Tag Archive for: children

Biden Program May Have Helped Sex Traffickers ‘Exploit Women and Girls’: Congressional Report

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Human sex traffickers may have used a Biden administration program that imported tens of thousands of illegal immigrants a month into the United States “to exploit women and girls,” a congressional report has revealed.

In addition to breaking consecutive records for the largest number of border crossings in U.S. history, the Biden-Harris administration’s Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) program flew 30,000 illegal immigrants a month into the United States from those four nations alone.

“To mask the border crisis and artificially decrease historically high border encounters, President Biden and Vice President Harris implemented programs and policies that allowed aliens to bypass the southwest border so they would not be included as encounters in Border Patrol data,” notes the report, released by the House Judiciary Committee, titled “The Biden-Harris Administration’s CHNV Parole Program Two Years Later: A Fraud-Ridden, Unmitigated Disaster.”

“Sex traffickers have potentially used CHNV to exploit women and girls,” investigators found. “A fraud analysis of CHNV applications revealed that some applications that were sent from the same IP addresses were submitted on behalf of a high proportion of female CHNV aliens … raising concerns about potential sex trafficking. In one such case, 21 supporter applications were submitted from the same IP address on behalf of 18 females and only three males. At least six of the females were under the age of 18. Another concern surrounded the use of the same physical address by many supporters. According to the DHS analysis, 100 physical addresses were used at least 124 times each on behalf of 19,062 CHNV aliens.”

The report fuels concerns that the Biden-Harris administration has facilitated the heinous, illicit activities of human smugglers, drug cartels, and transnational criminal organizations. The administration is presently unable to account for 320,000 children whom it placed with U.S. sponsors after the minors crossed the border illegally.

U.S. taxpayers may also be paying welfare benefits to illegal immigrants brought into this country under CHNV. The report found Biden administration officials “approved CHNV supporters who admitted to receiving means-tested public benefits as part of their income listed as evidence that they can support a CHNV alien. Thus, American taxpayers may actually end up supporting CHNV aliens despite Biden-Harris Administration claims that those aliens will have supporters in the U.S.”

The Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Homeland Security temporarily halted the CHNV program in mid-July “out of an abundance of caution.” The pause coincided with the time Democratic leaders prevailed upon President Joe Biden to step aside and allow Kamala Harris to become the presidential nominee, out of fear his poor record on the economy and immigration would harm the party. The administration announced it would resume CHNV program flights in late August.

Before the mid-summer interruption, an internal investigation by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), obtained by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), uncovered evidence of significant fraud in CHNV, including the significant use of false Social Security numbers, including “666666666.” In addition:

  • 2,839 forms included non-existent zip codes.
  • 1,908 applications used fictitious phone numbers.
  • More than 1,800 applications featured the same, 184-word answer in response to a question.

“The most frequently used sponsor e-mail address was listed on 363 different forms. Further, the most frequently used parolee e-mail address was listed on 1,723 different forms collectively submitted by 477 different sponsors,” found FAIR.

The CHNV program approved applications by those who do not live in the four nations covered by that mass amnesty program, FAIR reported.

Critics say they are unsurprised by fraud, because the CHNV program itself is lawless. In 1996, Congress enacted a federal law — 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5)(A) — which allows the attorney general to parole illegal immigrants into the United States “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”

The Biden-Harris administration approved 650,200 applications from the CHNV program as of August 6.

Year-end numbers showed 2024 was the second-worst year for illegal immigration in U.S. history, with 2,901,142 illegal border crossings during the fiscal year, which began in October 2023.

The committee’s investigation “uncovered how the Biden-Harris Administration’s willingness to cast aside the best interests of Americans has enabled fraud, undermined national security, and endangered public safety, all in favor of ensuring that hundreds of thousands of otherwise illegal aliens can come to the U.S. through CHNV,” said the report.

Americans concerned with women’s and girls’ safety should support sealing the border and reversing illegal immigration, human rights advocates say. Polls show a majority of American (54%) support President-elect Donald Trump’s promises to begin mass deportations early in his second administration.

“This tragic reality underscores why the new administration’s promises to secure our borders, end the incentives for foreign nationals to put their lives at the mercy of ruthless criminals, and begin the process of removing Tren de Aragua and other brutal gangs from our soil are fully justified,” wrote Pawel Styrna, senior researcher at FAIR. “Those genuinely concerned about the welfare and safety of women and children should support secure borders and the rule of law, rather than misguided open-borders policies that empower and enrich cartels and gangs that force women, and even children, into prostitution.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The Government Has Become the ‘FedEx of Children from the Border to Traffickers’: Expert

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Experts are sounding the alarm on the fact that the sex trafficking of minors has more than tripled under the Biden-Harris administration. “Biden’s border policies have led to an explosion in the forced prostitution of migrants in the U.S.,” wrote The Free Press’s investigative reporter Madeleine Rowley. In fact, added an informant from the nonprofit Shepherd’s Watch, “Nearly all … sex-trafficking rings now are migrant girls,” with a notable explosion of online sex-trafficking ads of women “within the first three months of the border being open.”

During “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” last week, Rowley explained how there’s no doubt the rise in sex trafficking “is directly tied to Biden opening the border.” Criminals are smuggling women and girls “across the border promising them a better life, promising them jobs, only to trick them and force them into prostitution after they have crossed the border.” As Family Research Council President Tony Perkins highlighted, unaccompanied “minors … are entrapped in this” by being handed off by the federal government directly “into the custody of people who are going to abuse them and exploit them.”

According to Rowley’s research, there were roughly 137,000 unaccompanied minors that crossed the border in 2023 alone. “[T]he government is tasked with vetting the sponsors that these children are released to,” she said. While “a lot of the times they’re released to … people that they know,” they’re often “released to what they call ‘category ‘three sponsors’ or ‘unrelated sponsors,’” many of whom are unvetted or the ones doing the trafficking.

It’s “just absolutely shocking and heartbreaking that our government is facilitating the exploitation of women and children,” Perkins sighed. But as guest host Jody Hice explained on Friday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” “This story certainly has been going on for years,” which only makes it that much more shocking as “new details continue to emerge that paint an absolutely heartbreaking picture of the abuse that is taking place.”

“Within the last week,” Breitbart reported, “158 unaccompanied migrant children have been sent across the Rio Grande into the small town of Eagle Pass.” These children range between the ages of five and 17 years old. According to Tara Rodas, a whistleblower who formerly worked for the Department of Health and Human Services, this crisis is not merely being allowed by the government but is being fueled by the government. “[W]hat we now know,” said Rodas, is that this “is government sponsored, taxpayer-funded child trafficking.”

“I can assure you,” she stated, “I never thought I’d be saying that.” Hice agreed, “It’s just absolutely unthinkable.” He went on to note how if it were not for whistleblowers, such as Rodas, exposing these realities, “[W]e would not even be aware of what’s been going on.” Providing further details, Rodas explained how “at the beginning of 2021, the Biden-Harris administration made a call to all federal employees,” asking them to help with the crisis of unaccompanied minors crossing the border. Rodas volunteered to offer a hand.

“I thought I was going to be coloring and doing puzzles with children,” she said. “I’m a Spanish speaker, and I thought I could be that person who would be there to greet the children and, … find out what are their plans about coming to America and living the American dream.” However, “it didn’t take very long for those illusions to evaporate,” Rodas explained, because the “children began to tell us the truth.” What those kids revealed is that many of them did not know who they were being sent to. It became clear, as Rodas described, that they were “lured here under the promise that they’re going to” get rich, only to get thrown into “modern day slavery.”

Through her first-hand experience with these children, Rodas detailed how they had “reported being sexually abused [and] being pimped out by their sponsors” — some of which “are actually gang members” from “violent criminal organizations.” It’s nothing short of “horrific,” she sighed, especially considering that taxpayer dollars are going into “vulnerable children … being shipped to known bad actors.” It’s as if we’ve become “the FedEx of children from the border to traffickers,” she lamented.

“[I]t’s a shocking story,” Rodas contended, and “people need to know about” it. “This is not humanitarian. This isn’t helping the children. They’re in slavery.” And this is why it’s appropriate to call it “government sponsored, taxpayer funded child trafficking,” Hice added, arguing how it explains how “such a horrifying thing has now become a partisan issue.” Rodas agreed, noting that “everybody should want to protect and defend children.”

Ultimately, Rodas argued, “[I]f you’re not in the box of protect and defend children … that puts you outside of all political realms.” This crisis is not a matter of red and blue, she insisted, but “we’re talking about good versus evil.” The problem is that “failed policies and policy makers” are at the heart of this “crisis because they rolled back the ability for people to come across the border,” she described. “They made it simple so that vetting is not being done. And then they opened the floodgates for these children to come across” and be taken to criminals.

It’s “unbelievable,” Hice groaned. In order to stop this crisis from getting worse, Rodas urged, “We need people who are going to put sane policies in place. We need to rescue children, and we need to seriously prosecute criminals.” And we also need people, Hice concluded, who are willing to continue putting a “spotlight on this and … deal with it courageously.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Michelle Obama Endorses Porn in Schools and Transing Kids on DNC Day 2

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Former First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated “children” identifying as transgender, vilified concerned parents’ efforts to remove pornographic books from children’s sections of school libraries, and embraced life-destroying fertility methods during the most celebrated speech of the Democratic National Convention to date Tuesday night. Her husband, former president Barack Obama, promised a Harris-Walz administration would sign a bill extending abortion to all 50 states. Kamala Harris made a virtual appearance to accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Here are the most notable events of the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

Michelle Obama Supports Transing Kids, Porn in Schools, Abortion, Bible Verses

Democratic delegates gave the warmest welcome of the evening to former First Lady Michelle Obama, who supported transgenderism for children and derided parental efforts to safeguard underage children from exposure to pornography — often LGBTQ porn — in graphic novels aimed at pre-teens and adolescents as “banning our books.”

“Demonizing our children for being who they are and loving who they love, look, that doesn’t make anybody’s life better,” she declared, using euphemisms to endorse child transgender confusion. The vast majority of Americans believe children should not be subjected to the experimental products of the predatory transgender industry — including potentially-sterilizing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and life-altering surgeries.

“Shutting down the Department of Education, banning our books — none of that will prepare our kids for the future,” Michelle declared as an audience of Democratic VIPs roared in approval. Nationwide, parents have objected that minors should be able to check out books like “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe — which features “detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy,” as well as “fellatio, sex toys, masturbation, and violent nudity” — and “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, which “describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male” and remembering the experience fondly.

Parents have asked public school administrators to return these books to an age-restricted part of the library, where minors cannot be exposed to them without parental permission. Yet in recent years liberals have so objected to protecting children’s innocence that beleaguered parents have felt forced to defend themselves.

“I’m not looking to ban books or burn books,” one such parent, Bruce Friedman, told “Washington Watch” host Tony Perkins. “It’s not Kristallnacht.”

On Tuesday, Michelle Obama also made one of her first public statements that she conceived one or more of her children through in vitro fertilization. “Cutting our health care, taking away our freedom to control our bodies, the freedom to become a mother through IVF, like I did — those things are not going to improve the health outcomes of our wives, mothers and daughters,” said the former first lady.

She was one of several Democratic speakers who attacked a non-existent “ban” on IVF. “If they win, Republicans won’t stop at banning abortion. They’ll come for IVF next,” averred Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) earlier in the evening. “They’ll prosecute doctors. They’ll shame and spy on women. If you think that’s far-fetched, just look up what happened in Alabama this year.” In reality, the Alabama Supreme Court did not ban IVF. Its 8-1 ruling allowed grieving parents to file a civil lawsuit against an IVF clinic where unauthorized personnel killed the frozen embryos of wanted children the parents had stored in the facility under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

Most children conceived by IVF are abandoned or destroyed in time. Statistics show “93% of the embryos created through IVF never result in a live birth,” noted Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council.

Michelle Obama’s abortion-affirming comments came moments after she praised late mother, Marian Shields Robinson, who taught her “that all children, all people have value,” as well as to “do unto others” as you would have them do unto you and to “love thy neighbor.” The Obamas and others also supported sexual liberation. “We believe the government should help you prosper, not police who you’re sleeping with,” declared Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.

As the crowd hooted its approval, conservative critics bristled at her remarks. “Michelle Obama is a gifted orator. But she’s fanning the flames of race and class conflict, and hurling some really unfair accusations,” assessed Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). “She’s railing on those who ‘go small’ and ‘hit low,’ but that’s exactly what she’s doing. She’s doing everything she purports to oppose.” Brigitte Gabriel, a former host of Pat Robertson’s “World News,” called Michelle Obama “[t]he most divisive and hateful First Lady in U.S. history.”

Barack Obama: Harris Will Sign a National Abortion Expansion Bill

Michelle Obama concluded her speech by introducing her husband, former President Barack Obama, who promised that, if elected, Kamala Harris will sign a bill expanding abortion-on-demand to all 50 states.

Barack Obama said Kamala Harris, whom Michelle Obama called “my girl,” is “running for president with real plans” beginning on day one. She will “sign a law to guarantee every woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” the Democratic Party’s preferred euphemism for abortion. Harris has not endorsed any protection for unborn children at any moment until birth. Barack Obama called this a sign of “freedom.”

“We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life — how we worship, what our family looks like, how many kids we have, who we marry,” he thundered. “And we believe that freedom requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make choices that are different than ours.” Obama later opined that former President Donald Trump “doesn’t seem to care if more women lose their reproductive freedoms since it won’t affect his life.”

Abortion, under the term “reproductive rights,” recurred throughout day two of the DNC. “Do we want a Republican Senate that assaults reproductive freedoms?” asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Schumer attempted to deflect allegations that the Democratic Party has a problem with Jewish voters, pointing to a tiny blue patch pinned to his blue suit. “Donald Trump, this is a guy who peddles anti-Semitic stereotypes,” insisted Schumer about Trump, whose daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner and giving their three children a Jewish upbringing.

Obama, who retains an oversized impact on the administration’s policy, apparently filled in part of the Harris-Walz foreign policy agenda. “We shouldn’t be the world’s policemen,” said Obama, who sent U.S. troops to fight in Libya without congressional authorization, an operation that resulted in Muammar Qaddafi being replaced by terrorists affiliated with ISIS. The issues tab of Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential election website remains empty.

Shortly before slamming politicians who “scold and shame and out yell the other side,” Obama made a hand gesture apparently intending to minimize the size of President Donald Trump’s genitalia.

DNC Abortion Toll Reportedly Climbs to 25: ‘Satan Is Pleased’

These events transpired as the death toll at Planned Parenthood’s mobile unit outside the Democratic National Convention reportedly climbed to 25. Multiple sources on the ground said Planned Parenthood officials told them the number of free abortions they carried out had risen by 15 on Tuesday.

“CONFIRMED: 25 babies have been killed by Planned Parenthood at the DNC,” reported Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America at 7:38 p.m. EST Tuesday evening.

Riley Gaines mourned the loss of the first day, posting, “10 child sacrifices on day 1 of DNC. Satan is pleased.” Author David Limbaugh posted the words of Romans 1:18-25, which begins by declaring, “the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.”

“Planned Parenthood is at the DNC, handing out chemical abortions that kill a baby by starving the developing child of nutrients. Share the Abortion Pill Reversal hotline 877-558-0333 and help save a life!” implored Lila Rose, founder of Live Action.

Harris Appears to Accept Presidential Nomination, Skips Husband’s Speech

Even though Democratic delegates formally nominated Kamala Harris for president with a virtual vote last month, the second evening of the DNC featured delegates going through a roll call vote, complete with a DJ soundtrack.

One of the New Jersey delegates — a man dressed in drag who announced he uses “pronouns she/her/hers” as he took the mic — stated, “I’m proud to stand with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, because they stand with the LGBTQ community!” California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), thought to be a leading rival to Harris had the Democrats held an open primary instead of allowing President Joe Biden to coronate Harris last month, declared California “the great state of Nancy Pelosi.” He went on to insist that “Kamala Harris has always done the right thing,” including advancing “LGBTQ rights, the rights of women and girls” before casting his state’s votes for Harris.

Harris, who made a brief in-person appearance at the first day of the DNC, made a virtual appearance from Milwaukee on day two to accept the redundant nomination.

Harris did not show up at all for the speech of her husband, Doug Emhoff, skipping his fawning, family-focused address. Emhoff praised his blended family and acknowledged his divorce, although he did not mention the baby he conceived with his children’s nanny, who apparently either aborted Emhoff’s child or placed the child in adoption. Kamala Harris “connected me more deeply with my faith, even though it’s different from hers,” said Emhoff, who is Jewish.

Former President Bill Clinton and presumptive vice presidential candidate Tim Walz are scheduled to speak Wednesday.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Kamala Harris thinks I should be too scared of climate change to have children

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Apparently, Kamala Harris thinks “climate anxiety” should give young adults, including myself, a reason to hesitate when it comes to having children.

A video from 2023 has resurfaced, showing Harris describing this “climate anxiety” as “the fear of the future and the unknown of whether it makes sense for you to even think about having children.”

Of course, instead of rejecting this aversion to children, Harris validates it. She affirms the fear that the world isn’t fit for more children to come into it. She then launches into the litany of measures that the Biden Administration has implemented to “save the planet” (AKA spending millions of USD on measures that will do little to nothing).

This is not what my generation needs. For a generation inundated with climate change fear-mongering, exacerbated by the Internet and social media, the last thing we need is affirmation that avoiding children is a logical response.

Indoctrinated

Since I was a child, I have been warned about my effect on the environment. Generation Z has borne the brunt of the propaganda of the climate change movement in the 21st century.

Even going to a private Catholic school, I remember watching mandatory videos describing our “carbon footprint”. One memorable scene involved a mountain of diapers. At nine years old, I was being warned about the massive waste that would be wrought by bringing a baby into this world. The consequences for the Earth were simply unimaginable.

Now, as someone who grew up with great parents, as well as the strong desire to become a mother myself, this kind of climate propaganda didn’t sway me and my desire to have a family. I’d grown up knowing that humans aren’t just creators of waste. We are innovators who devise ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle (to use some of the common phraseology). I knew we were called to be stewards of the Earth, and I planned on doing so.

But while I knew that taking care of the Earth didn’t translate to not having children, not all of the millions of other members in my generation understood that. While I knew that taking care of the Earth actually requires people, stewards entrusted with this responsibility by God, a majority of my generation swallowed the message not to reproduce. Hook, line and sinker.

A 2021 study from The Lancet found that a majority of young adults (age 16 to 25) around the world are concerned about “climate change”. The result? It leaves them “vulnerable to climate anxiety”. The participants were spread across ten countries, but on average, 59 percent were very or “extremely worried” about climate change, and 84 percent were at least “moderately worried”.

Many of the participants also reported a high number of negative thoughts about climate change. For example, 75 percent said that they think the future is frightening, and 83 percent said that they think people have failed to take care of the planet.

The study also found that 39.1 percent of the participants felt that climate fear would make them hesitant to have children.

This is why we do not need more affirmation from Kamala Harris encouraging my generation not to reproduce.

Antinatalist

Of course, Kamala Harris has made it clear, in many different ways, that she does not want more children coming into this world. Actually, she recently stated, “Women are getting pregnant every day in America, and this is a real issue.”

Not only does Harris believe that abortion is a right, she believes her so-called “right to abortion” is a woman’s most fundamental right.

Then there’s her “Reproductive Freedom Tour”, which kicked off in January of this year. No approach has been off the table when it comes to this campaign for abortion.

Harris brought her campaign to a Planned Parenthood in Minnesota.

She’s even roped in celebrities like John Legend’s wife, Chrissy Teigen, to get more attention and influence in her war against the unborn.

Whether it’s urging young people not to conceive children because of climate change or convincing vulnerable women to abort the children they have conceived, Harris achieves her goal of reducing the population.

Harris has not officially confirmed that population reduction is one of her goals, despite her infamous “reduce population” slip-up at an event on “Combatting Climate Change and Building a Clean Energy Economy.”

But, whether or not she has explicitly stated population reduction as a goal, she is getting it as a result of her efforts. Alongside the other results, including a terrified and anxious Generation Z, thousands of women physically and mentally harmed by abortion, and thousands of unborn lives snuffed out in utero.

Let’s be clear, Harris believes that young people, people like my husband, me, and our peers, should be questioning whether or not we should bring children into this world because of “climate change”. So what? That should not influence our decisions in these matters. I am determined to educate my peers and the generations younger than me on this. Fear should not prevent strong marriages and strong families.

Sorry (but not sorry) to disappoint you Kamala, but my decision to have children is between myself, my husband, and God.

There will never be a time when Kamala Harris’s opinion is going to enter the conversation when we are deciding to bring a little life, hopefully many little lives, into this world.

Do concerns about climate change factor into your family planning? Leave your thoughts below.

AUTHOR

Chiara McKenna is a New Media Specialist at the Population Research Institute.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Mercator column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Man and the Motive: Behind Musk’s War on the ‘Woke Mind Virus’

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When California enacted a school secrecy pact last week, businessman Elon Musk responded with surprising intensity. The law, which would require school personnel to lie to parents about their child’s gender identity, as The Washington Stand reported, was “the final straw” for Musk, who announced plans to relocate his businesses’ headquarters to Texas (Tesla’s headquarters relocated to Texas in 2021, but now SpaceX and X are set to follow).

Those were the facts as reported last week, but they lacked a satisfactory explanation — they didn’t seem to fit Musk’s character. The sudden declaration would be expected from a conservative culture warrior — a Pat Buchanan acolyte perhaps, or an explicitly strident investment firm like Strive Asset Management. By contrast, Musk made his fortune pioneering electric vehicles, before turning to private spaceship construction, and eventually acquiring a social media giant — not the standard portfolio for a conservative culture warrior. Beyond all that, one does not become the world’s richest man by making dramatic, seemingly impulsive business decisions without an apparent profit motive.

The facts were there, but the question remained: How does a liberal businessman from Silicon Valley transform into a culture warrior against transgender ideology?

Musk supplied the answer in an interview with Jordan Peterson published yesterday.

When asked why he is willing to make an issue of gender ideology, Musk replied, “It happened to one of my older boys.” During the COVID confusion, he explained, “I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier,” to obtain puberty blockers. “This is before I had any understanding of what was going on,” he added, “and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t.” Musk added, “It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are essentially sterilization drugs.”

Musk’s oldest surviving child — one of his twins conceived through IVF — officially changed his name to a feminine one the day after turning 18. He also took his mother’s last name to avoid being associated with Musk.

“So, I lost my son, essentially,” mused Musk. “They call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason. The reason they call it that is that your son is dead. So my son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus. … So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.”

Musk clearly loves his children, 11 of whom survived infancy. And it seems losing one of his children to a destructive ideology turned an otherwise neutral businessman into a combatant.

This is the story of countless parents who lack the fame, fortune, or platform of Elon Musk. “There’s lots of people in that situation now,” Peterson responded. “It’s not pretty. And lots of demolished kids.”

Ending the provision of harmful gender transition procedures to minors is a popular, commonsense position with growing momentum. The number grows daily of parents and detransitioners who experience Musk’s revulsion against these horrors and are mobilized against them. Protecting children in this way is a good, moral, and just hill to die on, although the growing support indicates stalwart defenders of this hill may not die there after all. While the 2024 Republican platform unfortunately omits this issue, it is consistent with other policy priorities and worth the fight.

While a loving father and an ally to conservative Christians on the issue of gender transition procedures to minors, readers should be under no illusion that Musk’s political journey has been accompanied by a religious conversion, nor that he is socially conservative across the board. In the same interview, Musk called himself a “cultural Christian” like Richard Dawkins. He said that “the teachings of Jesus are good and wise” and called forgiveness “essential,” but he also put caveats around the teaching of Scripture and said he is “not a particularly religious person.”

But Jesus did not allow people to think of him merely as a good and wise teacher. Jesus claimed to be God. If Jesus’s claim was true, then he must be worshiped as Lord. If it was false, then Jesus ought to be considered a liar and a charlatan, no proper source of ethical wisdom.

Essentially, Musk admires Christian teaching, but he has not received it for himself. In his personal life, Musk is unconstrained by a biblical worldview of human sexuality; he has divorced two women three times and has children by at least four different women. He remains on the outside looking in, unable to access the great benefits of Christianity, including eternal life, which are only available through faith in Jesus Christ and submission to him as Lord.

In the unlikely event that Mr. Musk ever reads this, I would urge him to continue thinking about the theme of forgiveness. In particular, I would urge him to consider his own need for forgiveness, not from any other human being, but from a holy creator God. I would urge him to reflect on his inability to earn that forgiveness, but also on the freedom with which it is offered in Christ.

In other words, I would urge Musk to believe in Christ, and I hope and pray that the only true God works to that effect in his heart. Socially conservative Christians are grateful for Musk’s aid in prosecuting a culture war against gender ideology, but we want something more for him — for his own good. We seek his eternal happiness and salvation, and we “have believed, and have come to know” (John 6:69) that such happiness and salvation can only be found through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for Musk, for every victim of gender ideology, and for every Christian too.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Are Publishing Giants Pulling Back from Pushing LGBT Material?

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In June, Scholastic, the world’s largest children’s book publishing company, put their push for LGBT ideology front and center when they released their 2024 guide to their “Read with Pride” initiative. As reported by The Washington Stand, the guide was to be a “resource” for “supporting LGBTQIA+ youth” by promoting books with radical ideological themes, including transgenderism and taking relationships “to the next level” with sexual intercourse. It also had a glossary of definitions for LGBT terminology such as “agender,” “allocishet,” and “genderfluid.” And yet, despite their unapologetic stance on this agenda, recent developments have caused some to wonder if the company has begun to pull back.

In addition to Scholastic, Pearson, the world’s largest academic publisher, has also prominently promoted LGBT material. But as The Washington Times reported last week, both publishing giants seem to “have distanced themselves from a push to replace biological sex with gender identity in K-12 classroom discussions.” This came after The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Research Fellow in Education Policy Jonathan Butcher exposed Scholastic’s promotion of LGBT ideology to “small children.” As The Washington Times added, Scholastic’s controversial guide “vanished” from their “website at the end of June without explanation, leaving only the ‘Read with Pride’ page” — the section containing the book recommendations.

Scholastic spokeswoman Anne Sparkman insisted the “Read with Pride Guide was a resource for adults available for Pride Month and is not a textbook for students.” However, those who saw the guide while it was still available online have pointed out that it specifically emphasized it had information and recommended materials geared toward “educators, caregivers, and advocates” and children as young as pre-school.

Similarly, Pearson’s editorial guidelines on “genderism” and “antiracism” were also exposed by Butcher last year, which they removed shortly after. According to Butcher, “The pushback on these ideas is strong and the publishers don’t know how to defend them when reporters, policy analysts or parents question what they are doing.” Considering this, he finds it unsurprising that they’re slowly removing some of their most controversial content. And as Sheri Few, founder and president of U.S. Parents Involved in Education, emphasized, “Not everyone is going along with this illusion that there are more than two sexes, both of which are biologically determined.”

In comment to TWS, Joseph Backholm, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement, added to Butcher and Few’s sentiments: “We’ve seen a lot of evidence the public is pushing back against the Sexual Revolution.” As he explained, “The public was convinced to go along with it on the basis of ‘tolerance,’” but as time goes on, it’s become increasingly clear this is “a movement that aggressively recruits children.”

According to Backholm, “The public didn’t want it then and doesn’t want it now,” which could likely “be part of the reason we are seeing modest retreats in cases like” Scholastic and Pearson. Ultimately, “They’ve reached further than the public is willing to tolerate.” But even amid what seems to be a drawback from these leftist publishers, Backholm noted that “it might be one step back before they take two steps forward.”

“Of course,” he continued, “it’s good they’re being less aggressive, but … the Sexual Revolution has made most of its progress by behaving in ways that are shocking, retreating slightly, and then doing the same or worse in the near future when the public is no longer shocked.” Given this pattern, Backholm explained that “if we’re really going to solve the problem of grooming kids, we’re going to have to start actively pursuing what is good rather than focusing on how much evil we’re willing to tolerate.”

Backholm noted “human history teaches us” that enough exposure to something — even something harmful — can cause that practice to become normalized. For instance, “If we see children’s books grooming kids enough, it ceases to be shocking so we cease to resist.” However, he added, “if our standard is creating an environment that is good for children,” then “we won’t get used to things that harm them” — even if a large portion of society has allowed it to become commonplace.

“We must resist evil,” Backholm concluded, “but more than that, we must pursue what is good. If we are actively pursuing what is good, we’ll never get used to what is evil.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Just 19% of Biden Supporters Say Marriage and Childbearing Should Be a Societal Priority

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A new survey has revealed that widening cultural polarization between Republican and Democratic voters is becoming increasingly evident as the November election approaches. On key hot-button issues regarding marriage and family, abortion, gun ownership, race, immigration, and biological sex, Biden and Trump supporters are displaying widely divergent worldviews.

The poll results, released last week by the Pew Research Center, surveyed over 8,000 adults (including over 7,000 registered voters) in early April. The survey “examines the political values of the Biden and Trump coalitions that underlie policy attitudes in many of these areas,” wrote Pew.

For electoral analysts like Family Research Council Action Director Matt Carpenter, one statistic on the views that supporters of the Democratic president have on marriage and family particularly stands out.

“If you want to understand why Americans are so divided, look no further than how partisanship affects views on family formation and childbearing,” Carpenter told The Washington Stand. “Just 19% of Biden voters say society is better off if people make marriage and having children a priority, compared to 59% of Trump voters. If Americans are so divided on something as basic as forming families and having children, then it stands to reason there is not much else that would bring us together.”

The Left’s continued unrelenting support for abortion on demand likely plays into its apathy toward children. Pew reported that “88% of Biden supporters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases,” compared to 38% of Trump supporters who say the same.

Other cultural issues that exhibited the starkest divide included the Second Amendment, with 23% of Biden supporters agreeing with the statement, “Gun ownership does more to increase safety by allowing law-abiding citizens to protect themselves,” compared to 86% of Trump supporters.

Race also proved to be a divisive issue, with 27% of Trump supporters agreeing with the statement, “The legacy of slavery affects the position of Black people in American society today a great deal/fair amount,” compared to 79% of Biden supporters.

Pew’s findings regarding the debate over Biden’s open border policies, which has consistently proven to be among the most concerning issues for voters, also showed a significant chasm between conservatives and liberals. In response to a statement that is almost certainly a veiled reference to the border debate (“America’s openness to people from all over the world is essential to who we are as a nation”), 36% of Trump supporters agreed, compared to 87% of Biden supporters.

The debate over transgenderism also proved to be particularly polarizing, with only 9% of Trump supporters agreeing with the biasly-worded pro-transgender statement, “Someone can be a man or a woman even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth,” compared to 59% of Biden supporters. However, Pew went on to note that the overall American trend toward supporting the idea that biological sex can be changed appears to be reversing. “[A] growing share of voters (65%) say that whether a person is a man or woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth,” the report stated.

Another area that Americans appear to be broadly at odds over is the proper response to rising crime and lawlessness, with 40% of Biden supporters agreeing with the statement, “The criminal justice system in this country is generally not tough enough on criminals,” compared to 81% of Trump supporters.

But what most concerned Carpenter about Pew’s survey was the fact that only one in five Democrats appear to acknowledge that marriage and childbearing are the foundation for a society’s future.

“The progressive Left would be wise to try to turn their apathy around on family and kids — those two things are essential for the future of any community, nation, or civilization,” he emphasized. “If they want to keep arguing with conservatives on things like immigration, the economy, the Second Amendment, etc. in the future, they would do well to make sure there are some of them around in the future for that debate.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Campaign Plans to Appear at 200+ Pride Events in June

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

How I’m preparing my children for World War III

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No one wants to see their child go off to war. But as a former intelligence officer and mother of two young sons, I’ve given a lot of thought to, well, the topic of war.

I’ve considered the possibility that, if a global conflict broke out, my sons may find themselves suddenly called upon to defend the nation. So, if World War III does occur, here are five ways that I plan to prepare my sons.

1. Remembering my duty as a mother

The first way that I am preparing for the possibility of World War III in my children’s lifetime is by reminding myself that my duty as a mother is actually not to keep my children out of harm’s way.

That’s right — it’s not actually a mother’s job to keep her children from harm. Rather, it’s a mother’s job to ensure that her children know how to properly confront danger.

This is a lesson that I wrestled with quite a bit while experiencing some of the ugliness of war in my previous job, and comprehending the full gravity of a parent’s responsibility actually provided a great deal of spiritual peace and clarity: Not only is it impossible for parents to rid the world of dangers and horrors such as war, but it is not what we are meant to do.

What is within our power, and what we should do, is raise our children to have the fortitude to weather even the most terrible storms. And that’s a remarkable, albeit frightening, duty and privilege that I have as a mother.

Practically speaking, this means that I am constantly reorienting my attitude as a parent; rather than thinking, how can I make sure my children never come across/experience/have to worry about X, I try instead to think, how can I raise my children to know best how to deal with/change/confront X.

2. Teaching timeless values

Second, I will teach my children to hold firm to their values despite what others think. They should know that public opinion about a conflict can and will change. If they resolve to answer their nation’s call and go to war, they need to understand that not all people will deem them heroes.

As such, their resolve, their sense of duty to their nation, and their moral compass must always be stronger than public opinion (indeed, if their conviction to act can be swayed by public opinion, they need to carefully re-evaluate their conviction). The U.S. saga in Vietnam is a good way to illustrate this.

3. Studying history

This brings me to my third point: I’ll be teaching my children not only to be students of the Vietnam War but of the entire history of war. A knowledge of how and why people historically have taken up arms not only familiarizes children with common military tactics and strategies, but, more importantly, it tells a lot about humanity itself. Humanity’s history of violent conflict may offer the best (if not the most sordid) illustrations of both the darkest and the noblest aspects of human nature.

Because my children could see conflict in the Pacific theatre involving China, I want them to study Chinese history, especially Mao Zedong’s Marxist theories and how his policies left millions dead. I want them to understand the tyranny that the Chinese people have lived through in China’s recent past so that they have both a sense of compassion for Chinese civilians and an understanding of the brutality of the Chinese Communist regime and its disregard for human dignity, which may help prepare them for any atrocities they may encounter.

4. Learning from everyday heroes as well as renowned ones

I will ensure that my children study warriors and heroes, both fictional and historical. They will know the stories of figures like King David, Achilles, Spartacus, Sun Tzu, George Washington, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Harriet Tubman (not many people know that she was a Union spy and scout!), the Tuskegee Airmen, and Winston Churchill, just to name a few that jump to mind.

Familiarizing youth with warriors and heroes should not, however, be limited to heroes of great renown, so I’ll also encourage my children to seek out and learn from the more “everyday” war heroes, such as the elderly stranger with the “Vietnam veteran” cap with whom my child may strike up a conversation when they meet one another by happenstance.

Though by no means without their faults, these warriors and heroes—including those unrecognized or unappreciated ones around us—impress upon children the beauty of noble actions, especially in a divisive, politically charged time.

5. Raising children of faith

Finally, and most importantly, I plan to emphasise to my children that the Christian faith that my husband and I strive to pass on to them holds everything they need to face the greatest challenges in life, including death. It’s significant that in the following famous passage from his letter to the Ephesians, Paul used armour and battle imagery to illustrate the Christian’s need to be prepared:

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Paul knew that the Christian life is not an easy one. It will call for, as we say so often in defence and intelligence circles, “resilience”.

According to Paul, this spiritual and mental strength — or resilience — comes through aligning oneself with truth, living righteously, spreading the gospel’s peace wherever possible, and living by faith, emboldened by trust in our salvation.

Although modern firepower is quite horrific, the spiritual forces of evil are actually a more insidious foe. If our faith gives us what we need to stand against even the invisible “rulers and authorities” of the spiritual realm, then we certainly have the mental and spiritual resiliency to stand against adversarial human forces in an earthly conflict. The Gospel of Matthew tells us, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

Just as teaching children when and how to confront danger is actually good parenting, so, too, confronting the inevitability of death is an integral part of a life well lived. Because we need not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, evil cannot ultimately prevail. Victory is not determined on a battlefield, but in the soul of man and man’s relationship with the divine.

I strive to teach my children (and myself!) the simple truth that if we’re right with God, we will have the mental and spiritual resilience to withstand whatever the world throws at us, even if it be World War III.

This article has been republished under a Creative Commons licence from Intellectual Takeout. 

Are you and your family mentally prepared for war? Comment below.

AUTHOR

REBEKAH BILLS

Rebekah Bills served four years as a civilian intelligence officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency, earning 6 Individual Act Awards, DIA’s Science and Technology Mission Enabler Award, and the Director’s Personal Coin. Now — her best assignment to date — she cares for her two young sons, Gabriel and Emmanuel, and her exuberant Great Dane puppy, Beowulf.

The views/statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed in this article are strictly the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Government.

EDITORS NOTE: This Mercator column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

State-Sponsored Qatari Children’s Magazine Justifies Terror, Incites Against Jews, Israel and the U.S.

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Qatar | Special Dispatch No. 11336

Since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 terror attack and the outbreak of the ensuing war in Gaza, Jassim, a Qatari monthly magazine for children issued by the state-sponsored Dar Al-Sharq Group, has been publishing content that justifies terror and violence against Israel, as well as antisemitic content. Poems and comics featured in the magazine since October 7 incite against Jews and against Israel, deny Israel’s right to exist, condone terror against Israel, which is termed “Palestinian resistance” and even encourage the readers to seek martyrdom and attain Paradise. One of the comic strips also demonized the U.S., depicting it as a serpent baring its fangs to defend Israel.

The magazine issues published since October 7 include many maps of Palestine from the river to the sea, which deny Israel’s existence. In addition, one issue contained an illustration of a child holding a key, which symbolizes the Palestinians’ desire to return to the homes in Israel in which they lived before the 1948 war.[1]

This incitement in the Jassim children’s magazine is another expression of hostility towards Israel and support for Hamas in the Qatari press, which has been especially conspicuous since the October 7 attack, [2]  and joins the incitement evident in the Qatari school curricula.[3]

This report presents examples of antisemitic content and incitement to terror and violence against Israel in the Qatari children’s magazine Jassim.

Justifying Terror Against Israel While Adopting Hamas’ Red Triangle Symbol

Comic strips published in the Jassim magazine in the recent months justify Palestinian “resistance” against Israel, namely Hamas’ terror against it, including the October 7 attack. One of the comic strips even adopted the inverted red triangle symbol, which has been associated with Hamas since the outbreak of the Gaza war. The triangle first appeared in Hamas videos documenting the fighting in Gaza, which use it to mark Israeli targets about to be attacked.[4]

A comic strip featured in the January 2024 issue, titled “This Is My Nest,” tells of a resplendent quetzal, a bird with red, green, white and black plumage, which represents Palestine in the story, and a blue-and-white cuckoo with a yarmulke, representing Israel. The cuckoo chick tries to take over the quetzal’s nest until the latter strikes at it and kicks it out.

In the beginning of the story, the reader is told that “the cuckoo is the most loathsome bird in the world. The female cuckoo does not bother to build a nest or even care for its young. It lays its single egg in the nest of another bird while the parent [birds] are away. As for the resplendent quetzal, its colors are identical to the colors of the Palestinian flag.”

In the story’s first scene, the cuckoo comes to the quetzal’s nest with its egg and asks: “O noble quetzal, can I leave my chick in your nest for a while until I can build a nest of my own?” The quetzal replies, “O cuckoo, you are welcome and so is your chick.” But when the cuckoo chick hatches, it takes over the nest, throws out the quetzal’s eggs, and declares, “this is my nest.” When the quetzal comes back and asks where her eggs are, the cuckoo chick pretends ignorance, and the quetzal continues to care for it. Eventually the cuckoo  chick grows up and shouts at the quetzal: “This is my nest. Go find yourself a different nest.” The surprised quetzal answers, “No, this is my nest. You were only a guest, and now you are no longer welcome.”  At this point a serpent colored in the hues of the American flag appears and says to the cuckoo chick: “This is your nest. I attest to this!” In the next panels a red triangle appears above the cuckoo, marking it as a target for attack, and the quetzal, now wearing a kefiyyeh, strikes at the cuckoo and casts it out of the nest, saying “This is my nest and this is my land. I will not leave it as long as I am alive.” The inclusion of the red triangle, which, as stated, is a symbol used by Hamas in the context of its terror attacks, associates the scene with Hamas violence and hints at its October 7, 2023 terror attack, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.[5]

From the comic strip “This Is My Nest”

The magazine’s director, Shafiq Saleh, noted that the story deals with “guarding the homeland and resisting the usurping occupier.”[6]

Comic Strip Glorifies “Resist[ing] Until Your Dying Breath”, Teaches That “Liberty Is Not Granted As A Gift But Is Taken By Force”

A comic strip titled “Resist!”, in the magazine’s April 2024 issue,  is also an allegory for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It tells of three birds – a mother, a father and a chick – who live in a cage but dream of being free. Outside the cage lives a cat who threatens to eat them. Despite the danger represented by the cat, “the father bird keeps trying” to find a way out of the cage. When the chick begs him to stop, “so the cat won’t eat us,” the father replies: “Son, he will try to eat us anyway. He has eaten members of our family before… [but] we must resist.” The mother bird says, “Do not cry, my chick. Be a man and know that you must resist until your dying  breath.” When the cat manages to open the cage door and grabs the mother and father, they urge the chick to flee, saying, “Do not let our deaths be in vain. Flee!” But the chick replies: “I shall not flee, I shall resist!,” and  strikes out at the cat, forcing him to let the parents go. The story ends with the three birds free, and the mother says, “Palestine teaches us that liberty is not granted as a gift but is taken by force.”[7]

The magazine’s director, Shafiq Saleh, explained that the story conveys the Palestinians’ right to wage resistance. The April issue, he said, “aims to familiarize [the children] with the Palestinian issue and establish the right of return [i.e., the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes within Israel in which they lived before the 1948 war]… It features interesting comic strips that describe the steadfastness of the Palestinians in Gaza as they face the Israeli war machine and impart useful lessons for children and parents alike… The comic strips in this issue represent the steadfastness of the Gazan people and the Palestinian’s right to resist, thus lending a human dimension to this unique issue [of the magazine].”[8]

From the comic strip “Resist!”

The November 2023 issue contains a comic strip in which a father explains and justifies Palestinian resistance to his sons, saying: “In this manner the usurping occupier seeks to sow destruction and devastation in the land in order to make [the Palestinians] leave their soil and their homeland…  The usurpers came from different countries and stole Palestine by the force of arms in hope of making it their permanent homeland. But the proud Palestinian people refused, and resisted from the very first day until now.”[9]

The December 2023 issue features a similar comic strip in which a grandfather tells his grandchildren the history of Palestine and explains the roots of Palestinian resistance, saying: “Let me tell you the story of Palestine from its very beginning, from the time when it lived in peace and security until the invaders came from all the world in order to occupy it and make it their homeland, something we will never allow!”[10]

­­­Inculcating The Value Of Martyrdom: It Is “The Most Honorable Of Aspirations”

In addition to content justifying violent resistance against Israel, the magazine also glorifies martyrdom for the sake of Palestine as the noblest of aspirations. For example, the November 2023 issue features a poem titled “The Land Is Mine,” which stresses the importance of Palestine and the need to defend it from the “usurper” (Israel).  The poem says, “Palestine is my heart and the heart of the Arabs… We shall defend it with our hearts and souls, and attaining martyrdom is the most honorable  of aspirations…”[11]

The poem “The Land Is Mine”

As part of glorifying death and martyrdom, the magazine stresses the pleasures and delights of Paradise.[12] In an ongoing comic strip titled “Paradise the Most Beautiful,” a mother tells her children about the wonders of Paradise according to Islam and fills them with yearning for it. In the January 2024 installment, she relates details about Paradise from the Hadith: “Paradise is built of alternating bricks of gold and silver, and [the mortar] between them smells of musk…  How delightful is the fragrance of Paradise! Its pebbles are white pearls and rubies, its soil is white musk and its grass is red saffron, fragrant and fair of hue.” The daughter Mariam says: “O mother, I yearn for Paradise…”, and her mother relies, “Indeed, Maryam, this is a worthy aspiration.”[13]

In the March 2024 installment of the comic strip the mother tells the children about the Black-Eyed Virgins of Paradise who, according to Islamic tradition, will be the wives of the believing men and the handmaidens of the believing women in the afterlife.   The mother says: “When a believing woman arrives in Paradise, Allah restores her to youth and beauty, gives her beautiful clothes and grants her every wish at all times. He gives her palaces, servants and handmaidens from among the Black-Eyed [Virgins] of Paradise, and anything else she desires…” The daughter asks: “Mother, what are the Black-Eyed Virgins of Paradise?” The mother replies: “They are beautiful ladies that Allah created in Paradise. They will be the wives of the believers and they are also glad at the arrival of believing women and welcome them.”[14] It should be noted that, according to Islamic tradition, the Virgins of Paradise are also among the heavenly rewards of the martyr, who marries 72 virgins in Paradise.[15]

Demonizing The Jews: “They Came By Land And Sea Like Locusts And Spread”

A poem about Al-Aqsa published in the magazine’s December 2023 issue demonizes the Jews and incites against them, saying:

“The Jews came by land and sea like locusts, and spread.

They entered our [Al-Aqsa] mosque, desecrated it and murdered people.

The olive branches [of Palestine] cry out: ‘They took my land for their homeland,

‘They stole the fatherland and the dreams of the children.’

Bullets were aimed at the heart and the world watched in silence.

Which of you, my beloved ones, will one day restore the mosque to us?”[16]

Maps Of Palestine From The River To The Sea, And The Key Of Return

Many issues of the magazine feature maps that present the entire territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river as “Palestine,” thus denying Israel’s existence. When the November issue came out, the magazine’s director, Shafiq Saleh, referred to its cover art, which shows such a map, saying: “This month’s issue is devoted to solidarity with the children of Palestine. Its cover shows children in traditional Palestinian costume waving the flag of Palestine, against the backdrop of a map of the Arab state of Palestine.” [17]

The front cover of the magazine’s November 2023 issue

Below are some further examples:

  1. Coloring page in the January issue includes a map of Palestine from the river to the sea and the text “Palestine free and Arab”  (Twitter.com/jassimmagazine, January 10, 2024)
  2. Matching exercise in the January 2024 issue includes a map of Palestine from the river to the sea (Twitter.com/jassimmagazine, January 10, 2024)
  3. Poem about Al-Aqsa in the December issue printed on the background of a map of Palestine from the river to the sea (Facebook.com/jassimmagazin, December 9, 2023)

The front cover of the January 2024 issue shows a boy holding a key, symbolizing the Palestinian’s aspiration to return to their homes within the state of Israel in which they lived before the 1948 war. Upon the publication of this issue, director Shafiq Saleh referred to its cover art, saying: “The cover shows a Palestinian child wearing the famous Palestinian scarf [i.e., a keffiyeh] and holding tightly onto the key of his home, which symbolizes the return of the all the refugees to the homeland.”[18]

The cover of the January 2024 issue (Twitter.com/QATawseel, January 7, 2024)

REFERENCES:

[1] On this see MEMRI reports: Special Dispatch No. 10710 – Palestinian Authority Opens Exhibition Of ‘Keys Of Return’ In Hebron – July 14, 2023; See MEMRI reports: Special Dispatch No. 10623 – Nakba Day Events At West Bank Schools Assert Palestinian Refugees’ Right To Return To Homes Inside Israel, May 23, 2023; Special Dispatch No. 10597 – Ahead Of 75th Anniversary Of The Nakba, Palestinian Leadership Stresses It Will Never Relinquish Refugees’ Right To Return To Their Homes, May 8, 2023;  Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 950, The Narrative Of Return In Palestinian Textbooks, March 20, 2013.

[5] Facebook.com/jassimmagazine, January 22, 2024.

[6] Alarab.qa, January 13, 2024.

[7] Facebook.com/jassimmagazine, April 22, 2024.

[8] Twitter.com/jassimmagazine, April 7, 2024.

[9] Facebook.com/jassimmagazin, November 19, 2023.

[10] Facebook.com/qatarnanny, December 10, 2023.

[11] Facebook.com/jassimmagazin, December 2, 2023.

[12] On the themes of death, the pleasures of Paradise and the torments of Hell in the Qatari curricula, see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1442, Review Of Qatari Islamic Education School Textbooks For The First Half Of The 2018-2019 School Year – Chapter VI: The Subject Of Death, With Focus On The Pleasures Of Paradise And Torments Of Hell, February 19, 2019.

[13] Facebook.com/jassimmagazine, January 15, 2024.

[14] Twitter.com/jassimmagazine, March 10, 2024.

[15] On the connection between jihad, martyrdom and the Black-Eyed Virgins of Paradise, see MEMRI reports: Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 74 – ’72 Black Eyed Virgins’: A Muslim Debate on the Rewards of Martyrs – November 1, 2001; Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 61 – The Joy of the Mothers of Palestinian ‘Martyrs’ – June 27, 2001; Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 411 – Jihad Today – December 21, 2007.

[16] Facebook.com/jassimmagazine, December 9, 2023.

[17] Twitter.com/jassimmagazine, November 4, 2023.

[18] Alarab.qa, January 13, 2024.

EDITORS NOTE: This MEMRI column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Gender Politics: Why Is it So Hard to Define Biological Realities?

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Earlier this month, the revelatoryCass review was published. The report, conducted by former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health Dr. Hilary Cass, found “remarkably weak evidence” that “gender affirming services” for children have any positive outcomes. The British Government responded to the results by announcing there will be “a fundamental change” in how they manage the gender identity politics concerning medical care moving forward. It now appears that the push toward acknowledging biological reality in the U.K. is moving beyond clinics.

This week, the British Government’s Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer dove into the males in female sports controversy when she made the argument that biological males have an “indisputable edge” over female athletes, concluding that male athletes who identify as transgender should be prohibited from “competing in top-level female sports events,” Breitbart reported. The biological differences between men and women “not only give transgender women an unfair competitive advantage,” Frazer wrote for The Daily Mail, “but threaten the safety of female athletes in the sports arena.”

She continued, “That’s why this week I called together representatives from key sporting organizations, like the England and Wales Cricket Board and Football Association, to encourage them to follow the lead of other sports in not allowing trans athletes to compete against women at the elite level.” Many are acknowledging how significant this development is, given that the definition of what a woman is can scarcely be answered these days.

The solution Frazer is presenting is that those who understand the biological realities of what a man is and what a woman is must join to proclaim the message more zealously. “The need for clear action from all sports becomes more pressing with each passing week,” Frazer added. “In competitive sport, biology matters. And … this should not be ignored.” And in direct response to the Cass Review, she emphasized “that inaction and a failure to confront the issues at stake cannot be an option.”

But how is progress made on an issue many claim doesn’t exist? Take Harvard University, for example. The editorial board of the Ivy League’s student newspaper published an article on April 16 titled, “There Are Many Obstacles Facing Women’s Sports. Trans Athletes Aren’t One.” In short, The Harvard Crimson’s Editorial Board writer Jonathan G. Yuan made the argument that “the science is … less conclusive” as it relates to whether “transgender women hold a biological edge over their cisgender opponents.”

Breitbart’s Warner Huston does well in pointing out the errors in Yuan’s argument, noting that “in the process of making the” assertions it did, “the article ignored all evidence to the contrary to support their own claim that transgender athlete participation is wholly benign.” But nonetheless, the push against true science continues — not only in a student newspaper, but also in government.

Just Tuesday, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) “vetoed a bill to codify the meaning of ‘woman’ in state law, becoming the second female Democratic governor to nix such legislation over concerns about transgender rights,” The Washington Times wrote. Similar to a bill passed by Idaho Governor Brad Little (R) last week, Arizona’s Senate Bill 1628 would have provided biological “definitions for sex-based terms used in statutes, administrative rules, regulations and public policies.” But Hobbs’s veto, which was one of 13 in recent days, was not free from backlash.

In a statement, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R) said, “Instead of helping these confused boys and men, Democrats are only fueling the disfunction by pretending biological sex doesn’t matter.” He continued, “Our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and neighbors are growing up in a dangerous time where they are living with an increased risk of being victimized in public bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms because Democrats are now welcoming biological males into what used to be traditionally safe, single-sex spaces.”

State Senator Sine Kerr (R), the sponsor of the bill, urged, “The madness needs to stop.” She added that “real women must continue to push back, stand for truth, and make their voices heard to advocate for the protection of their rights.” But even though this fight is facing setbacks in some states, Louisiana is taking strides in the right direction.

While it’s not specifically related to the issue of defining gender, Louisiana is fighting to give parents back the right to decide what role gender ideology plays in the lives of their children. According to The Epoch Times, “The Louisiana House and Senate have advanced legislation this week that, if signed by newly seated Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, would prohibit sexual indoctrination and the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in schools.”

Specifically, House Bill 121, also known as the Given Name Act, states that the “Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution … protects the right of parents to direct the care, upbringing, education, and welfare of their children.” As such, the legislation would require parental approval before students can be referred to by any name or pronoun other than their original name and biological pronouns.

Given all this information, the elephant in the room is: Why is it so hard for some people to recognize the biological differences between men and women? It’s a simple question, some would argue, and Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, shared her insight with The Washington Stand. The reason such a simple reality is tossed aside, she explained, is because “they are not accepting there is a reality.”

Kilgannon emphasized what NPR’s CEO Katherine Maher said during a TED talk, namely, that truth is subjective. Maher stated, “[W]e all have different truths. They’re based on things like where we come from, how we were raised, and how other people perceive.” And for Kilgannon, it’s this mindset that leads the Left into a worldview where men can be women and women can be men.

“They don’t believe there is truth,” she added. It’s as though “they don’t believe anything except the fact that they don’t believe anything. It’s the age old trope of [they] say there’s no definitive truth and [they] say that in a definitive statement.” It’s a cyclical argument, she observed, which is hard to escape from.

So, why is it that the question of biological realities is hard for some to answer? As Kilgannon concluded, “If they answer the question, they have to admit that there is a value associated with the item.” Or in other words, a mindset like this means that answering a simple question leads to the collapse of an entire worldview.

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

DeSantis Signs Bill Targeting Addictive Social Media and ‘Digital Trafficking’

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The Sunshine State is moving to protect children from “addictive” social media and the “danger” of online predators. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law on Monday prohibiting minors under the age of 14 from opening or operating social media accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others.

H.B. 3 bars children under 14 “from creating new accounts” and requires “social media platforms to terminate certain accounts and provide additional options for termination of such accounts.” The legislation also requires minors aged 14 and 15 to obtain parental consent before creating social media accounts and mandates “age verification measures for internet sites that contains [sic] obscene or ‘harmful’ content, unsuitable for minors,” such as pornographic websites.

“Documentation of the deleterious effects of social media on children abounds, and yet we still seem hesitant to place governmental authority over this powerful force. I am glad to see efforts like the one in Florida,” Family Research Council Senior Fellow Meg Kilgannon said in comments to The Washington Stand. “The need to protect children from online predators specifically is very real, but the general effort to rein in social media in favor of authentic relationships and in-person engagement is more important than ever.”

In a brief speech before signing the legislation, DeSantis said, “One of the things that I know a lot of parents have had concerns about is the role that the internet and social media play in the upbringing of young kids.” He continued, “Now, with things like social media and all this, you can have a kid in the house — safe, seemingly — and then you have predators that get right in there, into your own home. You could be doing everything right, but they know how to get and manipulate these different platforms.” Referring to his own family and his role as governor, DeSantis noted, “One of the things that informs me on issues relating to children is just being a dad of young children.”

Following DeSantis, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (R) said, “Knowing what I know now, none of us can afford to be on the sidelines when it comes to social media, when it comes to hardcore pornography that our kids are being exposed to.” He explained, “We know from law enforcement, we know from our prosecutors, that social media is the primary platform in which children are trafficked, in which pedophiles … pretending to be children, come after our children, and that more crimes against children happen on these platforms than any other venue.”

“Our bill is focused on addiction, and when you think about it, children are not set up to handle the addiction that some of us as adults have had to face and step away from,” Renner continued. “A child in their brain development doesn’t have the ability to know that they’re being sucked in to these addictive technologies and to see the harm and step away from it.” Referring to social media as “digital trafficking,” the speaker asked, “If I said to you that a company was going to take children, use addiction that causes them harm for profit, what does that sound like? Sounds like trafficking to me.”

Florida Senator Erin Grall (R), who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, stated that social media companies “have made our parenting difficult by addicting our children.” She said that although she expects the law to be upheld if challenged in courts, “it always comes back to the parents,” who she said have “abdicated our responsibility” and allowed addictive social media platforms to serve as “babysitters.”

Grall’s original bill was vetoed earlier this month by DeSantis, who wanted stronger language protecting parental rights and addressing internet anonymity. The new law will take effect on January 1, 2025.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

2 Steps to Prevent the Sexual Abuse of Millions of Children

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“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” — Benjamin Franklin

And with your help, we are moving far beyond a mere ounce of prevention.

Dalma* forced a watery smile as she bid her last patient of the day goodbye.

She closed the door, then slumped against it, letting her head fall backward until it thumped on the hard wood. Shutting her eyes, she blew out a slow, steadying breath.

When Dalma had decided to become a therapist for child sexual abuse survivors, she’d known it wouldn’t be a pleasure cruise. And it was worth it. It was rewarding, journeying with people through their long process of healing.

But sometimes … Sometimes, Dalma just wished she had a time machine, rather than a PhD in psychology. Because more than anything, Dalma wished her patients didn’t have to heal.

She wished they’d simply never been hurt.

Time machines, alas, do not exist.

But although we cannot employ time machines to undo the harm suffered by child sexual abuse survivors, we can prevent others from experiencing the same harm.

In our efforts to end sexual abuse and exploitation, NCOSE seeks out the highest impact tactics that will prevent harm for the greatest amount of people. This is what we call “mass-scale prevention.”

Together, we are preventing the sexual abuse of innumerable children—not just striving to put on band-aids and patch up wounds after they’ve already been abused (though survivor services are of course extremely important as well).

Two tactics which have an especially large impact in preventing child sexual abuse are:

  1. Preventing predator’s online access to children
  2. Preventing childhood pornography exposure, an established risk factor for child sexual abuse perpetration and victimization.

Preventing Predator’s Online Access to Children

Social media apps, gaming platforms, and other interactive technologies are major avenues by which predators gain access to children for purposes of sexual abuse and exploitation. For example, a 2020 quantitative research study found that 1 out of 4 kids aged 9–17 reported having a sexual interaction on social media with someone they believed to be an adult. Further, an analysis of U.S. sex trafficking cases active in 2020 found that the most common means by which sex traffickers accessed victims was the Internet.

This is why one of our core strategies is pressing on tech companies to better protect children by making it more difficult for predators to contact and groom them.

For example, let’s look at the cases of TikTok and Instagram, two of the most popular social media platforms with teens. When you joined us in putting public pressure on these companies, both agreed to stop allowing adults to send unsolicited direct messages to children they don’t already know. This eliminated the main way predators where reaching and grooming children on these platforms.

The scope of impact of these changes is absolutely enormous. Globally, almost 360 million teens use TikTok on a monthly basis (32.5% of 1.1 billion monthly users) and almost 190 million minors use Instagram (8% of 2.35 billion monthly users). That’s hundreds of millions of children who are now better protected on these platforms, thanks to your action!

This is only one example of countless major victories we’ve achieved together. Take action below to continue pressing on tech companies to prioritize child safety!

Preventing Childhood Pornography Exposure, an Established Risk Factor for Child Sexual Abuse Perpetration and Victimization

An often-overlooked element in efforts to prevent child sexual abuse is pornography. Research has established that childhood pornography exposure is a major risk factor for both perpetration and victimization, making it vital to address.

Pornography Exposure Increases a Child’s Odds of Sexually Aggressing Against Other Children

When we talk about child sexual abuse, it’s important to understand that children are not only victimized by adults; they are also victimized by other children. In fact, research shows that male adolescents aged 10-17 are responsible for 35% to 65% of child sexual abuse contacts. And pornography plays a huge role in fueling this.

A longitudinal study following 10-15 year-olds over a period of three years found that exposure to violent pornography predicted a nearly six-fold increase in self-reported sexually aggressive behavior later on. To be very clear: violent content is not a small subset of the pornography kids are seeing. A 2022 study found that 52% of teens exposed to pornography reported seeing violent forms of pornography such as choking (36%), someone in pain (37%), or depictions of what appears to be rape (19%).

Considering that children often learn by observing and imitating the behavior of others, is it any wonder that pornography is teaching them to sexually aggress against other children?

In fact, some children even outright acknowledge that pornography was their teacher. Nancy Green, the Director of child advocacy group Palmer Place, states:

“We have had [cases of where] the child has already said, you know, ‘I learned that from the Internet.’ And we’ve had children that basically are describing an addiction to pornography. And then they’re trying it out.”

Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Heidi Olson attests to seeing the link between pornography and child-on-child harmful sexual behavior “on almost a daily basis.” Among the many stories she shares, she speaks of a 13-year-old boy who sexually molested his 2-year-old sister; they found pornography all over the boy’s phone. Olson also describes cases where the children appear to be imitating classic scenes from mainstream pornography.

Pornography Consumption Can Escalate to Consumption of Child Sexual Abuse Material

Research also shows that early age of exposure to pornography is a significant risk factor consuming child sexual abuse material (CSAM, the more apt term for “child pornography”) later on in life.

For children and adults alike, consumption of pornography often escalates towards more extreme content, as many users grow desensitized and need to seek out novel, stronger stimuli in order to achieve the same level of sexual arousal. One study examining the self-identified motivations of CSAM offenders found that some participants reported escalating towards CSAM after prolonged exposure and desensitization to legal pornography.

Further, consumption of child sexual abuse material and contact abuse of children are heavily linked. For example, one study found that, although 75% of imprisoned CSAM offenders were not known to have committed a contact offense at the time of their sentencing, following a 60-week treatment program, 85% of the CSAM offenders admitted to having in fact committed at least one contact offense.

Pornography Exposure Increases a Child’s Odds of Being Sexually Exploited

Pornography is not only a risk factor for perpetration; it is a risk factor for victimization as well. A meta-analysis of 37 studies found that exposure to violent or rape pornography increased a child’s odds of experiencing sexual exploitation by nearly three times.

Exposure to pornography can effectively groom children into accepting sexual abuse and exploitation, even seeing it as normal. For example, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Heidi Olson tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who was violently raped by a 16-year-old boy in a parking lot but said she “didn’t mind.” It turned out that the girl had been using pornography every day since she was 5 years old.

Pornography exposure is also associated with self-generating child sexual abuse material through “sexting.” Sexts are frequently redistributed without the sender’s consent; one Canadian study found that 42% of youth who had sent sexts had experienced at least one being shared or posted online without their consent. This non-consensual redistribution leads to devastating mental health impacts on the survivor, and also contributes significantly to the proliferation of CSAM across the internet. In fact, self-generated imagery now accounts for nearly a third of web pages featuring CSAM. (Learn more about the serious risks sexting poses to youth here)

Progress We’ve Made Together

All these facts underscore the importance of preventing childhood exposure to pornography, as a preventative measure for child sexual abuse and exploitation. Together, we’ve already made significant progress towards this end!

For example, with your help, we influenced Google to automatically blur pornographic images on Google Images, as well as block pornographic search results for children signed into under 18 accounts. That’s 8.5 billion Google searches per day (99,000 searches per second) that are significantly less likely to expose unsuspecting children to pornography!

We are pressing on other tech companies to proactively protect children from pornography, and are also supporting legislation that would require smartphones and tablets to automatically turn on existing filters for pornography when it is activated for use by a minor.

If you are interested in passing filtering legislation, or other online child protection bills in your state, you can sign up for state-specific announcements and opportunities for action below. Our Public Policy team will keep you updated!

AUTHOR

Lily Moric

EDITORS NOTE: This National Center on Sexual Exploitation column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Meta Is ‘Manipulating Platforms to Make Kids More Addicted’: State AG

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In the wake of strong evidence pointing to the link between the declining mental health of young people and the rise of addictive social media sites, 41 state attorneys general have filed suit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for manipulative business practices that they say intentionally target kids in order to ensnare them in social media addiction.

In October, 41 states and the District of Columbia filed litigation against Meta as reports of record high levels of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and suicide, continue to surface. Studies have shown that American teenagers have experienced a significant rise in depression over the last two decades, as the share of teens experiencing major depressive episodes steadily rose from 7.9% in 2006 to 14.4% in 2018. Since then, the persistent increase has continued unabated. In February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that three out of five teenage girls felt depression and one in three had seriously considered suicide in 2021.

As psychologists such as Jean Twenge have observed, the rapid increase in youth mental health issues has dovetailed almost exactly with the ubiquitous rise of smartphones and social media apps. Twenge’s most recent book “Generations” details how Generation Z’s skyrocketing use of social media directly correlates with less time spent in person with friends, less sleep, and increased loneliness.

The issue has become so alarming to health officials that in May, the U.S. Surgeon General released an unprecedented advisory warning that social media use poses a “profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

As a result, public officials have decided that studies and advisories are not enough — they believe that the architects of social media themselves must claim some amount of responsibility for the crisis. On Tuesday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to discuss the litigation he has filed against Meta.

“We’ve exposed the manipulative practices of the Meta platform that designed features in order to make kids addicted,” he contended. “And lo and behold, screen time is bad for kids. And I think one of the problems here is that Meta has hidden their head in the sand and refused to obtain data or scientific studies to measure the negative harmful impacts on kids, and deprived the public of access to that information. … [T]hey were manipulating their platform[s] to make kids more addicted, [and] they were doing it to obtain personal information to maximize their profits. And it’s putting kids at risk.”

Bailey went on to argue that Meta’s actions specifically violated his state’s consumer protection laws.

“The mental and emotional impact of the addictive features of Big Tech social media platforms, specifically Meta in this instance, have been immediately impactful on children in a harmful way, and it violates the consumer protection laws of the state of Missouri,” he asserted. “[T]he platform is depriving parents of access to information necessary upon which to make good decisions about the health and safety of their children when they’re there, fraudulently attempting to make the kids addicted to the platform that violates the law, and we’re going to hold them accountable.”

Bailey further observed that the litigation showcases a rare example of bipartisanship, in which a coalition of 41 Republican and Democrat state AGs are coming together to put pressure on Meta for allegedly harming the mental health of children.

“[C]hild safety should be a bipartisan issue,” he underscored. “I’m proud to have joined with like-minded colleagues in other states that want to put the safety of children first and hold wrongdoers in the Big Tech social media world accountable. And certainly we’ve seen a repeated pattern of behavior from Meta, not only to abuse children in this context and to deprive the public of access to information, but to violate our constitutional rights to free speech by acquiescing to government censorship demands. … [T]his is a full court press, all hands on deck approach to make sure we’re holding this monolithic monopoly accountable.”

The Missouri attorney general also highlighted specific goals that the state litigation seeks, including monetary compensation for victims. “We … think there should be some monetary compensation for the victims,” he maintained. “We’ve got to build a fund to study this problem, figure out how bad it is, the negative emotional and mental impacts on kids, and make sure that they’re treated and taken care of in the aftermath of this fraudulent behavior.”

Bailey concluded by pointing out the parallels in the social media case with the evidence that was uncovered in the 1990s of tobacco companies attempting to hide evidence of the addictive nature of their products. “I think history will look back on this moment in time and celebrate that we took a stand to protect children against this pernicious behavior very quickly.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden-Equipped Taliban Ask Iran for Passage to Israel to Join The Jihad War Against Israel

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So not only is Biden’s billions to Iran funding this genocidal war, but Biden’s unimaginable militaria left to the Taliban. Billions of dollars in operational US military equipment left behind by the Biden mis-administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Biden gave them enough militaria to arm and aid a world army.

Taliban has reportedly asked Iran for passage to Israel to help Hamas continue it’s terror against the Jewish state.

Remember how Team Biden got journos to run interference for them and downplay what a catastrophe this was?

“The Taliban won’t be able to use them.” “Where are they going to get spare parts?” “They already had some of these anyway.”

‘Biden” gave them enough militaria to arm and aid a world army. And now family members of suicide bombers who killed Americans will be rewarded with plots of land and cash payments by the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, group leaders announced.

Taliban ‘vows to conquer Jerusalem if Iran, Iraq and Jordan allow passage to Israel’

Hamas terrorists launched a deadly attack on Israel earlier today as at least 198 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces retaliated.

By Charles Harrison, The Express, Oct 7, 2023

Taliban supporters parading for the second anniversary of their return to power (Image: Getty)

The Taliban has reportedly asked Iran, Iraq and Jordan to grant them passage to Israel so that they can “conquer Jerusalem”.

Hamas terrorists launched a surprise assault on Israel today, launching thousands of missiles into the country and crossing the border with armed militants.

Israel has retaliated with a series of airstrikes that have killed just under 200 Palestinians, according to latest estimates.

A statement widely circulated online suggests Taliban’s foreign office has contacted Middle Eastern governments requesting passage, seemingly to aid Hamas terrorists and promising to take control of Jerusalem.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

As Fentanyl Overdoses Rise, a Child in New York Dies of Exposure

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Records concerning the fentanyl epidemic started being kept in 2020, and the latest numbers show that the issue is getting worse. According to Breitbart, August marked a new record of overdose deaths in San Francisco, with approximately three deaths per day due to fentanyl. As reported by The San Fransisco Chronicle, the city “is on track to see 845 overdose fatalities this year.”

London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, declared the fentanyl crisis a “state of emergency” in 2020, and since then the problem has continued to worsen across the U.S. This week, in an at-home day care in New York City, a one-year-old boy, Nicholas Dominici, died due to drug exposure, with three other children hospitalized. While the tragedy is still under investigation, the presence of fentanyl has been confirmed. Grei Mendez and Acevedo Brito, the owner and tenant of the day care where the deaths took place, have been charged for murder, manslaughter, and assault and “ordered to be held without bail.”

Ashwin Vasan, the City Health Commissioner, said in a news conference, “I’m very sorry, but one of the things that my child care inspectors are not trained to do is look for fentanyl. But maybe we need to.” Otoniel Feliz, the father of Nicholas Dominici, shared, “In what mind does it make sense that you’re going to mix narcotics with children?”

In 2021, the U.S. witnessed more than 100,000 people across the nation being killed by drug overdose — the highest it had ever been in a single year. According to BBC News, over 66% of those deaths were directly related to fentanyl. As reported by BBC, a recent study revealed “virtually every corner of the US, from Hawaii to Alaska to Rhode Island, has been touched by fentanyl.” Experts say nearly “300 individuals a day [are] dying from overdose, and almost all of those are fentanyl related.”

Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council, commented to The Washington Stand, “Certainly the consequences of sin have often lead people to medicate their pain through drug use. That’s not a new phenomenon, but it is evidence of sin.”

He continued, “The problem with fentanyl is that it’s killing people who aren’t trying to use it, like the children in New York.” For Backholm, this tragedy can be traced back to homeland security issues. “We have a completely open southern border,” he said. “Virtually anyone from anywhere can walk across the border into the U.S. … [It] is killing a lot of Americans and enriching cartels who are able to benefit tremendously from the human and drug trafficking opportunities it provides.”

In a reflection on how to respond to the fentanyl crisis earlier this year, The Christian Post’s Matthew Barnett wrote, “Light shines brighter when darkness hovers. We can see farther at night, out into the expanse of stars surrounding us than we can during the day. These truths remind us that we must hold onto hope during [the] fentanyl crisis.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.