‘Pope Francis Has Urged Us to Have Fewer Children,’ Claims Vatican Academy Member

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“Pope Francis has urged us to have fewer children to make the world more sustainable,” a panelist at a Vatican-run workshop on “how to save the natural world” claimed on Thursday.

This solution to securing the world’s sustainability was presented by botanist and environmentalist Peter Raven during a press conference that concluded the “Biological Extinction” workshop that took place at the Vatican earlier this week.

Greg Burke, director of the Holy See Press Office, moderated a panel, which included Raven, President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS), Werner Arber, University of Cambridge Professor Emeritus of Economics Partha Dasgupta, and PAS chancellor Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo.

“We do not endorse any of the artificial birth control [methods] that the Church does not endorse,” said Raven . . .

According to Raven, the central element of the solution for “overpopulation” is that “we need a more limited number of people in the world.” In addition, “the problem is one of inequality,” where the rich use more of the world’s resources than the poor. (Read more from “‘Pope Francis Has Urged Us to Have Fewer Children,’ Claims Vatican Academy Member” HERE)

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The Beastly Beauty of Disney’s ‘Gay Moment’ — and How We Should Respond

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So Disney is going to have an “exclusively gay moment” in the live-action film version of Beauty and the Beast. It’s not going to be a big thing, just a moment in the action of LeFou the manservant. Something “nice.” Something very feelings-oriented.

That news follows close upon Disney Studios’ first animated same-sex kiss.

We’ve been talking about this behind the scenes here at The Stream. Al Perrotta, our managing editor, made this prediction by email:

Let’s not kid ourselves. The reason you put in a lighthearted, perhaps even obvious, gay attraction theme in Beauty and the Beast is to soften the ground so a Disney princess or heroine can be gay. That’s the goal. They’ll get away with it here because it’s likely to be humorous, over-the-top fun, and done with much skill. (The Modern Family lesson well applied. And the film’s director Bill Condon is no slouch.) But I guarantee Disney is eyeballing a feature with a gay lead.

He’s right. Modern Family presents gayness in such a pleasant and positive light, it’s done more for gay-rights activism than any gay op-ed or slogan has ever done.

Strategically Putting Christians In a Corner

Make no mistake, this was by strategic intention. Marshall Kirk and “Erastes Pill” (a pseudonym for Hunter Madsen) laid it out decades ago in a strategy document they called “The Overhauling of Straight America.” Written in 1987, it’s a disturbing paper yet still worth the read if you can stand it, for the insight it gives into decades of gay activism.

Kirk and Pill speak of opening up “a gateway into the private world of straights, through which a Trojan horse might be passed. As far as desensitization is concerned, the medium is the message — of normalcy. So far, gay Hollywood has provided our best covert weapon in the battle to desensitize the mainstream.”

It’s a strategy centered in positive imagery: “For openers, naturally, we must continue to encourage the appearance of favorable gay characters in films and TV shows,” they write. “The visual media, film and television, are plainly the most powerful image-makers in Western civilization.”

Their approach has been astonishingly effective. Consider the strategic savvy of what they’re setting up in Beauty and the Beast. If we say, “That’s wrong!” people will hear it as “That’s ugly” instead. Everything is happening on the level of images, remember.

So there’s no easy way for conservatives to object without looking ugly ourselves. They’ve put us in a corner. If we object, we lose now. If we don’t object, we lose later, when Disney plies gay princes and princesses upon us. Disney is the Beauty, critics are the Beast.

Overhauling Under Way

But how did that happen? How did we get that way? It comes out of “Overhauling Straight America.” Opponents “must be vilified,” say Kirk and Pill:

The public should be shown images of ranting homophobes. … Bigoted southern ministers drooling with hysterical hatred to a degree that looks both comical and deranged; menacing punks, thugs, and convicts speaking coolly about the “f*gs” they have killed or would like to kill; a tour of Nazi concentration camps where homosexuals were tortured and gassed.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? If you haven’t seen those precise images, still you know how neatly Christians have been maneuvered into the place of the “intolerant haters.” You could almost admire a strategy so effective, if it weren’t so dishonestly manipulative.

And that, fellow Christians, is the difficult strategic setup we’re dealing with. What’s our best response?

Fight Beastliness With Beauty

What we’ve been doing for the most part (and I include myself here) has been trying to make gays and gay activism appear the Beast. We have ground to stand on there, to be sure. Even their strategies are beastly.

But just as there are no fairy tales where the heroine turns ugly at the end, and “they all live happily ever after” (I don’t think even Shrek is an exception, though that’s another discussion), it’s hard to make people happy by exposing gay activism’s ugliness. From both a strategic and biblical perspective we’ll get much further by revealing the true beauty of the way of Jesus Christ.

We must be His Beauty in the world. We won’t be able to do that the way Disney does, with multi-million dollar budgets, decades of film experience and a distribution system to drool over. But we are not without resources of our own.

We have the beauty of Christian marriage. Couples who pray together have more loving unions and divorce less often. We have the beauty of Christian forgiveness. We have the beauty of the love of Christ, reaching out to neighbors, friends, and even enemies. We have the beauty of truth, openness, honesty, transparency and humility.

Personal Relationships and Public Conversations

I could go on. These things are best seen up close, not onscreen. We need to love our opponents. The closer we connect in real relationships with people who consider us beastly, the harder it will be for them to ignore the reality of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Meanwhile the discussion must go on. Disney’s support for homosexuality is very public, so we have to respond in public. But we must be wise to the trap they’ve set for us. Someone commented regarding the cartoon kiss, “It’s official. Our society has gone to sh*t.” Someone else wrote, “You Liberals are disgusting creatures of perversion!!” That’s falling into the trap, and it’s no help at all. Language like that is just as ugly as what it’s objecting to.

No, in our public conversations we have to keep pointing back to the better way. We need to learn to paint the picture better, to show the truly beautiful way, the way of strong and lasting marriages that unite in godly love to build the next generation.

Because the way of Jesus Christ, which our culture has come to consider beastly, is really beautiful. The more people can see that with their own eyes, the more likely they’ll be to believe it. (For more from the author of “The Beastly Beauty of Disney’s ‘Gay Moment’ — and How We Should Respond” please click HERE)

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Choice Is a Good Thing, Right, Liberals? Oh, Not on Schools?

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Choice is a good thing, right, liberals? Not on schooling, you say? Betsy DeVos’s ideas for promoting school choice are disastrous?

That’s the new liberal position on choice, when it applies to schooling. Oh, they may say they’re worried about DeVos’s “inexperience” — but Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan didn’t have experience, either. They may believe that her policies that will — get this — “kill children,” in the literal, not figurative sense. They’ll say they’re offended that she’s sabotaging the public schools, as said so eloquently by Sen. Chuck Schumer:

The president’s decision to ask Betsy DeVos to run the Department of Education should offend every single American man, woman, and child who has benefited from the public education system in this country.

What About Public Education?

What about the public education system in this country? Fox News’ Andrew Campanella, in an attempt at peacemaking, maintained that, “The concept of school choice isn’t about elevating one choice above another, or about demonizing any schools as ‘failures.’ It’s about recognizing the individual needs of individual students, and pairing students with the schools that best meet their needs.”

That’s true. But school choice is also about calling out the public schools that are failures and giving desperate parents good alternatives.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 35 countries outrank our students in Math, 27 outrank our students in Science and 23 outrank our students in reading. The Nation’s Report Card found in 2015 that, by grade 12, only 25 percent of students were at or above proficiency level in Math, 22 percent were at or above proficiency in Science and 37 percent were at or above proficiency in reading. Certain students, such as African Americans in urban areas, fare much worse.

Maybe liberals believe all the things they’re saying about DeVos and school choice. There’s another reason they don’t want school choice: loss of control over funding. With school choice, education dollars will flow to private, charter or possibly even homeschools, diverted from funding pools within their grasp.

Jeffrey Dorfman explains in Forbes that teachers’ unions receive money for each child enrolled in public schools. “Opponents of school choice are not worried about children, either the ones who want to leave or the ones that would stay. They only care about the teachers’ job security. So remember, the debate about school choice isn’t about education quality, it is really about jobs and union dues.”

Competition — Not Just for Businesses

Students enrolled in alternative education based on school choice consistently outperform public school counterparts. But school choice improves the public schools as well by providing them with competition. Even their students benefit from school choice.

A 2016 University of Arkansas study found that school choice encouraged public schools within the district to compete with the alternative school to perform better. A separate 2016 study on school choice also found that competition drives performance:

Thirty of the 42 evaluations of the effects of school-choice competition on the performance of affected public schools report that the test scores of all or some public school students increase when schools are faced with competition.
School choice, however, isn’t just about the numbers. Charter, private, Christian and homeschools are in large part value-driven — that is to say, they strive to build character and purposed values in a core-values model over and above what a student would receive in public school. For example, if a student is late in a Colorado charter school, they are required to apologize to their classmates for the disruption and late start.

Jamey Verrilli, co-founder of North Star Academy and Uncommon Schools, said that his charter school’s core values model is an integral part of the program. Uncommon Schools creates and runs urban charter public schools for low-income students. “You have to build a culture that’s going to enhance learning,” said Verrilli on a Fox News interview, “that’s going to strengthen core values, that’s going to build a sense of community for any child, particularly children in hard-pressed areas.” He added that the culture is a platform on which to build rigorous academics.

Support DeVos

Most of all, school choice is about empowering families to make the decision for themselves and taking back control over their children’s education. School choice allows students to attend the school of their family’s choosing, to excel in a school with high expectations and/or a core-values model and it propels public schools to think of these alternative schools as competition, pushing their programs to be better for students.

Amy Kelley, President of My School My Choice, a coalition of teachers, parents and non-public schools striving to give a voice to families for school choice, believes parents are in the best position to make the best educational decision for their children — not the government.

“A good education is important, it is the foundation of a successful future for our kids,” said Kelley. “So providing our children with an education in the learning environment where they can thrive is crucial. Finding that environment is not always as simple as sending your kid to the local public school building. But there is no one who can possibly determine the place where our children will learn better than us, the parents. We know our children the best and, we are the best advocates for them.” (For more from the author of “Choice Is a Good Thing, Right, Liberals? Oh, Not on Schools?” please click HERE)

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Disney Goes Full Homo, Decides to Indoctrinate Children in Perversity

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By Todd Starnes. The folks who gave us Mickey Mouse and Goofy have decided it’s time for your children to enjoy same-sex romance while they slurp down their Fruit Loops. Disney just broadcast their very first gay cartoon kiss.

The smooch happened during the second season of Star vs. The Forces of Evil, a cartoon broadcast on Disney XD. An audience scene shows two guys kissing and a later scene show two ladies sharing an intimate moment . . .

There’s also word the upcoming live-action version of Beauty and the Beast will include a gay storyline — between LeFou and Gaston. I figured it would’ve been the candlestick. But whatever.

“LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston. He’s confused about what he wants,” director Bill Condon told Attitude magazine . . .

So, don’t be too surprised if the next Disney animated classic documents Tinker Bell’s torrid lesbian affair with Snow White while a gender questioning Peter Pan crushes on Pinocchio who just got out of a long-term relationship with one of the seven gender-fluid dwarfs. (Read more from “Disney Goes Full Homo, Decides to Indoctrinate Children in Perversity” HERE)

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Disney Announces First ‘Exclusively Gay Moment’ in Live-Action Beauty and the Beast

By The Week. The director of the forthcoming live-action Beauty and the Beast movie announced Wednesday that his film will feature Disney’s first-ever “exclusively gay moment,” Pacific Standard reports. “By representing same-sex attraction in this short but explicitly gay scene, the studio is sending out a message that this is normal and natural  —  and this is a message that will be heard in every country of the world, even countries where it’s still socially unacceptable or even illegal to be gay,” wrote Attitude editor-in-chief Matt Cain, who published the interview with director Bill Condon. (Read more from “Disney Announces First ‘Exclusively Gay Moment’ in Live-Action Beauty and the Beast” HERE)

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School District Asks Supreme Court to Postpone Transgender Case Grimm v. Gloucester

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The defendants in Grimm v. Gloucester have asked the Supreme Court to push the oral argument date back by at least a month, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments on March 28.

Gavin Grimm, a high school student in Gloucester County, Virginia is suing for the right to use the boys’ restroom. Grimm is a biological female who identifies as a male.

Defendants Want Trump to Weight In

The Gloucester County School Board asked the Court to halt consideration of the case so that the new presidential administration has an opportunity to offer input, according to the AP.

Barack Obama was president when Grimm’s complaint was first filed in 2015. In 2016, Obama issued a Dear Colleague letter to public schools around the nation making the same assertion as Grimm: that refusing to allow transgender students to use the restroom opposite their biological sex is the same as sex discrimination per Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

President Donald Trump rescinded Obama’s policy in another Dear Colleague letter last week. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said the issue was best left to states and local school districts.

Conservatives Want Gorsuch Confirmed Before Grimm Decided

As The Daily Signal reported last month, many conservatives hope that Neil Gorsuch, a demonstrably right-leaning judge of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, is confirmed in time to hear Grimm. If the Court agrees to the school board’s request, he very well could be — his confirmation hearing is set to begin March 20.

As the AP reported, the Supreme Court could hear Grimm’s case in March as planned or postpone it by one month or several. It could also send the case back to a lower court.

Other cases on the issue of transgender bathroom policies are pending in Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the AP. (For more from the author of “School District Asks Supreme Court to Postpone Transgender Case Grimm v. Gloucester” please click HERE)

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I’m Sorry, but Caitlyn Jenner Is a Man Wearing a Dress

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I do not write these words lightly, and there is not an ounce of mockery or, God forbid, hatred in my heart when I say that Caitlyn Jenner is a man wearing a dress. I am simply speaking the plain and obvious truth, as politically incorrect as that truth might be right now. But with transgender issues dominating the news these days, and in light of Tucker Carlson’s epic takedown of Democratic leader Zac Petkanas on national TV last week (specifically, discussing gender-related questions), it appears that now is as good a time as ever to state some things clearly.

So then, to avoid all ambiguity: No, you do not get to choose your gender; no, gender is not determined by the level of your personal enlightenment (as Petkanas alleged); no, your gender does not change simply because you announce that it has changed; and no, it is not good science to allow people to change their sexual identity on their birth certificates. In fact, there is nothing scientific about that at all.

This being said, I do not minimize for a moment the very real struggle of precious little children who struggle deeply with their gender identity, nor do I deny that many children (and adults) report that their lives are more stable and fulfilled when they identify as the opposite of their biological sex.

I do not minimize the traumas through which Bruce Jenner (or others like him) has lived, nor do I claim to be able to relate to those traumas personally.

And I do not make a spiritual judgment about someone who struggles with their gender identity, as if this struggle somehow made them into the vilest of sinners. Why should that be the case?

Again, my goal is not to belittle or disparage, and as loudly and clearly as I can, I proclaim God’s love for all of you who identify as transgender, reminding each one that Jesus died for you just as He died for me and that God has a good and godly purpose for each of your lives.

You are not defective any more than I am defective, and every human being on the planet is broken in some way and in need of a Great Physician.

Caring Enough to Speak the Truth

But because I care enough about the transgender community to speak out, even though I’ll be branded a transphobe and bigot, I’m going to state things with clarity and conviction here, reminding us that the emperor has no clothes (as Carlson rightly did on Fox last week). And I’m going to encourage parents and policy makers, counselors and pastors, educators and activists, along with all those who care about their trans-identified friends and family that: 1) there is no settled science confirming transgender identity; 2) we still know very little about many operations of the brain, including those related to what is now called gender dysphoria (previously known as gender identity disorder, or GID); 3) studies continue to indicate that the vast majority of children who identify as transgender do not do so after puberty (even if many ultimately identify as gay); 4) there must be a better way than our current approach to treating gender dysphoria; 5) it is unfair to impose the struggles of less than 1 percent of the population on the rest of the population, especially on impressionable kids; and 6) gender distinctions should be celebrated and appreciated, rather than branded patriarchal or heterosexist or the like.

And while I’m at it, let me say this to CNN’s Chris Cuomo: Sir, it is not intolerant for a father not to want his daughter to see a boy’s penis at school. That’s called being a good dad.

I address these issues (and more) on this new video commentary, including some telling clips with Jenner and with Carlson and Pektanas, along with some shocking statements from Cuomo and from California public universities.

Please take a few minutes to watch and share the video (it’s less than 8 minutes), and then do three things: 1) pray for a fresh and real love for those who struggle with their gender identity; 2) reach out to those who identify as transgender and ask them sincerely to tell you their story; and 3) help them find wholeness in the Lord.

And remember: Caitlyn Jenner is no more a woman than Rachel Dolezal is black.

Those are the facts, and nothing more.

WATCH:

(For more from the author of “I’m Sorry, but Caitlyn Jenner Is a Man Wearing a Dress” please click HERE)

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Planned Parenthood Is Terrified: US Facing ‘the Biggest Threat’ to Abortion… ‘Ever’

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“We’re in the fight of our lives” and “need all the help we can get.” “This is a turning point in our nation’s history.” “We only survive this moment if we all work together.”

The latest fundraising appeal from Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund reveals one thing:

Planned Parenthood is desperate.

In the plea to Planned Parenthood’s entire network of abortion supporters, Richards boasts about “organizing tens of thousands,” but her tone is undeniably one of fear.

Richards’ emergency appeal describes the political situation as “the biggest threat to reproductive health and rights this country has ever faced.” (Read more from “Planned Parenthood Is Terrified: US Facing ‘the Biggest Threat’ to Abortion… ‘Ever'” please click HERE)

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Girl Who Identifies as Male and Takes Testosterone Wins Girls Wrestling Championship

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Mack Beggs, a girl who identifies as a male (what much of the media refer to as “transgender boy”), won the Texas’ 6A girls state wrestling championship Saturday, after coming under much controversy for taking testosterone injections.

Beggs took the championship with a handy 57-0, though two of those opponents forfeited.

Under Texas’ athletics rules, governed by the University Interscholastic League (UIL), students must compete according to the gender listed on their birth certificate. As a result, Beggs, who began taking testosterone in 2015, must compete with the women, even though the 17 year old wrestler has expressed the desire to compete against boys.

Despite Beggs stated desire to compete against boys, UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison noted that none of the athletes in this championship had requested to change divisions. (Read more from “Girl Who Identifies as Male and Takes Testosterone Wins Girls Wrestling Championship” HERE)

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Trump Has Reversed the Transgender Bathroom Mandate. Here’s How Moms Like Me Pushed the Fight.

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As a woman and a mother, I am thrilled that the Trump administration has rescinded President Barack Obama’s unlawful transgender school policy regarding the use of showers, locker rooms, dorms, and bathrooms in public schools and universities.

President Donald Trump has returned the policymaking power back to parents and state and local officials.

Like many Americans, I was shocked by the Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter threatening our nation’s schools with loss of federal funds unless they adopt radical gender identity policies. The Obama letter twisted Title IX—a law banning sex discrimination in education—and opened the door to a myriad of real dangers to women and girls, the very people Title IX was meant to help.

Wanting to protect my school-aged children, and also having been a victim of sexual assault, I initiated the “United We Stand” campaign last summer to generate calls to the White House respectfully requesting that Obama reverse course.

A decade ago, I worked in the correspondence office at the White House and learned firsthand that administrations take citizen communication very seriously.

Presidents need to hear from the people when they’ve done something wrong, but also when they’ve done something right. So last week, I called the White House comment line to relay my gratitude.

Trump’s decisiveness on this issue shows that he cares more about people than political correctness—that all our children deserve a safe and respectful learning environment, not just a very small minority, and that privacy and free speech are rights that American parents hold dear.

It also shows respect for the right of self-governance. An issue like bathroom policy is best determined at the local level, by the people closest to it—not by bureaucrats in Washington. The new guidance from the administration is both good policy and good governance.

But the fight is far from over, as there is no guarantee that local school boards will adopt sensible solutions unless they hear from concerned parents and students instead of just a vocal minority backed by well-funded outside activist groups.

In my local school district of Fairfax County, Virginia, parents are speaking out every other week asking our school board to reverse its transgender policy. We aren’t asking to “discriminate” against gender confused children, but to accommodate them with individual private facilities so that no one’s privacy is put at risk. We are merely asking for commonsense solutions for all students, not just a few.

Have you ever attended your local school board meeting? You will find they are democracy in action, but only if people make the effort to attend and voice their concerns.

Sadly, Trump is receiving a lot of flack for merely righting his predecessor’s wrong. While “just 28 percent of all Americans believe the federal government should be responsible for setting bathroom policies in elementary and secondary schools,” according to a recent poll, a vocal minority has dominated print and airwaves, and very likely the White House comment lines, giving the impression that the people are against Trump’s wise move.

The silent majority must no longer be silent. With Trump, we now have a president who is focused on remedying the lawlessness of the prior administration.

This mom has conveyed her support and gratitude. I hope others will follow. (For more from the author of “Trump Has Reversed the Transgender Bathroom Mandate. Here’s How Moms Like Me Pushed the Fight.” please click HERE)

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Great-Grandfather Leads Woman to Christ — 100 Years After His Death

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When Joanna Reed Shelton, career diplomat, opened her email one day several years ago, she never could’ve guessed what was inside: an invitation to celebrate the anniversary of her missionary great-grandfather’s church in Japan, which he had started 120 years before. She wasn’t a Christian — so why was she invited? She speculated that her speeches had made it on the web and across the world, connecting her with her great-grandfather’s legacy. She couldn’t have known how his life work wasn’t done — not quite.

Perhaps without even knowing why, she decided to take a trip to Japan.

As Joanna sat in the church her great-grandfather started, family stories came to life. Like the story of her great-grandfather struggling to keep from crying after his 14-year-old daughter who was the organist, Ella, died. When she visited Ella’s grave, Joanna held back tears.

Over time, Joanna took more trips to Japan, visited another church her grandfather founded, and began digging into his work as a writer and theologian at Meiji Gakuin University. Still, something was missing. She realized that her life traveling the world did not fulfill her. She decided to learn more about her great-grandfather and what made him become a missionary to Japan. But to do that, she had to know more about his faith — Christianity.

Joanna said that she traded in her “chauffeured cars and dinners with ambassadors for cowboy boots and life on a 240-acre farm” and moved to Montana. She began studying the Bible in earnest under two devout relatives. The longing she felt, the inner desire for something she couldn’t describe, was filled by her study of scripture. She couldn’t get enough.

Joanna trusted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and she said her life gained a new focus. She thought about her great-grandfather and the Japanese people he ministered to as a missionary. But he wasn’t finished when his life was over. “You might say I’m the latest convert of a man whose work clearly was not done when he died more than a century ago.” (For more from the author of “Great-Grandfather Leads Woman to Christ — 100 Years After His Death” please click HERE)

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