted by Pat Dague @ 11:14 AM   0 comments

Friday, May 01, 2026

Pray without ceasing...

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. -1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

I have quitted all forms of devotion and set prayers but those to which my state obliges me. And I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention, and a general fond regard to God, which I may call an actual presence of God; or, to speak better, an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God, which often causes in me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them, and prevent their appearance to others.  -Brother Lawrence

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What is easy to miss is that young men and women are responding to the same underlying wound: the collapse of community and the epidemic of loneliness. Men’s social networks have disintegrated more severely than women’s. In the absence of genuine community, many young men found their way to the manosphere—a kind of church of the self, offering moral clarity, structure, and belonging organized around masculine identity. Young women, equally lonely, found feminist influencers waiting for them online, ready to monetize their isolation and channel it into righteous grievance. Both, in other words, wanted community, moral structure, and a shared account of what human life is for. They just went looking for it in all the wrong places. First Things

Looking For the Gen Z Revival? Check Bookstores And Movie Theatres   This suggests a future for Gen Z that’s increasingly divided. Some will be in person at church. Others will be in person in bookstores. Others will be in person at running clubs, and others at movie theaters. But they will likely never talk to each other. The town square will be social media, and Gen Z will pick from the cafeteria of choices it offers to determine which in-person community they like best. 
   There’s still reason to believe religion itself will come out ahead on this in the long term.

Progressive Christianity Watch: Flirty God, Lesbian Angels, and Other Things Not in Your Study Bible  It’s been a while since I’ve written a Progressive Christianity Watch. I have a trio of doozies for you today, so enjoy.

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With so much evil seeming to be sweeping over the world and the West of late, just the other day I was thinking about biblical texts that speak of how God’s restraint over what happens on planet earth might be lifted (see 2 Thessalonians 2 for example). At the end of the day, the only reason things are not even worse than they are is because God has been keeping evil in check to some extent.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is very clear on the approach that the West must close borders and dismantle Islamist infrastructures to prevent the spread of radical Islam. Unlike the U.S. and Middle East, which are actively countering Islamist elements, Europe remains vulnerable due to political complacency and open borders. The influx of refugees and elites from Middle Eastern conflicts will accelerate Islamist demographic and political dominance.

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posted by Pat Dague @ 4:29 PM   0 comments