Muslims in Swing-State of MI Support Trump over Harris

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), America’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, recently released the results of their August 25-27 presidential election survey of 1,155 American Muslim voters. The news is surprising: In the swing state of Michigan (MI), 40% of Muslim American voters support Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, 18% support former President Donald Trump, and only 12% support Vice President Kamala Harris.

Many Muslim Americans are unhappy with the Biden-Harris Administration’s handling of the war between Hamas and Israel — a war which will see its one-year mark on October 7, when Hamas terrorists brutally attacked Israel — raping women, kidnapping more than 250, and murdering 1,200 men, women, and children.

Many of these Muslim Americans do not think Harris has been harsh enough on Israel nor supportive enough of Hamas — even though Harris’s policy proposal calling for a ceasefire and “two-state solution” has been weak and confusing. (Hamas has continually refused a ceasefire and a two-state solution.  They want to eliminate Israel altogether.)  These voters actually prefer Dr. Jill Stein’s policy which is even more radical than Harris’s.  Stein states that she will “immediately end all military aid to Israel and adopt sanctions until Israel complies with international law to put an end to decades of violence, illegal occupation, displacement, dispossession, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.”

While 40% of Muslims in Michigan support Stein, the candidate with the next highest support is Trump (18%), not Harris (12%).  Many of these voters have been struggling to afford groceries, gas, electricity, housing, and other necessities during these last four years of the Biden-Harris Administration and long for the days when they could afford these things under the Trump Administration.  Other Muslims are tired of LGBTQ indoctrination being pushed on their children and know that President Trump and Republicans stand up for parental rights.

MI has the 6th largest Muslim population in the United States, with Muslim Americans composing more than 2% of MI’s total population.  Kyle Olson, publisher at The Midwesterner, said, “It is very possible this could cost Kamala Harris the state of Michigan.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Over 1/4 of Dems Say America Would Be ‘Better Off’ If Trump Were Assassinated

A shocking new survey is revealing that nearly a fifth of Americans wish former President Donald Trump had been slain by an assassin’s bullet.  According to a Napolitan News Service poll conducted by RMG Research founder and president Scott Rasmussen, 17% of surveyed voters answered “Yes” when asked if the U.S. would be “better off if Donald Trump had been killed…”  Nearly 70% of voters responded “No” and 14% said that they were “not sure.”

Over a quarter (28%) of those who replied “Yes” were registered Democrats, while another 27% were identified as voters who “lean Dem.”  Additionally, 12% of Independent voters, 7% of registered Republicans and 1% of voters who “lean GOP” said that the nation would be “better off” if Trump were to be assassinated.

However, a majority of every political demographic — except registered Democrats — said that the nation would not be “better off.”  An unsurprising 92% and 91% of registered Republicans and voters who lean Republican, respectively, answered “No” to the survey’s question, as did 66% of Independents and 53% of voters who lean Democrat.  Less than half (47%) of registered Democrats said that the country would not be “better off.”  Overall, a combined total of 53% of registered Democrats either responded that the country would be better if Trump were assassinated or said that they don’t know if the country would be better off or not.

The poll’s publication follows a second assassination attempt against Trump on September 15, which itself came almost exactly two months after a would-be killer shot the 45th president in the side of the head at a campaign rally in Butler, PA.  “The desensitization of some Americans following the second assassination attempt of former President Trump is alarming,” Napolitan News Service noted. Rasmussen added, “It is hard to imagine a greater threat to democracy than expressing a desire to have your political opponent murdered.”

The survey also discovered that almost half (49%) of Democrats polled believed that the Trump campaign and possibly even Trump himself orchestrated or was involved in the assassination attempts as a political ploy.  Meanwhile, a majority (52%) of Republicans said that they believe the Democratic Party and its operatives were involved in the assassination attempts.

Following the second assassination attempt and the revelation that Ryan Routh, who attempted to shoot Trump while the former president played golf, directly quoted Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris’s “democracy is on the ballot” sound bites, the Trump campaign argued that the rhetoric used by Democrats “inspired” the assassination attempts.  The Trump team said that the two attempted assassins were “egged on by the rhetoric and lies that have flowed from Kamala Harris, Democrats, and their Fake News allies for years.” The campaign statement continued, “Democrats used increasingly incendiary rhetoric against President Trump in the days, weeks, and months leading up to the two assassination attempts…”

Examples the campaign provided of that rhetoric included Harris and her boss, President Joe Biden, repeatedly referring to Trump as a “threat,” including “a threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms.”  Harris’s running mate Governor Tim Walz (D-MN), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and countless other Democratic Party or Democrat-aligned politicians have echoed the claim that Trump is a “threat” to the nation or to democracy, with some also labeling him an “enemy” or “destructive” and some using violent terminology, such as saying that the former president needs to be “eliminated” or put in a “bullseye.”

Democrat Stacey Plaskett, a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the U.S. Virgin Islands, explicitly said that Trump “needs to be shot,” and Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson said that somebody needs to “go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump.”

Addressing the attempts on his life at a recent campaign rally in Long Island, NY, Trump credited God with protecting him.  “God has now spared my life,” Trump declared.  Looking to Heaven and raising his hand, he added, “It must have been.  God, thank you.”  The former president continued, “These encounters with death have not broken my will, they have really given me a much bigger and stronger mission.  They have only hardened my resolve to use my time on earth to make America great again for all Americans, to put America first.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

With So Much at Stake in 2024, Christians MUST Vote November 5

While former President Donald Trump’s recent comments on the life issue have brought concern to many pro-life leaders, it remains important to recall the totality of what is at stake in the 2024 election.

Of the five Republican presidents elected after the infamous Roe v. Wade (1973) decision legalizing the abortion of children throughout the entire pregnancy, Donald Trump is the only one who secured the appointment of enough United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) justices to reverse Roe: Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. President Trump appointed a total of 231 judges to federal courts (District, Appeals and the SCOTUS).

The SCOTUS decided 5-1-3 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) that the “right” to an abortion is neither a fundamental right recognized by the Constitution, nor part of America’s national history and traditions.  The high court’s reversal of Roe returned the legality of abortion to the states as it had been before Roe was decided.

Abortion State Referenda in 2022-2024

The Dobbs decision apparently galvanized pro-abortion advocates, who won all of the state ballot referenda in 2022 that instituted pro-abortion constitutional amendments for CA, MI, VT, KY, KS, and MT, as well as OH in 2023.  Two pro-abortion candidates for state Supreme Courts won in 2023 in WI and PA with support for abortion as the deciding factor.  Pro-life organizations lost all nine state referenda on abortion even in politically conservative states.  In May, however, a pro-life Republican judicial candidate in GA beat the pro-abortion candidate, a former 10-year Democrat congressman, who had Planned Parenthood’s support.

Abortion referenda are on the 2024 ballots in 10 states: the swing states of AZ and NV, the solid blue-leaning states of MD, CO, and NY, and the red-leaning states of FL, MO, MT, NE, and SD.  In June, Planned Parenthood announced it will spend $40 million ahead of November’s election to help elect Democrats in AZ, GA, PA, WI, and NC.

Political commentator Victor Davis Hanson said in August that Democrats “have nominated two neo-Marxists who are openly proud of what they have done.” Steve Forbes noted that the Harris-Walz team is promoting “the most radical leftist Stalinist policies in American history.”

The Communist Party USA, which has the identical abortion policies of Harris-Walz including providing taxpayer-funded abortions, noted:

“The recent overturning of Roe v. Wade casts a shadow over the country … Our own party has rightfully joined the chorus in condemnation of the Supreme Court’s decision … The October Revolution gave birth to the first successful socialist experiment. … In 1920 the Soviet Union became the first country in the world to legalize abortion on request.  The People’s Commissariats of Health and of Justice passed a decree, noting that the procedure was to be ‘made freely and without any charge …’”

Freedom of Speech, Press, and Assembly

The First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech and petitioning government for redress of grievances is the foundation of the entire Bill of Rights!  At the Faith and Freedom Coalition Rally in June, President Trump promised to pardon the peaceful, pro-life picketers imprisoned by the Biden-Harris justice department.

Governor Walz (D-MN) stated recently, “There is no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”  But in Matal v. Tam (2017) the SCOTUS ruled (9-0) that “we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate.’”  For Harris-Walz, hate speech or misinformation is any speech they disagree with.  During the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Harris urged Twitter to shut down Trump’s account: “Donald Trump, who has 65 million Twitter followers … he and his account should be taken down.”

As CA’s attorney general, Harris “co-sponsored” a 2015 bill compelling California pro-life pregnancy centers to distribute abortion facility information to their clients (AB 775, the Reproductive FACT Act). Fortunately, the SCOTUS ruled that the bill violated the First Amendment (NIFLA v. Becerra, AG of California, 138 S.Ct. 2361).

In September 2024, a federal district court in LA decided in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. v. Joseph R. Biden that the Biden-Harris administration illegally censored Kennedy, who opposed the Biden-Harris COVID-19 policy: “The Court finds that Kennedy is likely to succeed on his claim that suppression of content posted was caused by actions of Government Defendants … there is a substantial risk that he will suffer similar injury in the near future.”

Freedom of Religion and Conscience

As CA’s attorney general, Harris filed a brief asserting that Hobby Lobby’s owners had no religious liberty or conscience rights and should be compelled to supply abortion drugs to employees.  The SCOTUS disagreed in 2014 (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S. 682).

In 2018, Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Maise Hirono (D-HI) opposed President Trump’s judicial nominees Brian Buescher, Paul Matey, and Peter Phipps, claiming they could not be impartial because they belonged to the Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus, which opposes abortion and same-sex marriage.  The Harris-Hirono “religious test” violates Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution; “[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust.”  The Senate confirmed Trump’s nominees despite the Democratic senators’ anti-Catholic bigotry.

Harris introduced the “Do No Harm Act” (S. 2918) in 2018 to stop churches from relying on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which the SCOTUS has ruled exempts religious organizations from being required to support abortion, LGBTQ+ ideology, and other polices against their religion. Fortunately, S. 2918 failed.

The Biden-Harris Equality Act (HR 5 from 2021) compels Christians and Christian institutions to accept behavior condemned by Scripture or pay huge fines.  It prohibits federally chartered banks from loaning money to non-compliant churches and allows up to $500,000 in fines for not “celebrating” same-sex marriages.  Churches and schools would lose tax-exempt status and school certification unless they promoted LGBTQ+ policies.  (HR 5 has failed so far.)

Gov. Tim Walz mandated that education administrators and public and private school teachers certified by the state who do not accept or affirm a student’s transgender identity and sexual orientation will not receive a teaching license per the latest version of the regulations.

Right to Life and Reproductive Ethics

The Planned Parenthood Votes super PAC stated that it “is working to ensure Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make it to the White House.”  Planned Parenthood sent a mobile clinic to the Chicago Democratic Convention, offering attendees free abortions and vasectomies.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) boasted that Harris was the “first vice president in history to visit an abortion clinic.”  What colossal hubris and utter disregard for babies!

Senator Harris introduced S.510 (2017) to forbid states from requiring that only doctors do abortions, and to make it illegal to delay abortions or increase costs (think of informed consent, parental consent, 24-hour waiting periods, health/safety regulations, and banning taxpayer-funded abortions).

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” in September 2023, Harris was asked, “At what week of pregnancy should abortion access be cut off?”  Harris answered, “We need to restore … Roe v. Wade.”  In February 2019, The Daily Caller asked Senator Harris if there was any point in pregnancy at which she thought abortion was immoral.  She said, “I think it’s up to a woman to make that decision, and I will always stand by that.”

Tim Walz told the Democratic Convention, “[T]he government stays the hell out of your bedroom.”  But Walz justified China’s forced late-term abortion, infanticide, sterilization and IUD policy.  Walz claimed it was necessary because, “the Chinese population was so large.”  Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute) states that “hundreds of millions of Chinese women didn’t just pay a tax. … Their babies were ripped out of their wombs by cesarean section by Red doctors who went on to sever the fallopian tubes of those who violated the one-child policy.”  So much for Walz’s “choice” or government staying out of the bedroom.

Walz signed HF 1 in 2023, stating that, “Every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about the individual’s own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care.”  Walz’s law includes teen minors.  Reproductive care includes transgender drugs/surgery.  The MN Senate voted 34 to 33, and MN’s House voted 69 to 65 to pass HF 1.

Senator Harris, in an interview with The Root in 2019, was asked whether she thought sex work “ought to be decriminalized.”  “I do,” Harris responded.

The 2024 Democratic Platform states, “With a Democratic Congress, we will pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again. … We will repeal the Hyde Amendment [which bans taxpayer-funded abortions].”  Harris-Walz will force all Americans to fund abortion in every state.

The Human Rights Campaign states, “The Biden-Harris Administration has been the most pro-LGBTQ+ administration in history … [and has] appointed a record number of LGBTQ+ … to key posts … including the first gay cabinet secretary, first Senate-confirmed transgender appointee, and historic federal judges. … [W]e must stop Donald Trump.”

Second Amendment

In 2019, presidential candidate Harris said, “I support a mandatory gun buyback program.”  That is confiscation.  Law abiding citizens would lose their means of self-defense.  What policies do they intend to impose that warrant ending the inalienable right of self-defense?  In 2008, Harris filed a court brief asserting that the Second Amendment (2A) allows a total handgun ban, and that 2A applies only to the militia.  The SCOTUS ruled firearm ownership is an individual right (District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008; McDonald v. Chicago, 2010); and that it is a self-defense right to carry outside the home (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 2022).

In a 2023 poll, Gallup asked Americans if handgun possession should be banned, except for police or authorized persons.  It found that “just 27% of U.S. adults believe that no one outside of police or other authorized persons should be able to possess a handgun.”  Still, Harris-Walz pushes a radical anti-self-defense agenda.

Select Pro-Life, Pro-Family Actions of the Trump Administration

2017: The Trump Administration ended Obama’s funding for international organizations that carry out or promote abortions, Obama’s policy requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and showers of their choice, and Obama’s Department of Defense transgender policy.

2018: Trump ended Obama’s abortion policy that restricted states’ ability to stop abortion funding under Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Program, prevented those who identify as transgender from joining the military going forward, issued an executive order to release American Christian pastor Andrew Brunson who was jailed in Turkey, terminated a $15,900 Health & Human Services (HHS) contract for securing fetal tissue from abortion for “research,” and exempted groups with religious or moral objections from being forced to purchase health insurance with birth control or abortion coverage.

2019: President Trump informed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) he would veto any bills that weakened current pro-life policies or legislation and prevented Title X family planning grantees from referring or carrying out abortions.

2020: Under Trump, HHS authorized Texas to operate its Medicaid program without paying for abortion, the DOJ filed a statement of interest on behalf of a VA church which received a criminal COVID-19 violation by Governor Ralph Northam (VA-D) for holding a 16-person service, an HHS final rule clarified that in the Affordable Care Act “discrimination based on sex” did not include “gender identity” or “termination of pregnancy,” and that the federal government would not compel doctors to do abortions or gender reassignment surgery, and withheld $200 million in Medicaid funds from CA for its abortion insurance policy requirements.

2021: An HHS final rule eliminated requirements that all grant recipients including faith-based foster care and adoption providers must accept same-sex marriage and profess gender identity policies to receive federal grants.

Republican Platform

The 2024 Republican Platform opposes late-term abortion and defends the religious liberty of businesses, hospitals, churches, and individuals from supporting or carrying out abortion.  It recognizes parental authority over children, prohibits taxpayer-funded gender transition procedures (drugs/surgery) of minors, protects students’ religious freedom, and the right to pray and read the Bible in schools, and keeps men out of women’s sports.  It opposes federal funding of schools for critical race theory or radical gender ideology classes. Harris-Walz and the Democratic Platform oppose these policies.

November 5 Voting

This race is very close.  Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently endorsed Donald Trump, is attempting to remove his name from the ballots in 10 “swing states.” Although Democrats tried to keep Kennedy off the ballot to protect President Biden, they are now working to keep him on the ballot to undermine Trump in some states!

If neither Trump nor Harris receive the necessary 270 electoral votes to win, the House of Representatives would vote by state to pick the president (26 to win). Each senator would cast a single vote for vice president (51 to win).  This happened in 1800 and 1824.  Therefore, the majority party emerging from the 2024 election could choose the president and vice president in January 2025.

Conclusion

If enough pro-life Americans decline to vote, and Harris-Walz wins along with their Democratic down-ticket colleagues, the Republicans will likely lose the majority in Congress.  With so much at stake, how can anyone justify not voting?

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

VT Christian School Appeals Punishment for Affirming ‘that Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Girls’

In the fight over allowing biological males in women’s sports, a Christian school in Vermont (VT) finds itself in court — again.  Last year, Mid Vermont Christian School accused the Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA), the “governing body for high school sports and activities for the state’s 300 public and private secondary schools,” and VT state officials of religious discrimination for kicking them out of the state sports league after refusing to compete against a biological male in girls’ basketball.  In response to Mid Vermont’s religious freedom complaint, “U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford denied [the school’s] request for a preliminary injunction in June, ruling that the school was unlikely to prevail on the merits.”

Fast forward to last week, when The Washington Times reported the school has once again pressed the issue by asking “the appeals court in the Friday filing for a preliminary injunction reinstating its membership in the association pending the outcome of litigation.”

This case came about as a direct response to the violation of Mid Vermont’s conscience rights, as well as their concerns over safety and fairness in girls’ sports.  As a result, the school was “initially barred from participating in all activities,” The Times added.  And while little progress has been made, “last month, the school and the association reached an agreement allowing the school to participate in non-athletic coed activities, including the Vermont State Spelling Bee, the Vermont Geo-Bee, and the Vermont Mathematics and Science Fairs.”

Despite this agreement, the overall threat of religious discrimination still looms. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the school in court, warned, “The VPA’s blatant act of discrimination and hostility toward Mid Vermont’s beliefs violates the First Amendment.”  As such, ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker said, “We are urging the court to uphold constitutional protections by guaranteeing the school can fully participate while still adhering to its religious beliefs.”

And yet, the VPA seems to be holding to their belief that Mid Vermont violated their “Policy [on] Gender Identity” and “Commitment to Racial, Gender-Fair, and Disability Awareness” and issued an “immediate determination of ineligibility.”

In response to these circumstances, Mary Szoch, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Human Dignity, shared with The Washington Stand her perspective as a former Division I athlete. “Biological realities make it not only unfair but also unsafe for men to play women’s sports,” she stated.  And this, she added, “is overwhelmingly evident in basketball.”  Szoch continued, “As a former Division I athlete who practiced against men daily, I can attest to the fact that at comparable levels, men have an undeniable advantage over women.”  If America continues on this path, Szoch argued, “One day the country will look back at this time in history and recognize men playing women’s sports is an attempt to prioritize the wants of men, who are greatly in need of counseling, over the safety of women.”  Szoch highlighted that Mid Vermont and the girls on their basketball team being willing to go through this messy case proves that the VPA “can take away their gold medals and their spot on the starting five — but they can never take away their self-respect and their commitment to truth and fairness.”

Digging deeper into this case, it stands to reason that “Christian schools and their families have the fundamental right to live out their faith,” insisted ADF Legal Counsel Jake Reed in an exclusive comment to TWS.  “Vermont is discriminating against people of faith by penalizing them for their religious beliefs and exercise.  No school, family, or child should have opportunities that are available to everyone else taken from them simply for adhering to their religious convictions.”  Reed further explained, “We filed an opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit,” which “should be simple: No school should be penalized for standing by its belief that boys are boys and girls are girls.”  As he contended, “Every religious school has the right to adhere to its beliefs, and we are hopeful the court will agree.”  Currently, “Mid Vermont Christian School is still banned by the VPA from competing in any sports competitions,” and “every day this case goes on, it takes opportunities away from Mid Vermont children.”

“The First Amendment protects everyone’s freedom to exercise their religious beliefs,” Reed concluded, “and it does so even if those beliefs are contrary to the popular ideologies of the day.  ADF will continue to fight for those who have been punished for publicly expressing and living out their faith.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

MA Redefines Family Without Moms & Dads

Once again, Massachusetts (MA) is continuing to blaze the way in redefining family.  You may remember that MA was the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage in May 2004.  Eleven years later, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized it for the entire nation.

According to MassResistance, MA has passed the most radical law in the country to eliminate mothers and fathers from birth certificates.  In true Orwellian speak, the law is titled the act to “ensure legal parental authority.”  The new MA law will eliminate the legal terms “mother” and “father” and replace them with the words “person who gave birth” and “other parent,” essentially erasing mothers and fathers from the law.

The legal requirement for a parent on the birth certificate is no longer biology or adoption; it is now “a person’s intent to be a parent.”  For instance, the law replaces the biological term paternity with the legal term parentage.  “Intended” parents are now listed on the birth certificate and are immediately considered the legal parents.

Because same-sex couples are unable to bear children, same-sex couples use other means to have a child, including IUI, IVF, surrogacy, or sperm donors. Since one person of the couple is not the biological parent, the non-biological parent had been legally required to adopt the child.

The LGBTQ+ activists say that’s unfair and insist the adoption process should be abolished for same-sex couples.  So, MA once again bends the knee to the LGBTQ+ and does what they ask, passing this aggressive new law.

Governor Maura Healy (D) says MA is “proud to be a national leader and trailblazer when it comes to LGBTQ+ equality.”

This new law also legalizes commercial surrogacy for pay.  A woman can now get pregnant with a sperm donor and offer her child for sale, most likely to the highest bidder, before a surrogacy agreement is signed.  This law now legalizes baby-selling and treats both women and children as consumer products to be bought and sold.  Surrogacy is now wide open for rampant abuse.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, every single MA Republican in the House and Senate voted in favor of passing this bill.

We’ve already seen the Republican party purge many pro-life positions from its 2024 platform, including opposition to public funding of Planned Parenthood, opposition to embryonic stem cell research, support for a Human Life Amendment, and many other pro-life and pro-family issues.

MA is the “canary in the coal mine” warning of the potential danger of the next move in destroying the family.  Remember, it took just 11 years from MA approving same-sex marriage to it becoming a national law.

With this new parental equality law, MA is opposed to Christian and traditional beliefs about the family. This is the first step in an effort to radically change the law in every state to redefine family in ways that God never intended — following the same-sex marriage path to legalization.  They are coming for your state next.

They will phrase their intent as an “updating” of the laws to reflect the diversity of families.  Don’t be fooled.  It is a demonic attack against the family as God established in the creative covenant of Genesis.

This new law—and laws like it—will divide families and demolish domestic structures that have been the foundation of a civil society for thousands of years.  And this redefining has happened so fast—a little over a decade—it can only be demonic activity.

State Rep Hannah Kane a Republican and co-sponsor of the new law said, “there are many paths to parenthood and the bill “supports children.”  But does it?

As the mother of an adopted child, Belinda Brewster has seen up close the questions and uncertainties many adopted children face, wondering who they are biologically.  Where did they come from?  Who do they look like?  Do they have siblings?  Who are their “real” parents?

Research shows that children conceived through sperm donation are more likely to struggle with depression, are more confused, and feel more isolated from their families than adopted children and children raised by their biological parents.  Sperm donor children also worry about dating someone they could be related to or wondering if their real father is standing in front of them.  Nearly 60,000 children are conceived each year through sperm donation.  Almost half of donor offspring and more than half of adoptees admit, “it is better to adopt than to use sperm or eggs to have a child.”

Is the powerful LGBTQ+ lobby listening to these hurting voices?

Every child has a biological mother and a father … and they know it.  Donor children say to be told that the sperm donor should be of no importance to them hurts, and it’s a painful loss not to know them.

In addition to sperm donors, there are also egg donors for women who want to be pregnant but can’t use their own eggs, gestational hosts with no genetic connection to the baby, and the myriad of other ways modern technology allows people to have babies.

For example, you could have an egg donor, a sperm donor, a gestational host, and the “intended parents” all connected to this child … but whose child are they?  Perhaps that’s why MAs’ new law states that a child can have “more than two parents if it’s in the best interest of the child.”

Imagine the confusion the next generation of children will endure as they have to manage this unholy maze of who their parents are.  We know who the father of chaos and confusion is.

Nothing about this new Parentage Equality Act is in the best interests of the child … and certainly NOT God’s plan for His children.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Debate Moderator Fact-Checks Trump on Botched Abortions

One of the ABC News debate moderators fact-checked former President Donald Trump on babies who survive botched abortions, saying that they aren't killed.  But Minnesota (MN) records show eight babies in recent years have in fact survived botched procedures but then died after being denied life-saving care.

Trump said that MN Gov. Tim Walz (D), Harris’ vice presidential pick says “abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine.”  He also says “execution after birth -- it's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born is okay, and that's not okay with me."  ABC News’ Linsey Davis pushed back on Trump’s statement, saying, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.”

However, in Walz’s state and on his watch, five infants were “born alive” in 2021 during failed abortions, and none was provided life-saving care though two got “comfort care,” the MN Department of Health reported on July 1, 2022.  Three other infants were “born alive” during abortions in 2019, Walz’s first year as governor, and they too perished without life-saving care, according to a July 1, 2020, report from the same state agency.

MN was the rare state to require such born-alive abortions to be publicly reported, creating a powerful statistic for pro-life and anti-abortion forces to draw upon.

But in 2023, Walz worked with his new Democrat-controlled Legislature to eliminate both the reporting requirement and the state’s legal obligation for doctors, nurses and medical professionals to administer life-saving care to infants born alive during an abortion procedure.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Pro-Woman Policies Are Pro-Life Policies

Jeff Bradford, president of Human Coalition—one of the largest pro-life and pro-woman organizations in the U.S.—many years ago chose, along with his wife, to quietly abort their first child.  They thought the government couldn’t possibly allow legal murder.  They assumed that, because abortion was legal, it must be morally licit.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.  That tragic, irreversible mistake has haunted them for years.  It took decades of hidden grief — and then years of heart-wrenching healing, repentance, and reunification as a married couple — for them to begin to move forward from the destruction wrought by that decision.

It’s also a very important demonstration of the weight of responsibility our lawmakers carry.  In crafting laws, they actively shape the perceived moral stakes of all sorts of behaviors, especially abortion.

We cannot concede any argument to the abortion industry on the sanctity of human life.  Bickering over the point at which children may be legally killed in the womb is not meaningful legal protection, nor does it recognize the dignity of children at the earliest stages.

What’s more, fixating only on gestational protections from abortion without addressing the underlying causes does nothing for the vulnerable women who are seeking abortions in the first place.  It leaves them defenseless and alone, standing helpless at the center of our existing pro-abortion culture.

Softening pro-life laws to the point of allowing the vast majority of abortions to continue simply plays politics with human lives.  These are lives we can never get back; these are decisions that men and women can never take back.  It fails utterly to take the necessarily holistic and long-term perspective, which good politicians must and can do.

We owe women our loyalty, charity, attention, and help.  We owe women policies that offer support, to empower and inform them.  Such policies will also, inevitably, form a larger pro-life culture.  Bradford knows this because 76% of Human Coalition clients who are planning to abort say they’d prefer to choose life if they felt they could do so.

And so, pro-woman policies are also pro-life policies.  The protection and support of vulnerable women is the protection and support of their preborn children.  But it’s also the case that pro-woman policies are politically popular.

The value of expanding the child tax credit, for instance, is a rare point of bipartisan agreement.  There are compelling mainstream defenses of paid parental leave from both political camps, and bipartisan legislation aimed at expanding it already exists.

According to one poll, an overwhelming number of Americans support pregnancy resource centers despite them being aggressively demonized by self-interested abortion activists.

They welcome and support women facing the hardest choice of their lives. They give them material resources, medical references, medical support, and a community.  They help educate them about their pregnancy, about what they can expect during and after it — and what their choices are for managing their health and that of their child’s.

Holistic and meaningful community support for women will strengthen our society.  It generates loving, empowering systems.  It helps women have hope instead of fear in their pregnancy — when they need it most.

Vulnerable women and preborn children deserve equal protection under the law. Further, they deserve laws that communicate just how precious they are — and how seriously we take the work of protecting and supporting them.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Surgeon General Warns: Parenting Is Hazardous

Joe Biden’s surgeon general has made “mental health” a priority for the government.  This has both good and bad aspects to it.

There is an epidemic of “mental illness” in America, including depression, obsessive-compulsive behavior, addiction, and other impulse control problems like gambling.  More serious forms of mental illness, including eating disorders, paranoia, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses, are dangerous to others as well as those afflicted.

Is parenting one of these “disorders?”

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy believes that parenting should have its very own warning label: parenting can be harmful to your mental health.  It causes depression, dangerous levels of stress, and high rates of loneliness.

According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, “half of parents report overwhelming stress most days, compared with 26% of other adults,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The temptation is to classify all sorts of situations and behaviors as “mental illnesses.”  Everyday life for parents is stressful, period.  Full Stop.  End of story. Anyone who has sat up all night with a sick infant or a screaming two-year-old can define “stress” much better than childless couples.

But who isn’t feeling that way?  Elderly people are lonely and stressed.  Single men are lonely and stressed.  College students are lonely and stressed.  Gen X moms are lonely and stressed.  There’s an epidemic of loneliness and stress in this country and it’s bad for our mental and physical health, which Murthy pointed out in a previous advisory.

His stark warning doesn’t necessarily help with the real problem.  Fewer people are having children, some because they can’t—or can’t see a way to attain professional ambitions along with family ones. Politicians like JD Vance are outspoken on the primacy of parenthood, and lots of people feel the job is so sacred that it’s wrong to even talk about this.

Murthy believes that parents’ loneliness comes from their being totally and completely responsible for another human being.  Frankly, I think that’s a bogus construct.  Being responsible for another human being — a precious life that fills us at times, with unbearable joy and brings tears of happiness to our eyes — is not really a question of being alone.  Yes, there are moments of sheer terror. But there are also moments of sharing that transcend any other human experience.

Your children’s first steps, first words, and that first realization that they are making noises like adults. It’s indescribable.  But it’s not loneliness.

“Somehow, over time, we came to see parenting as an individual sport, not as a team sport,” Murthy told WSJ columnist Julie Jargon.  “Parents need the support of family members, friends, and neighbors.”

That’s how it used to be.  When I grew up, almost every house had three or four kids.  If one mother had to run an errand, it was nothing for her to call another mother so that her kids could be looked after.

We didn’t need the government for that.  It was natural; no one gave it a second thought.  Can those feelings of neighborliness be rekindled?  I’d like to try that before handing the job over to the government.

Murthy lists things government agencies, employers and healthcare professionals can do to support parents.  He wants a national paid family and medical leave program.  He recommends expanded programs to support parents in the workplace—such as training employers to recognize signs of stress.  He wants pediatricians to provide more mental-health screenings for parents when they bring in their kids.

And while we wait for those institutions to do their part—if they ever do—he says parents need to build and nurture their own support network of friends, neighbors and relatives.

Honestly, that sounds like more stress.

Invariably, when we tell the government to make our lives better or easier, we end up making things worse.  There are certainly more challenges parents are facing these days with online bullying and other issues.  There’s also the sexualized nature of society that has gotten so much worse over the last two decades.

But what can the government do about any of that?  If you want a government that can shut down porn sites, they will also have the power to shut down politics they don't agree with.

The answer to loneliness, depression, and stress lies within each of us.  Raising our children to be self-sufficient is a good start.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Noah, Nehemiah, or Nabal? Lessons on Engagement with the World

The American church — the real one that clings to the gospel — is wrestling with the current times as political turmoil encroaches on what were once apolitical, basic human activities: marriage, childbearing, choosing correctly between two restrooms.

Having withdrawn a century ago from most of the hospitals and higher education institutions they founded, the church finds itself increasingly handicapped to minister to the lost souls that might be reached through mind or body before their spirits awaken to Truth.  Lacking the leverage that past generations had in good works, we believers may find social or political discourse an increasingly futile exercise.

We are tempted to wring our hands here and wonder what might be done.  We might beg Jesus to come sooner and pine away for past decades that seemed simpler.  We might check out of the fray altogether and focus on the activities of our own families, which are admittedly much more satisfying than arguing with implacable strangers.

Yet God calls us to boldness and risk for the sake of the gospel.  I appeal to those of us tempted to withdraw to comfortable places.  I’m not convinced that any of the weak-willed responses are the right way.  The preacher of Ecclesiastes warns: “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’  For it is not from wisdom that you ask this” (7:10).  Nor should we try to escape the current conflicts: “No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death.  There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it” (8:8).  We are further admonished: “Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked” (Proverbs 26:26).

We must “do something,” and there is hope in truth-telling:

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.  For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.  But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you’ ” (Ephesians 5:11-14).

Works of darkness, once exposed, become part of God’s story (“anything that becomes visible is light”).  Those who get in the fight reflect Christ’s glory (“awake, O sleeper . . . and Christ will shine on you”).  Each generation has had its trials of mortal and immortal combat.

No one can engage in every battle.  We will not all be Wilberforces or Tubmans. How then, to prioritize our efforts?  Let us consider how three biblical figures engaged — or didn’t — in the conflicts of their times.

Noah

Noah lived in times so desperately wicked that the Lord determined to wipe out everyone but Noah and his immediate family.  It’s not clear whether Noah knew how small the final rescue total would be.  In any case, Noah’s peculiar hobby — building a massive wooden boat nowhere near an ocean over a 100-year span — attracted plenty of scornful attention.  He did not waste this opportunity; Peter called him a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).  And it’s noteworthy that it was God, not Noah, who shut the ark’s door when it started to rain (Genesis 7:16).

We don’t have the text of what Noah said, but he provided his neighbors ample warning of the impending judgment.  While he prioritized his own family’s safety, he wasn’t focused on them exclusively.  He wasn’t content to “mind his own business” and leave his neighbors to drown without warning.

We should all aspire to be like Noah: distinguishable from the world, faithful to his God and family, and unafraid to engage his neighbors who were swept up in the violence, oppression, and immorality of the times.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah was a favored servant in the Persian court.  He asked his pagan king for the opportunity to govern the impoverished and oppressed Jewish exiles who had returned to their homeland.  Returning after 70 years immersed in a hostile culture, they had barely established a foothold in the ancient ruins in the 100 years or so since their return.  They had re-established corporate worship a generation before, but remained the prey of the local warlords and roving gangs.  Nehemiah recognized their need for physical protection, and following that, a restoration of their distinct national identity that had been rooted in their relationship to God.

He began by inspiring the Jewish survivors to take ownership of their problem and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:17-18).  Just as Noah had been met with scorn for his efforts, Nehemiah was met with immediate mockery and slander from neighboring governors (2:19).  This rapidly grew to threats of violence and attempted intrigue (4:8; chapter 6).  He persevered and, by his strong example, led his ragtag team to finish the wall in 52 days.

Nehemiah also had to deal with cultural rot within his own community.  He discovered the Jewish landlords were oppressing their countrymen with heavy-interest debts, and called them to account publicly (5:7).  He re-instituted the Sabbath observance by brute force (13:21), and helped to expose the infidelity of many men in his community (13:23-27).

Here are some observations about Nehemiah I find intriguing in contrast to other leaders in the Bible”

Nehemiah got no special revelation from God.  His heart broke at the reports of the oppression of his people.  He prayed and planned, then took action.

We have no evidence that Nehemiah had special skills in military leadership or masonry construction.  Yet he inspired those around him to build and provide armed security.

Nehemiah had his own set of weaknesses.  He was a dynamo of personal example and passion when on scene, but appears to have been unsuccessful in getting the next generation to adopt a passion for righteousness.  Things fell apart when he was away (chapter 13).

He lacked the absolute power of Israel’s monarchs from generations past; he was an agent of the Persian king.  As such, like today’s politicians, he was more vulnerable to persecution, including from his own people.  He chose to enter the arena and lead them anyway.

We should support our local and national Nehemiahs, those willing to wade into the cesspool of politics.  They take the spears for us, enduring the mockery and threats that anyone pursuing righteousness in that environment will attract.

Those of us with leadership skills should also consider whether we should follow in Nehemiah’s footsteps and take action without a lightning bolt from God. Yes, our families are important.  But will our children wonder someday why we lacked the courage to fight for what was right?  Or will they come to believe that nothing outside of family is worth fighting for?  What about all the other families that are being oppressed and impoverished by bad policies and capricious leaders?

Nabal

In contrast to the heroic figures above, Nabal engaged with no one but himself, and for nothing but his own pleasure and interest.  He is best known for snubbing David while the latter fled from the persecution of King Saul (see 1 Samuel 25).  His large estate of pasturelands lay in the mountains of south-central Israel, an area where David the fugitive and his band of 400 men (plus families) often took refuge.  On this occasion, David’s men had protected Nabal’s estate from raids and theft, and David sought provisions from Nabal in return.  Nabal brushed David off, and David nearly took his own lethal revenge before Nabal’s wife Abigail intervened.  Shortly thereafter, God struck Nabal dead while he feasted in luxury.

Let us consider some context to discover what a self-centered fool Nabal had become:

Israel was in a period of continuous war with the Philistines, a wealthy and militarily skillful people who occupied the western seaboard (1 Samuel 14:25). Both sides experienced victories and defeats on a fairly regular basis, and this war was unlimited in scope.  Whichever side lost would become the slaves of the other.

Israel’s western frontier was not secure, and the Philistines made frequent incursions to raid Israeli territory (1 Samuel 13:17; 23:27).  This insecure frontier also provided refuge to bandits and other criminals who pillaged targets of opportunity.

Nabal lived some distance from the Philistine frontier, but was still within reach of bandits and Philistine raiders.  The protection that David’s men had provided was worthwhile (1 Samuel 25:15-16).

Nabal had totally disengaged himself and his household from the ongoing war.

Nabal enjoyed the fruits of his labor under the protection of those he despised (25:11).  His was a life of prosperous ingratitude toward God, and indifference toward the struggles of his countrymen.

Don’t be a Nabal.

God laid out the path before us long ago:

“Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:37-38).

God calls us to a life of courage and risk.

Let us follow Noah in a life distinguished by righteousness, family leadership, and bold engagement with those around us.

Let us support the Nehemiahs around us who take many spears on our behalf. Let us not be too quick to dismiss whether social or political responsibility lies before us.

Let us reject the hedonist life of prosperous isolation while others fight the battles for us.

“Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?  Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God” (Isaiah 50:10).

Help us walk with you, Lord God.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel