Santa Grants Final Wish to Dying Child: ‘I Cried All the Way Home’

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Typically, Santa sees wide-eyed children hop into his lap to share their Christmas wishes. But this time, [Eric] Schmitt-Matzen was faced with something he had never encountered before, at least in his role as Kris Kringle: A terminally ill child dying in his arms.

Schmitt-Matzen, 60, had just gotten home from a day at work where he serves as a mechanical engineer and president of Packing Seals & Engineering in Jacksboro when his phone rang. It was a call from a nurse requesting he rush to the hospital to visit a very sick 5-year-old boy desperate to see Santa Claus . . .

Mustering the strength he could, St. Nick walked into the room, hoping to keep from breaking down in front of the small child so thrilled to see him. “Say, what’s this I hear about you’re gonna miss Christmas? There’s no way you can miss Christmas! Why, you’re my No. 1 elf,” Schmitt-Matzen told the boy, according to the paper . . .

“They say I’m gonna die,” Schmitt-Matzen said the boy told him. “How can I tell when I get to where I’m going?”

In response, Santa told the little child to “tell ’em you’re Santa’s No. 1 elf, and I know they’ll let you in.” (Read more from “Santa Grants Final Wish to Dying Child: ‘I Cried All the Way Home'” HERE)

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Religious Liberty Win: Mass. Backs off Gender Identity Law That Could Have Jailed Pastors

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The state of Massachusetts has backed off a regulation that could have landed pastors in jail for operating church functions according to their faith.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the non-profit legal organization representing four churches who sued the state over the controversial regulations announced the victory Monday, after the churches agreed to drop the lawsuit.

“No church should fear government punishment simply for serving its community consistently with its faith,” ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb said in a press release.

As The Stream previously reported, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination released in September an updated Gender Identity Guidance that declared, “places of public accommodation may not discriminate against, or restrict a person from services because of that person’s gender identity.”

That meant during certain church events and activities, church leaders would have been forced to allow a biological man to use women’s restrooms or other facilities if he claimed to identify as a woman, regardless of the church’s religious beliefs regarding gender.

Specifically, the Gender Identity Guidance originally stated that “Even a church could be seen as a place of public accommodation if it holds a secular event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the public.”

As UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh wrote in the Washington Post at the time,

[E]ven church “secular events,” which I take it means events that don’t involve overt worship, are generally viewed by the church as part of its ministry, and certainly as a means of the church modeling what it believes to be religiously sound behavior.

Punishment for violating these regulations included the possibility of a year in jail and/or a $2,500 fine. Pastors could have even been jailed for refusing to use a transgender person’s preferred pronouns.

But the state backtracked after ADF initiated the legal case Horizon Christian Fellowship v. Williamson by filing a lawsuit on behalf of four churches in early October.

Almost exactly one month later, the Massachusetts Civil Rights Division responded with a letter to ADF, saying that “your lawsuit caused us to focus on these issues and to make this revision.”

The Gender Identity Guidance has now been updated to say that the “law does not apply to a religious organization if subjecting the organization to the law would violate the organization’s First Amendment rights.” “Houses of worship” was also removed from the list of places of public accommodation from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s website.

ADF attorneys filed a notice of voluntary dismissal Monday.

“The government can’t encroach on the internal, religious practices of a church. The language revisions that our lawsuit prompted should ensure that doesn’t happen,” ADF Senior Counsel Steve O’Ban said in Monday’s press release. “The comments of commonwealth officials gave these churches reason for great concern, and so we are pleased wording changes have been made to respect the constitutionally protected freedoms these congregations and pastors have.”

ADF will be holding a press conference to discuss the state of the lawsuit on Wednesday, December 14 in Boston. (For more from the author of “Religious Liberty Win: Mass. Backs off Gender Identity Law That Could Have Jailed Pastors” please click HERE)

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Planned Parenthood Takes Neighboring Pregnancy Center to Court — for Thriving

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An Idaho Planned Parenthood (PP) facility has filed a lawsuit against its pro-life pregnancy center neighbor, Stanton Healthcare — for providing women’s health services.

PP’s complaint hinge on the allegations that Stanton is misusing the common areas of the business subdivision they are located in and that Stanton invited people to protest outside the abortion provider’s facility. The lawsuit claims that

[Stanton Healthcare] regularly parks a van/mobile home on the parking area of the Business Center Common Area. … To the best of [PP]’s knowledge, information and belief, the van/mobile home is used for a number of purposes, including ultrasounds, consultations and other activities. The [subdivision’s] Declaration does not permit such activity in the Common Area.

Over the past several months, certain individuals, believed to be invitees of [Stanton Healthcare], have been present on Common Area, not within the limited purposes related to the operation of the Business Center, but rather to protest, harass [PP]’s staff and patients, or to promote services offered by [Stanton Healthcare]’s parked van/mobile home.

Stanton told LifeSiteNews that her lawyers “are reviewing the complaint,” though she also noted that PP has “made false accusations” of harassment. Red State reports Swindell is “confident PP does not have appropriate grounds for the law suit.”

‘A Whole New Level’

Despite the lawsuit’s claims, Stanton’s founder and director Brandi Swindell noted that the timing of PP’s most recent complaints line up remarkably with Stanton’s own plans to build a new “mega-clinic.”

Red State reports, “This — [Swindell] maintains — is the real reason PP suddenly brought suit. The abortion giant feels threatened.” Swindell told Red State, “Planned Parenthood is always fighting for access issues; they’re always accusing the pro-life community of trying to block access and here they are trying to block access!”

After the abortion giant’s many legal advances, such as fighting for taxpayer funding and pursuing lawsuits against pro-life agencies, Swindell says this lawsuit “goes to a whole other level,” saying PP is “now trying to prevent us from doing good.”

It’s a very serious lawsuit…people of faith [and] people of goodwill need to wake up to and say, “does Planned Parenthood really think they have the authority to bully us and prevent us from doing good?” It’s a despicable thing.

Replacing Planned Parenthood

The “Stanton Revolution,” a privately funded women’s healthcare system, has previously made a name for itself with it’s effort to “Replace Planned Parenthood.” Cosmopolitan even featured Swindell in a piece titled, “Meet the Woman Who Wants to Take Down Planned Parenthood.”

Swindell has previously told The Stream, “Part of our idea with Stanton Healthcare is to go where the women are that are facing an unexpected pregnancy and that are trying to determine what they should do in that situation.”

That’s why Stanton’s strategy “is to set up shop and open clinics right next door to Planned Parenthood.” As she explained to The Stream, “We’ve trialed this in Idaho, and then our other affiliate locations, and it works. We have walk-ins every week who are on their way to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion or to have a consultation from Planned Parenthood.”

Women see our signs that say, “Walk-ins Welcome,” “Unexpected Pregnancy Solutions At No Charge,” “Pregnancy Verification At No Cost To Our Clients,” they come in. Because they’re looking for hope, and they’re looking for a professional, confidential setting that will provide them true alternatives. We see walk-ins every week, of women who have said, “‘I’m so glad I found this place, I’m so glad that there’s resources, I’m so glad I’m not alone.”

“God is doing something truly amazing in and through the work of Stanton Healthcare,” Swindell says on the company’s website.

I’m in awe of His goodness and guidance, and humbled that He uses us to accomplish His purposes. His love is fierce and unstoppable, and what an honor it is to share the truth with every woman who comes through our doors: the truth that she is deeply loved…and there is hope.”

(For more from the author of “Planned Parenthood Takes Neighboring Pregnancy Center to Court — for Thriving” please click HERE)

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New Transgender Survey Could Set a Terrible Precedent for Policy Based on Feelings, Not Facts

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A recent nationwide survey revealed that “60 percent of transgender Americans have avoided using public restrooms for fear of confrontation, saying they have been harassed and assaulted.” The “landmark” survey cites data based on the responses of 27,715 individuals, or an estimated 2 percent of the adult transgender population (which comprises only 0.6 percent of the entire U.S. population).

Reuters refers to transgender people as a “severely understudied group whose experiences and challenges from medicine to law to economics and family relations are poorly understood.” And the National Center for Transgender Equality, the group that conducted the survey, hopes the new data will serve as a basis for researchers and policymakers for years to come.

A survey like this demonstrates the power of the trans-victim class, and it should be a cause of great concern for any American who respects the rule of law.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Here is the problem with these “findings” … There is no proof that these claims are accurate. The study cites alleged encounters and experiences reported by transgender people, without a shred of documented evidence to back them up.

According to the survey, 32 percent of transgender people said they limited the amount they ate and drank at least once in the past year to avoid having to use a public restroom. Eight percent reported that they developed a urinary tract infection, kidney infection, or another “kidney-related problem” because they avoided restrooms.

From Reuters:

The findings by the National Center for Transgender Equality on public restrooms counter the message of mainly conservative politicians and religious leaders that transgender people are the antagonists preying on others. It found that 12 percent of transgender people were verbally harassed in public restrooms within the previous year, 1 percent were physically attacked and 1 percent were sexually assaulted. Nine percent said someone denied them access to a bathroom.

Notice the unmistakably ambiguous language used in the study; what constitutes “assault” or “harassment” in these scenarios? The law clearly defines these terms, but the survey does not. The survey doesn’t “counter” the conservative response to transgender people occupying restrooms that don’t correspond with their birth sex, because it doesn’t actually “find” anything.

Transgender people already receive the same level of protection under the law as their fellow citizens. They have the same legal options as any other victim of discrimination, harassment, or assault. But instead of filing a legal claim, they report their experience to a transgender advocacy group who will apply social pressure to advance their interests, without a shred of proof required. How convenient.

He-said, she-said

“Trans people have been in danger in the bathrooms. These numbers are just astronomically high,” Mara Keisling, director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Reuters. “This is what’s really happening in bathrooms. The nonsense of what [North Carolina] Governor [Pat] McCrory was saying is not what’s happening in bathrooms.”

Reuters notes that the survey was conducted before the passage of North Carolina’s House Bill 2, which “prohibits local governments in North Carolina from forcing places of public accommodation to allow people to use restrooms and changing facilities that do not align with their biological sex.” The bill was met with powerful backlash that launched a nationwide civil rights debate over whether transgender people should be considered a protected class.

Here’s the thing about North Carolina’s “nonsense” bathroom bill: There have been not only reports, but documented cases that prove transgender bathrooms pose real threats to public safety. But a group like the National Center for Transgender Equality is able to dismiss actual evidence with anecdotal accounts via “surveys.”

This survey is just the latest example of the Left’s “ends justify the means” approach to public policy. Whether it’s the widely disseminated “1 in 5 women are raped on college campuses” propaganda and falsehood, or the countless hate crime hoaxes and fake trends perpetuated by the agenda-driven mainstream media time and time again, unapologetic liberals are notorious for playing fast and loose with the facts. The Left has had an extremely successful track record of furthering their agenda of victimhood by convincing the public that their claims are above (bigoted) scrutiny.

Sixty percent of transgender people have been “harassed and assaulted” in public restrooms? That’s one heck of a statistic to be throwing around without a shred of proof. And seeing as how literally anything and everything can (and is) deemed an “attack” these days, the onus should be greater than ever for the accusers to provide the unassailable evidence proving such charges.

Strength in victimhood

The trans community will argue that many of these incidents of discrimination, harassment, and assault go unreported due to the fear or shame these victims feel. They have already successfully implemented this argument in the past to carve out special provisions in the workplace and, famously, in public restrooms.

In fact, the National Center for Transgender Equality was behind the LGBT report that was cited as the basis for California’s transgender affirmative action jobs program, which subsidizes restaurants who hire trans employees. These people know what they’re doing.

Consider this excerpt from the new survey’s executive summary:

The findings reveal disturbing patterns of mistreatment and discrimination and startling disparities between transgender people in the survey and the U.S. population when it comes to the most basic elements of life, such as finding a job, having a place to live, accessing medical care, and enjoying the support of family and community.

Replace the word “transgender” in the text above with “black,” “female,” or “Latino,” and you have the Left’s basic argument for identity-driven policies that forcibly “level the playing field” at the expense of true equality, justice, and safety for all. The implied claim is that the legal system doesn’t work for certain groups of people, and the only solution is to overthrow the system and create a new one. In other words, civil rights are great, but special accommodations and government handouts are not only better, but an absolute must. (A right, if you will…)

The conversation surrounding the new transgender survey is not about “equality” or “safety”; it is about subverting the rule of law and creating new policies based on feelings, not facts.

Though small, the trans-victim class is more vocal — via government allies, financial means, and political capital (with a virtual monopoly on all the greatest influencers in mainstream culture these days) — and more armed than ever. It is crucial, then, that public leaders and policymakers recognize the identity-driven agenda of the Left’s “equality” crusaders, and shut down any attempts to bulldoze over the rights of other Americans. (For more from the author of “New Transgender Survey Could Set a Terrible Precedent for Policy Based on Feelings, Not Facts” please click HERE)

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Congress Just Missed Its Chance to Starve the Planned Parenthood Beast

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I’m a military guy. I joined because of 9/11 and served two deployments. America is worth fighting for and there are many reasons why.

One of the lessons reinforced by my military service is that life is our first freedom. Without it, no other right has value.
The protection of life — regardless of its circumstance — is therefore a moral and righteous cause, and America’s birth gave us a built-in solution.

Remember, life gives value to all other rights. Before we understand free speech and prosperity from free markets, we must have life. Life gives everything context and meaning. This is the frame all conservatives must adopt. And they must (courageously) adopt it now.

Congress missed the opportunity to value life when it passed the Continuing Resolution (HR 2028) yesterday.

Let facts be submitted to a candid world …

American tax dollars go to Planned Parenthood. The group provides abortions-on-demand on an industrial scale. Abortion — if done as intended — ends life in the womb. Abortion doesn’t just take life, it kills the context of life.

Politicians hide this truth with gamesmanship, legalism, fake statesmanship, and false equivalencies. They use well-developed tactics to obfuscate the truth: that all taxpaying Americans give money to kill babies.

When you hear, “we’ll pass this so we can get other things done,” that’s nothing more than gamesmanship.

And when politicians try this, “the CR specifically says no money for abortions,” that’s legalism.

My favorite is, “this bill has some good and some bad things, but I’m satisfied we have a good deal.” That’s fake statesmanship.

And lastly, “we have to avoid a government shutdown.” That’s a false equivalent.

The power of the purse is America’s built-in solution for defending life. All revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives, as only Congress has the power to tax. The federal government can only spend money when Congress authorizes it.

Congress is the first and last body responsible for your taxes paying for abortions. Imagine an abortionist cutting the tiny limbs of a recoiling baby in the womb. Congress could do that to money for Planned Parenthood.

Congress can abort Planned Parenthood.

The Constitution is a weapon for defending life. We must wield it without apology. When Congress funds all of the government in a mega-spend-fund-everything bill — like continuing resolutions — it does not protect life as long as your money funds abortions.

Every politician swears the exact same oath as every military officer. Google it. There are some powerful ideas in it. The reason is that the men and women who represent us in Congress should be held to the same standard as the men and women who fight and die on the battlefield, because they both are in the business of defending life and giving context to all other rights.

The difference is that the military doesn’t make excuses when it comes to matters of life and death.

Politicians do. (For more from the author of “Congress Just Missed Its Chance to Starve the Planned Parenthood Beast” please click HERE)

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The GOP House Just Approved Tracking Devices for People with Disabilities

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The House passed a bill Thursday morning that empowers the Department of Justice to establish a system whereby people with autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and other mental impairments are equipped with tracking devices, in case they wander off. H.R. 4919 passed 346 to 66 under a suspension of the rules, meaning that no amendments to the bill could be offered.

Better known as Kevin and Avonte’s Law — named after two children with autism who wandered off and drowned — the bill allows for the DOJ to award $2 million in grants to help states in “designing, establishing, and operating locative tracking technology programs” for people with mental disabilities.

“This legislation will assist communities in receiving valuable education on how to prevent individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and children with autism from wandering, and to respond quickly and appropriately in cases in which they do,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. (D, 64%), per the New York Daily News.

The bill has incited passion from autism and Alzheimer’s advocacy groups, as well as those who are concerned about civil liberties and government overreach. Last week, the bill was scheduled for a House Judiciary Committee markup, but was postponed.

As Conservative Review reported at the time, “Multiple sources on the Hill with knowledge of the situation said that the hearing was cancelled after several GOP committee members voiced concerns about how the language dealt with privacy and civil liberty issues.”

After the Judiciary Committee markup was cancelled, the language of Kevin and Avonte’s Law was changed, so that the tracking devices overseen by the DOJ were less permanent and invasive than the ones originally proposed.

The language change “is still not good enough,” Robert Romano, senior editor at Americans for Limited Government, stated in a press release Wednesday: “There shouldn’t be any bill, because there shouldn’t be a program no matter how well-intentioned overseen by the Attorney General electronically tracking people in this manner.”

Nevertheless, the bill was brought up for a quick vote on Thursday, the last day of the House’s lame-duck legislative session before the new year.

A House source told Conservative Review that, as of last week, an informal whip count of the Judiciary Committee found that a majority of members on the committee were opposed to the bill. It is extremely uncommon for a bill to bypass a committee markup in this way and be brought to the floor under suspension of the rules, the source stated. The bill may be brought up in the Senate for a vote in the next 24 hours, where it is expected to pass with ease and head to President Obama’s desk for signature.

Despite its swift passage through the House, concerns abound for this bill. Government-run tracking devices “would violate the Fourth Amendment as an unreasonable search. And it would violate the Fifth Amendment’s deprivation of liberty without due process,” says Romano, of the “human tracking device bill.”

“Autism,” “Alzheimer’s disease,” and “other developmental disabilities” are not defined in the bill, which prompts extra concern for individuals who may lie somewhere on the autism spectrum but are capable of making decisions for themselves.

Further, there are no assurances that a future attorney general couldn’t mandate the sharing of data obtained by DOJ devices between federal agencies and law enforcement, therefore opening the window for unprecedented domestic surveillance.

Rep. Goodlatte made assurances that the program was voluntary and that no data would be collected. But the government simply does not have a good track record and history, to say the least, when it comes to privacy matters.

For parents or caretakers concerned about the safety and location of their loved ones with developmental disabilities, there are non-invasive, private ways to track the whereabouts under medical supervision — when necessary.

The slippery slope of Kevin and Avonte’s Law is frightening, as there is simply no need for the federal government to get involved. (For more from the author of “The GOP House Just Approved Tracking Devices for People with Disabilities” please click HERE)

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Christmas Miracle? Macy’s No Longer Funds Planned Parenthood

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Retail giant Macy’s is no longer providing financial support to Planned Parenthood, according to corporate watchdog 2ndVote.

“We’re constantly updating our research to portray companies in the fairest possible light,” said 2ndVote Executive Director Lance Wray in a statement sent to reporters on Thursday. “Last week, Macy’s confirmed with us that the company no longer gives Retail giant Macy’s is no longer providing financial support to Planned Parenthood, according to corporate watchdog 2ndVote.and no longer matches gifts to Planned Parenthood.”

Last year, Macy’s was one of 41 companies that supported Planned Parenthood, which conducts over 300,000 abortions per year. Corporate donors now number 36, according to the 2ndVote tracker, with AT&T, Coca-Cola, Ford and Xerox also refusing to back the abortion giant.

2ndVote Communications Director Robert Kuykendall told The Stream that “corporate contributions and issue advocacy are only possible because of the dollars spent by customers in the first place. We want companies to move back to neutral because that’s how conservatives can know their dollars won’t be funding causes and advocacy organizations they wouldn’t normally support on their own.”

In 2015, Macy’s told The Daily Signal that the company funded Planned Parenthood through an employee matching program. “Our company makes no direct donations to Planned Parenthood. In our Matching Gift program, we will match our employees’ donations to any 501c3 organization. We are a company of 160,000 people, and we do match a small handful of gifts each year to Planned Parenthood organizations given that they are 501c3.”

A Macy’s spokesperson did not respond to multiple efforts by The Stream to clarify why the company is no longer matching employee donations to Planned Parenthood. The company’s official 2ndVote ranking notes that Macy’s donates to The Salvation Army, which according to its official statement on abortion “accepts the moment of fertilisation as the start of human life.” The international aid organization opposes abortion in almost all circumstances. (For more from the author of “Christmas Miracle? Macy’s No Longer Funds Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)

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Congress Isn’t Finished Investigating Planned Parenthood, Others in 2015 Videos

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Congress took significant steps forward last week in its continued efforts to hold Planned Parenthood and fetal tissue procurement companies accountable for the sale and trafficking of aborted fetal tissue.

The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives has recommended a criminal investigation of Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast for potentially violating Texas and U.S. law in its sale of fetal tissue.

The panel also issued nine criminal and regulatory referrals for various abortion providers and tissue procurement companies located in Arkansas, California, Florida, and Ohio.

In 2015, the Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover investigative videos revealing the disturbing practice of trafficking in aborted fetal body parts for profit.

Planned Parenthood and its various affiliates were exposed participating in the sale of aborted fetal remains to biologic companies—most notably, StemExpress.

The videos, which have been validated as authentic and free of manipulation by an independent forensic analysis, feature conversations in which representatives from Planned Parenthood and its affiliates discuss the type of fetal organs to be harvested and negotiate the price of selling them.

Lawmakers and the American public were justifiably shocked and disgusted by both the practice of selling human remains for profit and the graphic and often flippant nature of the conversations.

After publication of the videos and the ensuing public outcry, Congress established the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives to investigate the sale and trafficking of fetal organs and tissue by abortion providers. The House of Representatives recently voted to extend the work of this panel, which is chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, receives over $500 million in federal tax money each year, despite reporting over $700 million in nongovernmental revenue in its 2014-2015 annual report and being vastly outnumbered (20 to 1) by free or low-cost community health centers.

Since the fetal tissue scandal in 2015, efforts to channel taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood to comprehensive health care facilities that do not perform abortions have gained considerable momentum—though the legislative goal has not yet been achieved.

Section 289g-2 of the U.S. Code was enacted to prevent people or organizations from profiting from the sale of fetal remains.

This law prohibits the sale of any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if it affects interstate commerce. While reimbursements for costs associated with the donation of fetal tissue are permissible, profiting from such a sale is not.

When addressing the purpose of the fetal tissue law, the lead sponsor, Democrat Henry Waxman, commented, “It would be abhorrent to allow for the sale of fetal tissue and a market to be created for that sale.”

The Center for Medical Progress videos reveal multiple conversations regarding payments and other considerations to be received in exchange for fetal tissue. This included a revealing exchange with Melissa Farrell, director of research at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast—the facility for which the select panel requested a criminal investigation.

In the video released in August 2015, Farrell discusses the fact that because the Houston-based abortion agency is such a “high-volume” abortion facility, it provides a significant amount of fetal tissue to various biologic companies.

Farrell went on to express concern about current fetal tissue laws and explained that the books could be altered to hide the financial benefit to Planned Parenthood. Additionally, Farrell discusses the willingness of abortion providers to “alter the process” to “obtain intact cadavers.”

The creation of a for-profit market for human remains is unethical and unconscionable. The American public has been rightly outraged by the pervasiveness of this practice, and is opposed to taxpayer dollars funding organizations that participate in such a market.

A survey conducted in August 2015 by The Heritage Foundation found that 78 percent of Americans believe that government should not fund organizations that harvest and sell fetal tissue from abortions.

Planned Parenthood’s 2014-2015 report noted an increase in the percentage of services associated with abortion, while the percentage of other medical services provided by the agency decreased.

Though the Hyde Amendment technically prohibits Planned Parenthood from using federal funds to pay for abortion, there exists no method of independent accountability ensuring federal funds are kept separate.

Planned Parenthood is left to police itself, an entirely ineffective safeguard. The disbursement of taxpayer dollars to abortion providers, no matter where spent, frees up other funds to be used for abortion-related services.

The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives is performing a valuable service to Americans in initiating criminal investigations into the practice of profiting from the sale of fetal remains. The American public has every right to know whether its hard-earned tax dollars are being spent on organizations involved in illegal and unethical behavior.

Considering Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the sale of fetal tissue, the decline of the provision of medical services outside abortion, and the inexcusable lack of accountability of federal funds received, a renewed push to stop federal funding of Planned Parenthood is in order.

The funds currently being received by the lucrative nonprofit would, no doubt, be better spent supporting community health centers that provide comprehensive care to families without offering abortion services. (For more from the author of “Congress Isn’t Finished Investigating Planned Parenthood, Others in 2015 Videos” please click HERE)

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Oakland Warehouse Organizer Derick Ion Almena’s ‘Cult Like Life’ Revealed

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Details of the sinister and sometimes cult-like atmosphere around the ‘artist’ who ran the Oakland warehouse can be revealed.

Derick Ion Almena was in charge of the illegal enclave, described variously as a collective or a commune, where 36 died in Friday night’s devastating fire.

He is facing a criminal investigation into the lead-up to the fire, which happened in a warehouse filled with junk and where Almena was raising his three children with his wife, Micah Allison.

Now details can be disclosed of the power Almena exercised over those who lived in the space he illegally rented to them, to the extent that one described him as ‘a cult leader’.

Almena, who appeared on NBC’s Today Show on Tuesday in a testy exchange with Matt Lauer in which he ranted about being ‘sorry’ but offered no explanations for the conditions in the warehouse, was accused of using threats of violence to get his way, and being able to flip from charming to threatening in a heartbeat. (Read more from “Oakland Warehouse Organizer Derick Ion Almena’s ‘Cult Like Life’ Revealed” HERE)

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Make Christmas Great (Again!) with True Christmas Spirit

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The American Atheists are at it again: “Make Christmas Great Again: Skip Church!” their new billboard campaign says. The thought grieves me. I can’t imagine wishing for anything as joyless and empty as Christmas stripped of its true spirit.

The Christmas Spirit of Joy

Heaven knows our culture has been trying long enough to strip Christmas of its meaning, reducing it to a mere commercial extravaganza. The great news that kicked it all off in the beginning, however, still shines through with the spirit of Christmas joy.

Joy. That’s the quintessential Christmas word, isn’t it? When else do we use it but December? It’s a Christmas word for a reason. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King!”

Why such joy over a king? It’s because “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love.”

If it is true — even prophetically true, as Christians believe — that the world is ruled by such sovereign love, then all our darkness is put to flight. There’s no more fitting response to that than joy.

Forms and Traditions Without the Spirit

But atheists have a different account of it. They like to tell stories of our celebration being co-opted from pagan sources, as if Christianity couldn’t have invented the birth of Christ without importing it in from somewhere outside.

Sure, we’ve borrowed some of the trappings. The winter solstice has always been an obvious time to celebrate rebirth, hope, the victory of light over darkness. Pagan and tribal religions have long made it a time of family, feasting and gift-giving.

There is nothing un-Christian about adopting some of those celebratory themes. Even the American Atheists seem willing to run with some of them, if I read their “Make Christmas Great” message correctly. They’re willing to keep some of the forms and traditions of Christmas; they just mean to remove its spirit.

No “Christmas Spirit” for Atheists?

Is that overstating it? What about the “Christmas spirit,” which atheists could still call part of a “great” Christmas? No such luck. By atheists’ own beliefs, it’s a stripped-down word at best: a mood, maybe, but nothing more substantial than that. There’s no room for spirit in the material universe that American Atheists proclaim:

Materialism declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent, immutable, and impersonal laws; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that humankind — finding their resources within themselves — can and must create their own destiny.

“Interference” is hardly the word Christians would use for God’s guiding and loving participation with His creation, but there you have it. On this atheistic/materialistic view there is no spiritual reality of any sort. It’s all just matter and energy, moving wherever impersonal laws move it.

That applies to you and me, too. If natural law is impersonal and immutable throughout the universe, it is impersonal and immutable within ourselves. We’re molecules in motion. That’s it. Period.

I’ll bet you thought you are more than that! You are. We all are, believers and unbelievers alike. Atheist beliefs may be inhuman; atheists themselves can’t help being something more.

No Room for Hope or Joy

But we were talking about atheist/materialist beliefs. What room do they leave us for hope or joy? If the impersonal, immutable laws that rule all of reality rule us, too, there can be no human freedom to “create” our own “destiny.”

Do you really make your own decisions? Not if everything about you is under the complete control of natural law. Have you ever seen a light bulb deciding whether to shine after the switch has been flicked? Or a match choosing whether it wants to light when you strike it? The same goes for whatever it is that makes you and me tick. It does what it has to do, not what anyone or anything chooses it to do. Immutable natural law leaves no room for choices.

Which means it also leaves no room for hope, for hope is a sham if you can’t claim your own choices for yourself. As for joy, how real can it be if there’s no meaning to hope?

Christmas Without Christ

So I wonder what atheists think would be great about Christmas that way. Is it families trying harder for a while to remember they should love one another? That’s a nice thought, but it doesn’t often work out so well in practice. Good Christmas intentions flow into optimistic New Year’s resolutions, which fade into forgetfulness before the last bowl game has been played.

Again, what makes Christmas great? How about fueling our consumer economy for another year? I’m all in favor of keeping ourselves fully employed, but we all know there’s a commercial taint to it all. That’s not what makes Christmas great, either.

What then about the really personal touches we associate with Christmas joy? I’m thinking about the gatherings of friends and family; the children opening gifts around the tree; the festive colors, music and delicacies that brim over in our memory: all the best of Christmas traditions apart from Christ. I could imagine an atheist saying that’s all Christmas needs to be great.

It’s “Christmas” For a Reason

But Christ is in Christmas for a reason. He didn’t come to interfere in our world, but to participate in it with us. That’s the core message of Christmas. Our God became one of us. He grew up as one of us, He laughed as one of us, He wept as one of us and He died as one of us. He even rose again as one of us, leading the way to eternal life for all who will receive it from Him.

Yet Jesus’ life was a gift that only God could give and only God could live. His grace and truth (John 1:14) were evident in every interaction, never merely “balanced” but both on full display.

He was always on a mission yet never in a hurry, always in charge yet never forgetting to love, often under attack yet never acting under the gun. At the end He was subjection to the will of His executors, yet strangely in charge the whole time.

He lived the only perfectly loving, self-sacrificial life ever lived. None other like it has even been imagined. If there were ever a man like Jesus who wasn’t God he would be worth following anyway; except only God could be that great among us.

Only Jesus Christ

Which brings me back to that word “great.” How does it improve Christmas to take Jesus’ greatness away from it? The typical atheist answer, I suppose, would be that it’s not about removing greatness, but about removing foolish God-nonsense.

I could argue with them about who’s more foolish, but that’s not what’s really on my mind right now. My first reaction to their new slogan wasn’t, “How wrong!” It was, “How empty. How sad.” For the true greatness, hope and joy of Christmas is in the One after whom the celebration is named.

Don’t shrink your celebration down to a mere mood. Don’t diminish the true joy of the season. Do make Christmas great — again! Do celebrate Jesus. And do go to church! (For more from the author of “Make Christmas Great (Again!) with True Christmas Spirit” please click HERE)

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