“The entire world is infected with sin. Without Jesus you have no hope,” Franklin preached. “You cannot save yourself. You cannot forgive yourself. The church cannot save you. Religion cannot save you. Only the blood of Jesus can save you. He is the only way. He came from Heaven to this earth to take your sins. He died and shed His blood on the cross for you. Tonight, you can put your faith and trust in Him and be saved from your sins and have a new life.”

The Trump administration today withdrew a Biden-era rule that requires potential foster parents to prove they will support a gender transition, or the LGBTQ identity, of their prospective foster children. The Federal Register published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to officially annul the 2022 rule “Designated Placement Requirements Under Titles IV-E and IV-B for LGBTQI+ Children.”  In a warning letter to all 50 states, the federal government told states they cannot remove children from foster homes without “objective evidence of harm or imminent risk” if they received federal child welfare funding.

David Cortman, ADF senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Litigation, stated in a press release that ADF hopes the settlement “shows teachers that they do not have to bow the knee to ideological mandates that violate their religious beliefs.”

“This case has exposed how activists have sought to weaponize the law to silence people like Matthew who express mainstream Christian beliefs about sexuality, marriage and identity. There was never any credible evidence justifying the charges brought against him, only an aggressive campaign to shut down viewpoints that diverge from a prevailing ideology.”

“This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America,” said Paul M. Jonn, Thomas More Society special counsel. “The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back. The Court’s landmark reaffirmation of substantive due process, its vindication of religious liberty, and its approval of class-wide relief together set a historic precedent that will dismantle secret gender transition policies across the country.”

Amid the American and Israeli joint strikes on Iran and the death of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Franklin Graham and other evangelical leaders have encouraged believers to remain prayerful. “The Iranian Islamic regime posed a serious threat to Israel and other peace-seeking nations. For believers, however, this is not a moment for celebration but for intercession."

It is an ideologically fueled approach to sex education built on the idea that children are sexual beings from birth and have independent “sexual rights,” Clarke added—a framework that directly violates parents’ universally recognized human right to guide the moral education of their children. 

According to court documents, attorneys for The Pines Church in Hermon, Maine, say the local school board questioned the church on its beliefs about marriage, sex education, abortion, birth control access for youth, and conversion therapy before denying its request for a lease. “Access to a public facility was conditioned on theological agreement,” Advocates for Faith & Freedom said in a statement on its Facebook page. “‘Do your biblical beliefs align with the government’s’? That is a direct assault on the First Amendment and the free exercise of our faith.”

“No parent should be forced to lie to a vulnerable child about who they are, much less promote irreversible and life-altering procedures that don’t have any proven health benefits,” said Widmalm-Delphonse. “And, unfortunately, other loving families have been unable to open their homes to children in need just because of their Christian worldview. We commend Vermont for respecting the religious diversity of foster parents and ending its exclusionary policy that deprived children of opportunities to find loving homes.”

A Christian school and an educational choice organization are asking a U.S. district court to declare that Colorado’s ban on funding for religious education violates the United States Constitution. 

“For over 10 years, disability rights advocates, patients’ rights advocates, and representatives of various faith traditions banded together to stop the state of New York from passing the Orwellian legislation Gov. Kathy Hochul signed today,” the New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide said in a Facebook post. “We fought hard, fought well, and fought for an honorable cause. While this stage of the legislative battle over assisted suicide did not end as we hoped, we are pleased to have substantially delayed the enactment of this lethal and insidious measure.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Cissie Graham-Lynch, who attended the oral arguments, commented: “This isn’t a political issue. This is a Genesis 1 issue.” The senior advisor for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association continued: “Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, God’s Word is clear—men are men and women are women. And today I’m grateful, girls finally had their historic day in court to say just that.”

The rights now under threat—freedom of conscience, speech and worship—were birthed from the Christian conviction that every person first stands accountable to God, not the state. When the Christian conviction is removed, the secular state, which is never neutral, expands to fill the vacuum. Once Christ is no longer recognized as Lord over national life, political authority becomes absolute, and Christian dissent becomes suspect.

The Guidance On Constitutionally Protected Prayer And Religious Expression In Public Elementary And Secondary Schools, released Feb. 5, states that under recent Supreme Court rulings that interpreted First Amendment rights in schools, “all members of a public school community have a constitutional right to religious expression in public schools, including a right to engage in prayer.”

Influencing government for good on the basis of the wisdom found in God’s own words is a theme that runs through the entire Bible. Try to imagine what a nation and its government would be like if all Christian influence on government were suddenly removed—if all the churches and all the Christians in a society stopped seeking to have any kind of influence on laws or on government. Within a few years, most people would have no moral authority beyond that of individual human opinion. How could a nation find any moral guidance?