The Louisiana state senator set to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court in March in defense of a law she authored believes the pro-life movement has reached a critical juncture in history.

In an interview with The Christian Post Thursday following the third annual gala for the pro-life group Save the Storks at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building, Louisiana state Sen. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, said the movement to save the unborn has reached “the turning point.”

“I really believe that through prayer, we’re at the turning point,” she emphasized, “that people are going to turn from an extreme view and people who have been scared to speak up and say, ‘Look, I’m a Democrat, I’m a Republican, I’m this, I’m that, but I’m pro-life.’ And I think we’ll see that, and we will finally begin to see an end, an eradication of the shedding of innocent blood,” she said.

“But it will happen through prayer. It will happen that people come together and really say, ‘This is no longer a party issue, this is a God issue; this is a United States issue. And we’re going to stand together and protect our children.’ And I believe this is the turning point.”

In March, Jackson will present oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case June Medical Services v. Gee in defense of a bill she authored requiring abortionists in the state to have admitting privileges at a hospital within a 30-mile radius of the abortion clinics where they work. Jackson has also sponsored an amendment to the state constitution called No Right to Abortion that will be on the 2020 ballot.

The Gee case is the first major abortion matter to be heard at the high court since President Trump appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the bench. Over 200 members of the U.S. House and Senate signed an amicus brief in support of the Louisiana law and asked the court to scrap the central holdings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that have enshrined abortion as a constitutional right for decades.

When asked how Christians might pray for the success of the legislation and that the heart of the Supreme Court will be turned toward women’s health, Jackson added that people should pray that the Supreme Court will “reinstate what they said, that we can regulate in the area of abortion when it concerns women’s health.” She also asked that believers pray for her family as well, because they are facing a “heavy battle” as spiritual warfare surrounds this issue.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Brandon Showalter

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The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest, is a Senior Analyst at RNS. Previously he was a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter (2015-17) and an associate editor (1978-85) and editor in chief (1998-2005) at America magazine. He was also a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University (1985-98 & 2006-15) where he wrote Archbishop, A Flock of Shepherds, and Inside the Vatican. Earlier he worked as a lobbyist for tax reform. He has a doctorate in political science from the University of California Berkeley. He entered the Jesuits in 1962 and was ordained a priest in 1974 after receiving a M.Div from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of BCNN1.

The Little Sisters of the Poor are back in court litigating the birth control mandate of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which the sisters claim forces them to act contrary to their faith.

Seen as one of the signature achievements of the Obama administration, the ACA, also known as Obamacare, requires most employers to provide free birth control coverage to their employees through their health insurance plans. The sisters, who run nursing and retirement homes for the elderly, say this infringes on their religious freedom, since they would be paying for a practice that violates church teaching.

Haven’t we seen this movie before? Didn’t this issue get resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 when it heard Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell? Is this rerun truly necessary?

The answers are yes, no and, I would argue, no: The Supreme Court shouldn’t be required to settle what the parties ought to have settled themselves.

As someone who believes that women have a right to birth control but also believes that government should respect people’s religious beliefs, I see this controversy as both a tragedy and a farce. If there had been goodwill on both sides, litigation would not have been necessary. In fact, each side was suspicious of the other and any kind of deal became impossible. A pox on both their houses.

It all started badly when the Department of Health and Human Services published proposed regulations for implementing the contraceptive mandate. To say that they were poorly written is being polite. The HHS lawyers were experts in health care law, not issues of religious freedom. Asking government regulators to foresee the objections of Catholic nuns was like asking a divorce lawyer to defend you in a murder trial.

I know this is true because I got a call from one of the HHS lawyers asking for help. If they had to call me for help, they were in big trouble. I recommended they speak to Melissa Rogers, a brilliant lawyer and good Baptist.

The original regulations left the administration open to severe criticism both from religious groups and from Republicans who hated the ACA. They saw the regulations as a planned assault on religion rather than merely a case of incompetence.

Remember, at the same time, HHS had denied the refugee agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops a government grant for helping trafficked people because it would not refer its clients for birth control or abortion services. It looked like an organized conspiracy against religious believers.

After a few more tries, the Obama administration finally issued regulations that completely exempted churches and provided a workaround for religiously affiliated employers like the Little Sisters of the Poor. The workaround was complicated because the insurance and constitutional questions are complicated, but in effect it allowed the institutions to offer insurance without birth control but required someone else — the insurance company itself or a third-party administrator — to provide birth control to their employees without charging the institution. The administration hoped that this would resolve the conflict.

There were problems with the workaround.

First, the institutions said the notion that insurance companies would provide birth control without charging them was a fiction. The administration responded with an economic study showing that it was in the insurance company’s financial interest to provide free birth control because it was cheaper than paying for births, especially complicated births. There really was no net increased cost for providing birth control.

Second, the government required the institutions to sign and send in to the government a form stating that they did not want birth control in their insurance plan. The Little Sisters maintained that even signing the government-mandated form would be “cooperating with evil.” They described it as a “permission slip” that would allow someone else to provide contraceptives.

Most Catholic moralists, as well as most Catholics, had no problem with Catholic institutions providing birth control through their health insurance plans. After all, Catholic institutions in Europe pay employee taxes for health insurance that provide not only contraceptives but even abortions.

Only the most scrupulous conscience would have a problem with notifying the government of their opposition to birth control. But the Catholic bishops and Little Sisters were being advised by extremely conservative moralists and lawyers. In addition, some bishops and Republican Catholics saw a fight over religious freedom with the Obama administration as politically advantageous. One cardinal archbishop, Francis George of Chicago, admitted he had hated Democrats ever since Mayor Richard J. Daley fired his father from a city job.

At one point, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York met with President Barack Obama to try to work out their differences. After the meeting, Dolan said he was hopeful matters could be resolved, but he was forced back off by other bishops.

Source: Religion News Service

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A court in Iran has sentenced a 65-year-old convert to Christianity to three years in prison for “insulting Islamic sacred beliefs” even as he is yet to be tried in the court for two other charges, a religious freedom watchdog group has reported.

The U.K.-based group Article 18 reported this week that Ismaeil Maghrebinejad has 20 days to appeal his sentencing and that the court referred to Article 513 of the Islamic Penal Code, which provides for a punishment between one and five years in prison.

Maghrebinejad was convicted for forwarding a message on his phone that allegedly made fun of Iran’s ruling clerics.

The convert was arrested at his home in the south-central region of Shiraz last January. Iranian security officials have regularly harassed Maghrebinejad for 40 years ever since he accepted Christ, the group said.

He is under trial for two other charges: “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and “membership of a group hostile to the regime.”

Last November, a court dropped another charge, of apostasy, which is punishable with the death penalty in Iran. He was initially charged for apostasy due to his conversion to Christianity. In its hearing at the time, however, the court said the case against him for engaging in “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” would still apply as he allegedly started a Telegram channel to promote evangelical Christianity.

The convert’s daughter, Mahsa, believes that her father has been targeted at least partially because she and her husband, Nathan, both of whom now live in the U.S., minister to Christians inside Iran over the Internet.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar

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With thousands upon thousands in attendance, the 2020 National March for Life kicked off with probably as much if not more anticipation as any march in the movement’s 47-year history.

Not only was it the first March for Life to be attended by a president of the United States, it’s also a moment in time in which there is much speculation about the future of abortion rights in the U.S.

With the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear its first abortion-related case since two Trump-appointed justices were confirmed to the bench, the tone of the gathering was seemingly more optimistic than it was four years ago during the last year of President Barack Obama’s administration.

In the following pages are 5 notable things that happened at the 2020 March for Life, the largest pro-life human rights demonstration in the world.

President Trump, who many pro-lifers call the “most pro-life president,” made history by becoming the first sitting president to speak in-person at the annual march launched the year after the Supreme Court made abortion a national right in 1973 with its Roe v. Wade ruling.

Trump, who has addressed the March for Life rally by video in the past, highlighted his pro-life accomplishments throughout his three years in office. Adoring fans cheered as they held up signs that read, “Most Pro-Life President Ever” and “I Vote Pro-Life First.”

As he has at other pro-life gatherings, Trump bashed congressional Democrats for their support of late-term abortion.

“Together we are the voice for the voiceless,” Trump told the crowd. “When it comes to abortion, Democrats … have embraced the most radical and extreme position taken and seen in this country for years and decades and you could even say for centuries. Nearly every top Democrat in Congress supports taxpayer abortion up until the moment of birth.”

Trump assured that “every child is a precious and sacred gift from God.”

“Together we must protect, cherish, and defend the dignity and the sanctity of every human life,” he said. “When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation. When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family.”

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, also addressed the march via video after meeting with Pope Francis in Rome. As the March for Life has always been a Catholic-majority movement, the Pences thanked Catholics for their advocacy on the abortion issue.

“To all the people of faith who are marching here today, we want to thank you for your witness and thank you for your compassion and thank you for standing for life,” Karen Pence said. “Your prayers have sustained this important movement for nearly 50 years. We cannot be more proud to be on this journey with you.”

Highly respected Southern Baptist megachurch pastor David Platt gave the closing prayer for the pep rally before the official start of the march.

Platt is the former head of the SBC’s International Mission Board, an author and lead pastor at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia.

Platt, who is not really seen as a political pastor, made headlines last year when he prayed for the president after he showed up at one of the McLean church services.

Before beginning his prayer, Platt told the crowd that his family is growing.

“One year ago, God used this march along with a variety of other means for my wife and me to begin the process of adoption,” he explained, followed by cheers from the crowd. “So we have adopted two of our four kids. We thought our family was complete but God felt different. So we began praying for a child not knowing if we would adopt a boy or a girl.”

“Our kids decided that until we met this child, we would just call him or her ‘Wonderfully Made’ because this is what God calls them in Psalm 39,” Platt, 40, said. “We prayed month-after-month over the last year for ‘Wonderfully Made’ until we were matched with a 3-year-old little boy. Next week, he will officially become part of our family.”

Platt told CP before going on stage that the adoption is international but could not yet disclose what country “Wonderfully Made” is from.

“I share this because I praise God for a mom, a woman who is herself wonderfully made, who chose to give life to a precious boy I will soon call my son,” Platt told the crowd. “As we pray, let’s pray that God would use this not as a memorable experience or political event but as a means by which more lives wonderfully made by Him might be saved.”

The popular Irish Christian worship band We Are Messengers performed the hour-long pre-rally concert.

In between songs, frontman Darren Mulligan declared that the band is unapologetically pro-life, even if it does cost them some fans.

He explained that the band took a risk by attending the event because there are many who oppose the band’s decision to perform at the march.

“When I get home tonight, I am going to get thousands of emails slamming me for taking this stance,” Mulligan said. “And, I don’t give one iota because I am a free man and nobody can tell me who I can love and who I cannot.”

Mulligan, who now lives in Tennessee, was critical of where he sees America’s priorities lying.

“America, if you are going to be obsessed with plastic straws and what bathroom people can use, then you are missing the big picture,” he warned.

He recalled his family’s own story. Mulligan said he was a “bad man” who found Christ thanks to his wife 11 years ago. But because she struggled with an eating disorder, they were told by doctors that they might never be able to have children because of the damage done to her body.

However, he said that God “had different ideas.”

“He is the author of life and He is the creator of life,” he said in his thick Irish accent. “He is the one who gives and takes away. So He has given us four of the most incredible gifts.”

“I look [at my kids] and they tell me it is just a fetus,” he continued in disgust. “Go away with that nonsense. That is not just a fetus. That is baby boys and baby girls.”

Mulligan said that when people are “walking around dead,” they “try to convince everybody else that is OK.”

Mulligan went on to criticize the people of his home country, who in 2018 legalized abortion by a democratic vote.

“I am ashamed of that,” Mulligan said. “We don’t get to choose who lives and who dies. It is not our right to do that.”

Mulligan also called on those who say they are pro-life to be active in the lives of mothers who give birth rather than abort and their children.

“We are pro-life, pro-baby. But we are also pro-woman,” Mulligan said. “Don’t go telling someone they can’t have an abortion if you are not willing to take care of them and if you are not going to sew your time and your energy and your money and your passion.”

“America, you do a lot of talking sometimes and not a lot of doing,” he added. “It is time to put your money where your mouth is. If you are going to march here today, you better be sure tomorrow that in [your heart] you are marching as well and giving everything you got.”

Mulligan praised care clinics in inner cities that are on the “frontlines that are counseling young girls considering abortion because they don’t believe they have a choice.”

He apologized on behalf of men to the women in the audience who have had abortions because they felt they had no other choice.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Samuel Smith

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You know that American culture has hit an all-time low when it takes a drag queen to tell “woke” parents to keep their kids out of drag bars. Who would have thought?

I just did a search for “drag queen lectures parents,” looking for articles related to the subject of this article.

The results of the search were telling, yielding headlines like this on a wide variety of drag-related stories:

“School Board Scolds Parents for Opposing Drag Queen’s Makeup Lesson.”

“Some Parents Outraged After Drag Queen Speaks At School Career Day.”

“Viral Video Shows Drag Queen Teaching Children To ‘Twerk’ As Parents Look On.”

“Drag Queen Prostitute Visits Texas School.”

“Parents outraged after X-rated drag queen speaks to 11-year-olds at school career day.”

What on earth is going on?

There is even a debate as to whether or not a drag queen flashed toddlers during a recent reading event. I am not making this up.

Adding to this madness is the new phenomenon of little boys being celebrated as drag queens, most famously the little boy known as Desmond Is Amazing. And little Desmond actually performed in a gay bar, leading to a firestorm of criticism. Reporting on this controversy, Pink News reported that, “Drag kid Desmond is Amazing’s mum defends gay bar performance.”

Well, one drag queen has said enough is enough, scolding parents for the insane practice of bringing their children into gay bars where drag queens perform.

As reported by Will Maule on Christian Headlines, “A popular drag queen known as ‘Kitty Demure’ has issued a stark warning to parents who are seeking to involve their children in the crossdressing scene.”

In the video, which is going viral, “Kitty” asks pointedly, “What in the h*** has a drag queen ever done to make you have so much respect for them, and admire them so much, other than put on makeup and jump on the floor and writhe around and do sexual things on stage?”

Precisely so!

How in the world did drag queens, who are almost all gay men, become exemplars for our children? What on earth happened to our society that the American Library Association could actually support Drag Queen Story Hours for our toddlers?

In response to one of my articles addressing this perverse phenomenon, some drag supporters protested, “What’s the big deal? Do you have a problem with clowns performing for your children?”

But that’s the thing. Clowns are not making ridiculous gender statements. Clowns are not parading their sexuality. How can anyone not see the differences?

In the words of Kitty, “I have absolutely no idea why you would want that to influence your child. Would you want a stripper or a pornstar to influence your child?”

SOURCE: Charisma News, Michael Brown

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Iran’s protests felt like a revolution was in the wind.

The protestors seemed to be bolder, more focused, and overall, observers thought that what was happening in Iran reflected a shift in the Middle East of growing anger and intolerance of injustice.

What started as the mourning of a national hero, a beloved general quickly transformed into anti-government fury as Iran admitted to accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian airliner.

The government’s denial and cover-up just added fuel to the anger over corruption, economic stagnation, and mismanagement. After all, these were the same issues behind the November protests.  This time around, people were calling for Ayatollah Khamenei to step down. The next step he takes, as Supreme Leader, determines whether the uprising turns into a real revolution.

Past responses to quash the demonstrations included an active military and police response, which led to violent clashes.  Although not everyone connected to the opposition wants the same thing, the shame Iranians suffered over the Ukrainian plane crash seems to keep them focused for the time being.

There’ve been sweeping arrests of the ‘troublemakers’ to try to regain control.  On January 12, while protests were taking place in Tehran, police arrested Christian activist Mary Fatemeh Mohammadi. Since her arrest, her whereabouts remain unknown.

Heart 4 Iran’s Mike Ansari says the ministry, “strongly condemns the arrest of Mary Fatemeh Mohammadi, a Christian human rights activist.”  Last year, she faced several challenges as a result of her converting from Islam to Christianity and sharing her faith. Ansari explains that “Mary is among a large number of Iranians who have converted from Islam to Christianity.   These are Iranian citizens who are seeking ways to promote religious freedom and human rights in the face of real danger.”

SOURCE: Mission Network News, R.B. Klama

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Polarization in American Christianity — and American politics — may be at its highest in recent memory, but experts on the role of faith in public life nevertheless have some hope about ways to address it.

Panelists at a Georgetown University discussion on “Christians in American Public Life” suggested on Thursday (Jan. 23) a few remedies even as they held up recent reaction to a Christianity Today editorial as Exhibit A of the divisiveness in the country as President Trump’s impeachment trial was underway.

“It has been a sadness to me that things have become more frayed over time,” said Melissa Rogers, author of the new book, “Faith in American Public Life.” That book was the focus of the event sponsored by Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, a senior research fellow at the center, served as moderator of the event that drew more than 100 people.

Melissa Rogers speaks at Georgetown University in
Washington on Jan. 23, 2020. RNS photo by Adelle M.
Banks

Rogers recalled thinking “the nadir of the religious liberty debate” had been reached during the Clinton administration. But current times have proved her wrong. She said religious differences over LGBTQ and abortion rights have intensified the battles.

“We need to respect everyone and find ways for the rights of religious liberty to co-exist with other key civil and human rights,” said Rogers, former executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. “That’s the goal. We’ve got to get there.”

Ted Olsen, editorial director of Christianity Today, said reaction to his magazine’s editorial that Trump should be removed from office — published in December right after the president was impeached — filled his email box with a mix of messages.

Olsen said it was “heartbreaking” to hear from readers who were disappointed in Christian leaders who said “character matters” during the Clinton administration but were now saying the opposite. He also cited an email from a conservative Christian concerned about liberals, who wrote: “Who then will save us from the tyranny that will befall us? Jesus? Where is he now when freedom depends on him?”

Source: Religion News Service

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When a woman comes to see Christie Gambrell at Christian Women’s Job Corps in Rusk County, Texas, she may be looking for help getting her GED or learning English. But that’s not all she will get.

“At CWJC,” Gambrell said, “We help meet the felt needs of women as we help them find their true worth through Jesus.”

As executive director of Christian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC) of Rusk County, Texas, Gambrell has worked with hundreds of women. The CWJC chapter, which opened its doors in Henderson, Texas, in 2002, seeks to reach women with the love of Jesus while helping equip them for life and employment.

Among CWJC’s diverse offerings are English as a Second Language, which includes citizenship classes, and Life Skills training, which addresses such topics as money management, healthy relationships, computer proficiency, Bible storying and mentoring. Volunteers also provide literacy and high school equivalency (GED) tutoring. Additionally, CWJC of Rusk County is one of six CWJC programs in the nation that include a WorldCrafts artisan group, a fair trade compassion ministry of National Woman’s Missionary Union.

Noting that “we work with about 50 women every year and usually about that many volunteers,” Gambrell said, “When you work with this many women, you see women who succeed and women who don’t. But that’s true in every form of education and Christian ministry.

“We’ve had some wonderful successes,” she added. “Each semester we see women successfully enter the workforce. This past year we had four women who received their citizenship. We have women who’ve gone to college. We have one who’s working on her master’s degree right now.”

She said they also have participants “who we’ve gotten to see their children go to college and their children get awards which is so fantastic because that goes back to the founding thought of Christian Women’s Job Corps that you’re changing the children’s lives and changing the family.”

Nita Tirado is among those success stories. She first came to CWJC to get help with earning her GED. She then enrolled in the Life Skills classes where she gained computer skills and other practical training.

Even more significantly, she learned about the Gospel of Christ and accepted Jesus as her Savior. Following her CWJC involvement, she successfully found employment before eventually getting married and becoming a stay-at-home mom.

Her CWJC classes “gave me confidence in general,” Tirado reflected. “My favorite class out of Life Skills was Bible study,” she added. “It was amazing for me. It really was. I just felt peace. It was something that I was needing at that time in my life.”

Over the past few years, Tirado and her husband have been paired with a CWJC volunteer couple who provide mentoring and Bible study.

That connection “has been very important in my family’s life because our mentors are the sweetest people,” she said. “In my life, I’ve never had anybody like them. They show you love as a couple. They’re older and they’re still holding hands and that just gave me this really nice feeling of that’s how I want to be with my husband when we’re old.

“The mentoring has been the biggest thing that has helped me in my life,” Tirado noted. “It helps us to be better parents and to guide our kids on God’s path. That’s the biggest blessing of coming here for me.”

Gambrell noted that recruiting mentors typically is one of the biggest challenges for most CWJC sites.

Source: Baptist Press

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Frustration and fear reign in Nigeria. On Monday, Boko Haram executed a well-known pastor and regional Christian leader, Lawan Andimi. Yesterday, the Christian Association of Nigeria demanded answers from the Nigerian government.

“The sentiments were ‘Hey, national government, you have announced repeatedly that you defeated Boko Haram. But, look at what happened,” Voice of the Martyrs USA spokesman Todd Nettleton says.

“‘They obviously are not defeated. They’re still killing Christians. They’re still killing pastors.’”

Send tangible help to persecuted believers through VOM.

As explained here, Boko Haram surfaced as a serious threat to Nigeria’s believers in mid-2009. Its name means “Western education is sin,” and the terrorists’ goal is to eradicate everything associated with the West – including Christianity.

President Muhammed Buhari was elected in 2015, reportedly on “the strength of promises to end terrorism and improve security in the country.” After a brief lull, Boko Haram attacks surged again in 2019.

Boko Haram isn’t the only danger. 

SOURCE: Mission Network News, Katey Hearth

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