38% Say They Are LGBTQ

 The colleges and universities of America are serving a purpose of indoctrination.  If your child was in public schools who first opened their minds to how cool, hip and woke it is to be in the LGBTQ community and then they head of to college...

I love what Bill Maher said as I look at the chart in this article showing explosive rise in non-straight identities, “At this rate of increase we will all be gay by 2030.”

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The Herald’s Spring 2023 poll found that 38% of students do not identify as straight — over five times the national rate. Over the past decade, LGBTQ+ identification has increased across the nation, with especially sharp growth at Brown.

This Pride Month, The Herald reviewed data from its semesterly polls and spoke with current students to investigate how the LGBTQ+ community on campus has evolved over time.

The Herald first surveyed sexual orientation in its Fall 2010 poll, in which around 14% of respondents answered that they were not straight. That number has more than doubled since.

Jacob Gelman ’25 noticed “a rise in openly identifying queer individuals.” 

Brown’s queer community is much greater than the national average among adults. Gallup polls from 2022 found that only 7.2% of adults — and 19.7% of those aged 18 to 25 — identified as LGBTQ+. 

For Josephine Kovecses ’25, the difference between national LGBTQ+ demographics and Brown LGBTQ+ demographics is not a challenging puzzle to solve.

“Queer people haven’t been able to be open in their identifications for that long,” Kovecses said. “So it’s exciting that the numbers are growing and that queer people are able to be open in particular at Brown.”

https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2023/06/lgbtq-student-self-identification-has-doubled-since-2010-according-to-herald-polling-data

One Nation Under God? Not So Much

 Bible readers know that USA was made great BECAUSE of God.  In His Providence he made us great.  Once upon a time this nation was filled with God fearing folks and God blessed us and made us great so we could help to incubate Israel and be by her side as God brought that nation back into existence from the ashes of the Holocaust.

We all know that America isn't mentioned in Bible prophecy so she will most likely be a minor player in the Very Last Days.  How will she come down?  We hope it's the rapture of the church.  But that is certainly not guaranteed.

What a sea change that is from when God-fearing men gathered in Philadelphia 240 years ago to sign the world’s greatest document of freedom, the Declaration of Independence.

Just listen to what some of our Founding Fathers had to say about God’s place in our nation:

“Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society.”

—George Washington, first president of the United States of America

“The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”

—John Jay, first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. … Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

—John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence, second president of the United States

The Christian faith that inspired such men and formed the foundation for our republic is under such intense attack today that I do not believe we can keep our republic much longer without a grassroots revival of godliness that will spread across our land.

Should the godless forces in culture succeed, this nation will cease to exist as one nation under God. Wherever Christianity flourishes, freedom flowers. Wherever it is marginalized, tyranny, despotism, and eventually anarchy will inevitably follow. …

In 1620, pilgrims seeking to practice Christianity in a land with true religious freedom wrote a document called the Mayflower Compact. The ultimate goal was stated this way, as they headed from Europe to the shores of the New World; “For the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith.”

That land, of course, became the United States of America, and God has shed His grace upon us for so long. With God’s help, I intend to pray and work as long as I can and as hard as I can to keep it the land of the free.

America the beautiful? Only if God continues to shed His grace on us. And that will happen only as we turn from our wicked ways and call on His Name.

Here;  Should the Godless Forces Succeed, this Nation Will Cease to Exist as One Nation Under God | Harbingers Daily

What are the chances that we will turn from our wicked ways and call on His Name?  Anything is possible but I'm guessing it's not probable.

The Great De-Churching of America

 Not too many years ago you could ask just about anyone in America, "What church do you go to?"  And the answer would ALWAYS be, "We go to such and such church."  I'm not saying that all those folks were born-again believers but they were at least sitting in the pews and hopefully hearing something about the 10 Commandments, being nice to your neighbors, being respectful to adults and stay away from drunkenness and false idols.

There were certainly no activities planned for Sunday morning or Wednesday night since everyone knew to remember the Sabbath and they also wanted their kids in church school on Wednesday night.

Today that's all gone.  Hockey, basketball, softball, baseball tournaments are all scheduled for Sunday morning and Wednesday nights.  Parents long ago had to choose between their kid playing sports or "dragging them to church."

And when you allow your kids to skip church in favor of basketball you are giving them a VERY CLEAR MESSAGE of what activity is MOST important.  When those kids leave your house they will most likely not believe that church is important.

Americans' identification with the Christian faith is in decline. In their new book, "The Great Dechurching," Jim Davis and Michael Graham detail how about "40 million adult Americans who used to go to church ... don't go anymore."

This is not a new phenomenon. Christians have always wrestled with remaining faithful. For example, the writer of Hebrews warns, "Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12).

Many of those who have left their previously professed faith might well have been merely "religious," never having been born a second time (see John 3:1-18) and active in their local churches due to family tradition, a desire to "do good," or things not grounded in a robust theology. 

Additionally, the seven "old line" Protestant churches are shrinking by the day -- and for good reason. Abandoning historic Christian teaching is not a matter of being "relevant" in a changing culture. It is the creation of an alternative religion cloaked in the language and rites of a discarded faith.

There are other reasons. Some believers have been so passionate about the cultural crisis we are in that they have prioritized political victory over eternal values. We decry ends justifying means, but in recent years some of us have been more concerned with electoral outcomes than biblical faithfulness. 

As a result, our professed allegiance to scriptural virtues has been compromised by our desperation to save our nation. I plead guilty to falling prey to this mindset more than I would like to admit. So, for many (especially younger) Christians, disillusionment has been the result of our putting winning over character: we decried Bill Clinton's sordidness but have made excuses when "our guys" -- those who pledge allegiance to the things we cherish -- match Clinton's manifest crudeness.

Then there's the cost of being a disciple. No one wants to be misrepresented, castigated, or disliked. Yet to affirm something as simple as marriage as the union of a man and a woman can be personally and professionally costly. Like the seed that fell on rocky ground, some self-proclaimed Christians wilt under the heat of aspersion, however unjustified.

With this, we're sometimes almost frantic in our efforts to be "relevant". While liberal churches are eager to be seen as "progressive," some evangelical churches believe that snazzy sneakers and smoke machines are more needed than sound exposition of the Word of God. While rock concert-like glitz entertains, substituting it for true worship and teaching is like drinking a soft drink while eating popcorn: temporarily filling and enjoyable but ultimately empty.

Finally, there's our failure to adequately teach our youth not only the great truths of "the faith once delivered" to us (Jude 3) but why these truths are life-giving if properly understood and applied. For example, most evangelical young people understand they should remain sexually abstinent until marriage, but asking them why discloses a good bit of uncertainty. I know; I teach young people from strong Christian homes. 

As often as not, they cannot articulate why their expressed convictions have a grounding in Scripture, common sense, and so forth. The bland acceptance of what one has been taught won't last in the aggressive godlessness of our time.

Here;  The Great Dechurching - Americans No Longer Identifying With Christian Faith (prophecynewswatch.com)

For those folks who believe that America can continue to be great without possessing the FEAR OF THE LORD, we would strongly disagree.  By all appearances from many, many sectors of American life, it would appear that America is reaching the end of greatness.

Of course America is not mentioned anywhere in Last Days prophecy.  So where did she go?  As we have said many times in previous posts, we believe that the "full faith and confidence" in America and our financial system will quickly vanish when millions of Christ followers vanish to go meet Christ in the clouds.  So encourage each other with those words.

France on the Verge of Chaos

 Islam has invaded France.  It wasn't an invasion like D-Day but instead happened slowly over decades.  Muslims made their way as immigrants into the country.  They eventually built over 1500 mosques and lived in close proximity to each other.  Eventually when there were enough Muslims in one spot they started acting like their own little Muslim country within France.  They established NO GO zones where police were not allowed to come in and enforce French laws and started operating their own sharia law zones.

Now over the past few weeks there has been chaos, cars torched, buildings burned and riots in the streets.

Islam is not a religion of peace as so many falsely claim.  It's a religion with adherents who are after conquest.  They want the entire world to bow to Allah and Muhammad.  If you refuse there will be severe consequences.

The riots grew bigger. Schools and theaters were destroyed.... churches were burned to the ground; graffiti in red paint on a church in Marseilles declared: "Mohammed was the last prophet". Bank branches were ransacked and ATMs opened with chainsaws. Slogans were shouted: "death to the police", "death to France", "death to the Jews!"

"We are Muslims," one angry protester shouted, "if the police kill us we have the right to kill; it is written in the Koran!"

Since the 1970s, France has welcomed an ever-increasing number of immigrants from the Muslim world... Only a tiny minority have assimilated into French society. The others live as they lived in their countries of origin. — Sorbonne University Professor Bernard Rougier, author of the book Les territoires conquis de l'islamisme ("The Conquered Territories of Islamism").

Radical imams came from the Muslim world and allege that France is guilty of having colonized their countries, that Muslims should continue to live according to the law of Islam and that, in the imams' view, France should pay for its crimes. Many politicians have told the newcomers that France is racist and had exploited them.

Criminal gangs formed and began ruling these neighborhoods. Radical imams justified the gangs' criminal activities by claiming that the French must pay for what they did in the Muslim world. French political leaders closed their eyes. Meanwhile, these Muslim neighborhoods have grown and crime from them increased.

During the riots of 2005, then President Jacques Chirac asked imams to restore calm and promised to give even more money to Muslim neighborhoods. The police were ordered not to intervene in them at all; they fell entirely under the control of gangs and imams. It was then that these neighborhoods effectively became lawless "no-go zones" (zones urbaines sensibles), of which there are 750.

President Emmanuel Macron suggested that creating a "French Islam," supposedly quite different from Islam in the rest of the world, would be the solution, but he quickly gave up on that plan. He then said he wanted to fight against what he called "Islamic separatism" (the no-go zones, neighborhoods where Muslims live separately from the rest of the population). He, too, has done nothing.

Macron seems to imagine that he has found explanations for these problems: Parents of rioters, he said, do not exercise their parental authority, and video games poison the minds of young people. His comments seemed completely disconnected from reality...

"The violence is increasing day by day... those who run our country must imperatively find the courage necessary to eradicate the dangers." — Open letter by 20 retired French army generals to the French government and Macron, April 26, 2023.

Here;  France on the Verge of Chaos? :: Gatestone Institute

What is mankind's biggest sin?  Rejecting Jesus.  Islam does nothing to lead it's followers to the real Jesus.  The Jesus who is God, who died on a cross carrying all our sins, who was resurrected from the dead and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

"You are either for me or against me.  You are either gathering or scattering."--Jesus

It's clear what side of the equation that Islam falls on.  They are lost and need Jesus just like everyone else.  France, as a nation, has very few followers of Christ so they have very little capacity to restrain evil through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

It will be interesting to see what happens here as President Emmanuel Macron tries to figure out what to do about all the Muslims who have invaded his country.

CDC Issues Guidance on "Chestfeeding"

 The liberals among us will simply nod and say, "yes, these seems very normal."  For conservatives we will read this and say, "No wonder we question the 'scientific ability' of the CDC when they are bowing to the cultural lunacy!  Only women with breasts can suckle babies!!"

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually has issued official guidance for "nonbinary" people on how to "chestfeed" infants. 

This latest woke lunacy isn't just a disturbing policy. In a larger sense, it demonstrates how powerful governmental institutions have been co-opted on behalf of a larger, elite-driven cultural revolution.

The CDC guidance, in isolation, is certainly disturbing.

The public health agency's website explains:

Some transgender parents who have had breast/top surgery may wish to breastfeed, or chestfeed (a term used by some transgender and non-binary parents) their infants. Healthcare providers working with these families should be familiar with medical, emotional, and social aspects of gender transitions to provide optimal family-centered care and meet the nutritional needs of the infant.

We are apparently supposed to believe that the secretions produced by these men interested in "chestfeeding"--many of whom are on serious hormones--is the same as it is for women, and that it's entirely safe for infants. 

But it seems there are some serious health risks here that the CDC is ignoring.

The CDC further noted that those identifying as transgender "may need help with ... maximizing milk production, supplementing with pasteurized donor human milk or formula, medication to induce lactation or avoiding medications that inhibit lactation, suppressing lactation (for those choosing not to breastfeed or chestfeed)..."

The guidance is drawing criticism from doctors who note that the hormone drugs taken by men wanting to "chestfeed" may be dangerous for the baby being fed. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that at least one of the hormone drugs frequently used "can pass into breast milk in small amounts and can sometimes give babies an irregular heartbeat as a result." 

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, told the Daily Mail that "we have no idea what the long-term effects on the child will be. ... The CDC has a responsibility to talk about the health risks, but they have been derelict in doing that."

Given the CDC's track record, it's not far-fetched to assume that not only are officials there conveniently overlooking some facts about the safety of "chestfeeding," they are prioritizing the desires of the radical transgender movement over the health of children.

Here;  CDC Continues Cultural Madness With Guidance Paper On 'Chestfeeding' (prophecynewswatch.com)

Words do matter!  What is a woman?  We don't know!  Is your newborn a boy or a girl?  We don't know!  What is that dude with a penis doing undressing with your little girls in the locker room??  We don't know!  How many mothers does this child have?  We can't know and we shouldn't even ask!  How many fathers does this child have??  We have no idea and its not appropriate to even ask.

It's ironic to me that the CDC reported Covid deaths during the pandemic as so many MALES and so many FEMALES.  So in their own reporting they acknowledged that there were only 2 genders who could possibly die of Covid.  And yet when it comes to talking about the science of males and females they suddenly can't tell the difference.

Expect this lunacy and delusion to get worse as the Day of Christ draws near.  Keep pushing back as we try to restrain the evil and delusion until the Restrainer dwelling in all believers is removed.