Over 60 Members of Persecuted Chinese Church Saved, Bound for Texas

A persecuted Chinese Christian church has been freed from Thai prison and is bound for Texas, human rights advocates told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Friday.

Over 60 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church, is scheduled to arrive at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport late Friday evening, ending the church’s three year-long quest for asylum after fleeing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecution in 2019, Pastor Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, told the DCNF. Despite applying for asylum in Thailand in August, the members of the Mayflower Church were arrested last week for overstaying their visas, prompting international concern that the church might be deported back to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and face persecution.

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Commentary: The Evolution of Easter Eggs

A lot of Easter traditions – including hot cross buns and lamb on Sunday – stem from medieval Christian or even earlier pagan beliefs. The chocolate Easter egg, however, is a more modern twist on tradition.

Chicken eggs have been eaten at Easter for centuries. Eggs have long symbolised rebirth and renewal, making them perfect to commemorate the story of Jesus’ resurrection as well as the arrival of spring.

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Holy Week Starts Off with Lots of Palms – but Palm Sunday’s Donkey Is Just as Important to the Story

For the Catholic Church and many other Christian denominations, the Sunday before Easter marks the beginning of the most important week of the year – “Holy Week,” when Christians reflect on central mysteries of their faith: Christ’s Last Supper, crucifixion and resurrection from the dead.

Palm Sunday commemorates the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem shortly before the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to the Christian Gospels, people lined the streets to greet him, waving palm branches and shouting words of praise.

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Commentary: New Study Shows American Religious Divides

America is a diverse country. In most cities, you can find people from nearly every ethnic or racial background imaginable. This is becoming the case in rural areas as well. But America is host to a considerable amount of religious diversity as well. And while race relations are often the subject of considerable discussion, understanding interreligious relations is a necessary part of understanding the country as a whole.

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Minister Rips Biden Administration for Refusal to Condemn Nashville Shooting as ‘Hate Crime’ Against Christians

A Presbyterian minister condemned the Biden administration’s refusal to denounce the Nashville school shooting as a “religious hate crime against Christians.” Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, said in a statement Thursday that President Joe Biden and his administration’s failure to declare the shooting at the Covenant Christian school a hate crime against Christians “is deeply troubling and concerning.”

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Connecticut Archdiocese of Hartford Investigates Possible Eucharistic Miracle

The Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, issued a statement Tuesday about its ongoing investigation into a possible Eucharistic miracle that was reported at St. Thomas Church in Thomaston earlier in March.

Rev. Joseph Crowley, pastor of St. Thomas, announced on March 5 after the distribution of Holy Communion that a lay eucharistic minister had witnessed a possible miracle when the vessel holding the hosts showed more hosts had appeared.

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Catholic League: Nashville Shooting Should Be Investigated as a ‘Hate Crime Against Christians’

The president of the Catholic League said Tuesday that the Nashville school shooting “needs to be investigated as a hate crime against Christians” based on the report by the police chief that the transgender shooter held “some resentment for having to go to that school.” “The shooter, Audrey Hale, is a female who misidentified herself as a male,” wrote Bill Donohue, who heads the Catholic civil rights organization. “Her resentment against The Covenant School, a Christian school, is important given that Christianity teaches we are either male or female.”

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Notre Dame Invites Gay Priest for ‘Queer Holiness’ Event

The University of Notre Dame is hosting a “Queer Holiness” event next week to discuss “Experiential Christian Anthropology,” according to the event page.

On March 23, the university’s John J. Reilly Center is hosting a “Queer Holiness” event with Rev. Dr. Charlie Bell to address the church’s “hostile questions” regarding the LGBTQ community. Bell, a gay deacon in the Church of England and a Cambridge fellow, is also the author of the book “Queer Holiness,” which claims to “find a better way to do theology – not about, but with and of LGBTQI people.”

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Commentary: Biden Turns Christianity on Its Head

Gender ideology preys upon the young, convincing girls and boys that they were “born in the wrong body” and rushing them onto experimental drugs, hormones, and surgeries that will leave them stunted, scarred, and infertile. Yet the ostensible Catholic who currently occupies the Oval Office not only supports this horror but had the gall to condemn those who would protect children from it as “sinful” and “cruel.”

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Commentary: America’s Byzantine Trajectory

When Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the Byzantine Empire and its capital had survived for 1,000 years beyond the fall of the Western Empire at Rome.

Always outnumbered in a sea of enemies, the Byzantines’ survival had depended on its realist diplomacy of dividing its enemies, avoiding military quagmires, and ensuring constant deterrence.

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Pope Francis Says Celibacy for Catholic Priests Is ‘Temporary,’ Ban Could Be Reconsidered

Pope Francis says the Catholic Church’s celibacy decree for unmarried men ordained as priests is a “temporary prescription” that could be reconsidered. 

“In the Western Church, celibacy is a temporary prescription,” Francis told the Argentinian outlet Infobae late last week, as translated. “I do not know if it is settled in one way or another.”

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Catholic Civil Rights Group Condemns State Legislation to Force Priests to Break Seal of Confession

Bills in the states of Vermont, Delaware, and Washington would include in mandatory reporting laws information about child sexual abuse a priest learns during the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a move the Catholic League states lacks sound reasoning.

Last week Catholic League President Bill Donohue warned the “seal of confession” is “under fire” in Vermont, noting the Catholic civil rights organization is once again “doing battle with lawmakers who want to violate” the priest-penitent privilege, mostly in legislation concerning the sexual abuse of minors.

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Catholic Nonprofit Spends $4 Million to Root Out Priests Using Hookup Apps

A Catholic nonprofit paid $4 million to collect dating app data in an effort to determine if priests are adhering to their commitment to celibacy, according to a report from the Washington Post.

Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal (CLCR) is a Colorado nonprofit that seeks to help the clergy by providing “evidence-based resources,” “support quality formation practices” and “identify weaknesses,” according to the organization’s website. CLCR reportedly spent $4 million to gain access to data from multiple dating apps, including Grindr, Scruff and OKCupid, and determine whether members of the Catholic priesthood were using the apps, according to the Post.

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Commentary: Woke Norwegians Try to Replace Christian Holidays with Liberal Festivities

When I moved to Norway from the U.S. in 1999, one of the new pieces of information that most surprised me had to do with its national holidays.

In the U.S., all but one of our 11 federal holidays could be described as secular or civic commemorations: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day, and Thanksgiving. Even though America is probably the most churchgoing country in the developed world, only one of our federal holidays, Christmas, is a religious festival.

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Commentary: FBI Agents in Catholic Churches

It never stops getting worse, does it? Just when you think the progressive Left has torpedoed our culture and country to rock bottom, a new hitherto-inconceivable outrage explodes.

Until the Trump years, the law-abiding universally loved the FBI. They protected our country and us, we thought. They investigated domestic threats to America, we thought. They were politically nonpartisan, like the military, we thought. Respect for them was so universal that ABC had a show titled The F.B.I., starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., which depicted FBI heroism week after week.

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AG Merrick Garland’s Reason Why DOJ Has Prosecuted Few Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Firebombers: They Are Bombing at Night

Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland told Republican senators Wednesday that his Department of Justice (DOJ) has prosecuted more pro-life Americans for peaceful protests at abortion clinics than enraged anti-life terrorists firebombing pregnancy care centers and vandalizing churches because pro-life people conduct their activities during the day while the domestic terrorists are doing their bombing at night.

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AG Merrick Garland Faces Republicans on Senate Judiciary Committee Over Weaponization of DOJ Against Parents, Catholics, and Pro-Life Activists

Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to face tough questions from Republican senators Wednesday regarding what many in the nation say has been the purposeful weaponization of the Department of Justice against parents of schoolchildren, Catholics who live their faith in the public square, and activists who fight for the vulnerable unborn.

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California Christian Teacher Allegedly Fired for Refusal to Comply with District Gender Policies: ‘The District Cannot Accommodate Your Religious Beliefs’

A California Christian physical education teacher was allegedly fired for refusing to lie to parents about their children’s gender identities at school and reject having males in female locker rooms – both policies that violate her faith beliefs, Fox News Digital reported Wednesday.

Jessica Tapias apparently shared with Fox News Digital the notice she received from the office of Jurupa Unified School District Superintendent Trenton Hansen.

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Leaked FBI Memo Citing Southern Poverty Law Center Warning ‘White Supremacy’ Embedded in ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology’ Rescinded

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Richmond Division has reportedly rescinded a leaked memo that cited the discredited radical Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) warning that “white supremacy” has “found a home” in traditionalist Catholics.

Former FBI special agent Kyle Seraphin revealed Wednesday at UnCoverdc.com that the federal agency’s Richmond Division released a “finished intelligence product dated January 23, 2023” that cited the disgraced leftist SPLC to warn Virginians about Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists” (RMVE) and “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics.”

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Republican Attorneys General Warn CVS and Walgreens Against Mailing and Distributing Abortion-Inducing Drugs

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey led 19 other Republican state attorneys general (AGs) in a warning letter to CVS and Walgreens that asserts federal law forbids using the mail to send or receive drugs that are intended to be used to produce an abortion.

Bailey and the coalition of attorneys general wrote to the two drugstore chains, informing them that their announced plan to use the mail to distribute abortion pills is both unsafe and illegal.

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Smithsonian Allegedly Ejects Catholic Students from Museum for Wearing Pro-Life Hats

The staff of the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum allegedly ridiculed, swore at, and then kicked out an entire group of Catholic pro-life students and their chaperones for wearing hats that say “Rosary PRO-LIFE,” reports the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which now represents the mother of two of the students.

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Minnesota Democrats Celebrate New Law Enshrining Abortion at Anytime During Pregnancy

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) signed legislation Tuesday that has been condemned by the pro-life community as the most extreme abortion measure in the nation, one that creates a “fundamental right” to abortion at any time during pregnancy, and denies parents the right to know if their minor daughter undergoes an abortion.

Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act to enshrine in state statute a “fundamental right” to abortion, without any restrictions, and to contraception, sterilization, fertility treatment.

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Acquitted Pro-Life Activist Describes Raid of Family Home by FBI and State Troopers

Veteran Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck described to Steve Bannon Tuesday the scene at his family’s home on September 23, 2022, when over 20 FBI agents and Pennsylvania state troopers banged on his door at 6:45 a.m.

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New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith at March for Life: ‘Pro-Abortion Culture’ Is a ‘Modern-Day Flat Earth Society’

The co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus told thousands of advocates for life on the National Mall in Washington, DC, that the “pro-abortion culture of denial” is a “modern-day flat earth society” that “continues to deny, devalue, and disrespect unborn baby girls and boys and trivialize the harm suffered by women.” On Friday, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) spoke at the 50th annual March for Life – the first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

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House Democrats Oppose Resolution Condemning Violence Against Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

Nearly all House Democrats opposed a resolution Wednesday condemning the political violence against pro-life pregnancy centers and their supportive allies that occurred in the aftermath of the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The House voted, 222-209, to approve the resolution, introduced by Representative Mike Johnson (R-LA) that states since the leak of the draft opinion, “individuals professing anti-life views have targeted, destroyed, or vandalized numerous pro-life facilities, groups, and even churches to further their radical cause.”

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Catholic Leaders Mourn Death of Cardinal Pell, Victim of Anti-Catholic Hate

A fearless defender of the Catholic faith, Australian Cardinal George Pell is being mourned as a victim of “anti-Catholicism” that drove him to be convicted of sexual abuse in 2018 and sentenced to solitary confinement, until finally he was acquitted by the full bench of the Australian High Court in 2020.

Pell, who died Tuesday at the age of 81, had recently undergone successful hip surgery, but then suffered cardiac arrest.

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‘THE CHOSEN’ Star to Keynote First ‘Post-Roe’ March for Life in Nation’s Capital

Jonathan Roumie, who plays the role of “Jesus” in the groundbreaking series THE CHOSEN, will keynote the 50th annual March for Life – the first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – in Washington, DC, the pro-life organization announced Thursday.

In a press release, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund announced actor, director, producer and voice-over artist Jonathan Roumie, who portrays “Jesus” in the fan-supported free streaming series THE CHOSEN, a drama about the life of Jesus and the calling of his first disciples, will keynote the pro-life organization’s Rose Dinner Gala on January 20.

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Pro-Life Leaders Push Back on Trump’s ‘No Exceptions’ Blame for Midterm Losses

Former President Donald Trump accepted no blame for Republicans’ failure to achieve the anticipated “red wave” results in the midterm elections, but, instead, pointed a finger at pro-life candidates who insisted on “No Exceptions” to abortion as the reason for the party’s losses.

“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday. “I was 233-20! It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.”

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American Catholic Leaders Celebrate Life of Pope Benedict, ‘Defender of Truth’ Who Taught Above All Else ‘God Is Love’

American Catholic leaders are acclaiming the life and work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose scholarly writings emphasized the unity of faith and reason and, most fundamentally, the primary truth of the Catholic faith, which teaches God is Love.

Benedict, who was born Joseph Ratzinger, died Saturday at the age of 95. He became pope in April 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II, and served until his resignation in February 2013.

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‘Laicized’ Pro-Life Priest Father Frank Pavone: Pope Francis ‘Definitely Signed Off on This’

Prominent international pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone said Monday Pope Francis “definitely signed off” on a letter that reportedly states the Vatican has laicized Pavone, for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.”

“I have received nothing,” Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, told The Star News Network during a telephone interview Monday. “And what’s worse, that has been the pattern for the last 20 years of abuse by church authorities.”

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Religious Liberty Christian Group: Same-Sex Marriage Bill Will ‘Create Perfect Scenario’ for Supreme Court to Overturn Obergefell Ruling

President Joe Biden signed the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill amid fanfare and celebration, but an attorney-led Christian ministry that says it won nearly 50 cases defending marriage as between one man and one woman before the Obergefell decision asserts the passage of the legislation can now “actually create the perfect scenario to overturn” the Supreme Court’s 2015 5-4 ruling.

Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) Tuesday.

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House Democrats Block Religious Liberty Amendment to Same-Sex Marriage Bill to Assure Passage Before Republicans Take Over

House Democrats have blocked an amendment that would have strengthened religious liberty protections to their legislation to codify same-sex marriage to ensure swift passage of the bill before Republicans take over leadership of the House in the new year.

“If we were to amend this, and it goes back to the Senate, for all intents and purposes it’s dead for the year,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), who rejected Representative Chip Roy’s (R-TX) amendment for advancement to the House floor.

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Hillary Clinton Compares America to Taliban in Afghanistan After Overturning Roe v. Wade

Failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Friday America is now comparable to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Sudan after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, returning abortion decisions to the states.

“It’s so shocking to think that in any way we’re related to poor Afghanistan and Sudan,” Clinton said, according to Fox News, regarding abortion rights during the Women’s Voices Summit at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. “But as an advanced economy as we allegedly are, on this measure, we unfortunately are rightly put with them.”

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Sen. Mike Lee’s Amendment to Safeguard Religious Liberty for Americans Who Hold to Traditional Marriage Fails By One Vote

Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) religious liberty amendment to the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill failed by just one vote, 48-49, an outcome that, if the legislation is signed into law, could give a green light to the federal government’s retaliation against nonprofit faith organizations, such as schools and businesses, whose religious beliefs are incompatible with gay marriage.

Senate Democrats voted Tuesday, 61-36, to codify same-sex marriage into federal law with the help of 12 Republicans, as the Senate Press Gallery noted.

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Senator Sounds Alarm for Same-Sex Marriage Bill as It Clears Another Hurdle with GOP Support, ‘Without Sufficient Protections for Religious Liberty’

A bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage in federal law progressed further in the Senate Monday evening with significant Republican support, but without sufficient religious liberty protections, and is now headed to a vote on Tuesday.

The Senate voted, 61-35, with four senators not voting, to end debate on the House-passed bill, dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA), that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage in federal law as between one man and one woman.

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Newly Elected Catholic Bishops’ Conference President: Link Between Homosexuality and Sexual Abuse Crisis ‘Can’t Be Denied’

The newly elected head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said last week following his election he maintains the assertion that a relationship exists between the clergy sex abuse scandal and homosexual priests ordained in the Church.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the Archbishop of the Military Services, said in a press conference he continues to stand by his 2018 statement in which he stated the issue of homosexual priests is “certainly an aspect of the sexual crisis that can’t be denied,” LifeSiteNews reported.

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Fan-Supported ‘The Chosen’ Season Three Tops Box Office with No. 3 Open

The premiere of Season 3 of The Chosen, a free streaming series based on the life of Jesus, opened at a stunning No. 3 spot at the box office this past weekend.

The first two episodes of the premiere of The Chosen Season 3 has drawn a historic number of viewers, pushing its original five-day run in theaters to December 1, and grossing $8.7 million in the United States.

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Federal Lawsuit Calls FDA’s Approval of Abortion-Inducing Drugs ‘Politics Over Science’

Worldwide religious freedom legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit Friday that challenges the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of chemical abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, claiming they present significant health risks to a pregnant woman as they also starve her unborn child to death.

“[T]he FDA failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States,” the lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, asserts. “And it has continued to fail them by repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with their use.”

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Clinton Global Initiative Funded Energy Project for Raphael Warnock’s Church After His 2016 Campaign Efforts for Hillary Clinton

Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D) church reportedly received key funding from the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) for a climate change-related project shortly after he campaigned for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016.

Warnock, who is facing a runoff election against Republican Herschel Walker, has served as pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which reportedly was the recipient of a $550,000 grant from CGI soon after he stumped for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign for president, Fox News reported Friday.

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Faith Leaders Call upon Republicans to Vote Against Same-Sex Marriage Bill: ‘Corrosive’ to Religious Freedom

Faith leaders are calling upon Republicans to uphold their party’s platform that declares “the union of one man and one woman” to be the “cornerstone of the family.”

The leaders are reacting to the fact that 12 Senate Republicans joined with Democrats Wednesday to advance legislation, dubbed by Democrats the Respect for Marriage Act, that would codify the Supreme Court‘s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal across all 50 states.

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Candace Cameron Bure: Christian Message of ‘Traditional Marriage’ at Core of Great American Family Channel

Christian actress Candace Cameron Bure says in her new top-level role at the Great American Family Channel, she will place faith and “traditional marriage” at the core of its Christmas movies.

In April, Bure became chief creative officer at Great American Family, a channel that is aiming to become the faith and freedom alternative to Hallmark, where the actress once served as the chief representative of the romantic comedy Christmas channel.

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Navy Veteran Founds Classical Catholic School to Counter Woke Education

A Navy veteran who rejects the secularist and woke education agendas prevalent in public schools and some parochial schools launched a classical Catholic school in Maryland.

“We’re a military family,” Lt. Commander Ali Ghaffari, founder of Divine Mercy Academy in Pasadena, Maryland, explained to Fox & Friends Weekend Sunday. “We’ve traveled around the country seeing lots of schools, and we settled at the Naval Academy, that was my last tour.

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Nine Texas and Nebraska Cities Became ‘Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn’ on Election Day

Four Texas cities and six villages in Nebraska voted on Election Day on ballot measures that would outlaw abortion within their jurisdictions.

Of the 10 ballot measures, only one was rejected by voters, reported Mark Lee Dickson, founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative, at Live Action News.

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Analysis: Herschel Walker’s Pro-Life Stance Points to His Victory in the Georgia Runoff

Candidates at the state level embracing the pro-life cause were re-elected in the midterms this week, an outcome that points to the anticipated success of Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker in his runoff election against anti-life Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock.

The Walker-Warnock December 6 runoff could determine whether Republicans, most of whom are pro-life, take control of the Senate from Democrats, almost all of whom support Senator Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) legislation that would embed abortion on demand, at any time during pregnancy, into federal law, and make invalid most individual state pro-life laws.

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STAND America PAC Runs over 1,000 Ads Urging Black Voters to Abandon Democrats in the Midterm Elections

A political action committee (PAC) associated with STAND America has purchased over 1,000 ads for U.S. Senate and House races on black radio stations to urge black voters to abandon the Democrat Party.

“Black and Latino voters are turning away from Democrats toward Republicans who share their commitment to faith, family, public safety and educational choice for their children,” Bishop E.W. Jackson, STAND America PAC (SAPAC) chairman, said in a press statement. “They are also feeling the ravages of inflation.” 

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Black and Hispanic Catholic School Students Outperformed Those in Government Schools on Nation’s Report Card Assessments

Results of national education assessments released last week showed unprecedented drops in academic achievement in fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading scores, but black, Hispanic, and low-income Catholic school students outperformed their counterparts in national, charter, and public school averages.

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” revealed a dramatic decline in test scores from 2019, when students were last tested.

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