North Carolina is about to square off with a big opponent — and it has nothing to do with college basketball. While the Tar Heels are celebrating the chance to play for a national title, the federal government is showing whose team it’s on with new threats over the state’s money. Furious that Governor Pat McCrory (R), a bipartisan legislature, and 70 percent of voters dare to block grown men from girls’ bathrooms, the president’s team is looking at ways to bankrupt the state into submission.

Using federal funds as a club, the Obama administration has perfected a play that’s been quite effective at “persuading” local school boards and other governors to reconsider their position on radical LGBT policies. We watched the same cat-and-mouse game play out in Texas, when Health and Human Services tried to zero out the state’s Medicaid money after it stripped funds from Planned Parenthood. Now, Washington’s sore losers are at it again, warning that every federal department from Transportation to Housing will put the squeeze on North Carolina for doing the citizens’ will. It would be an unprecedented move — even for this administration — to punish an entire state for rejecting a gender policy that the American College of Pediatricians calls “child abuse.”

Yet still, the Department of Education insists that the agency is already trying “to determine any potential impact on the state’s federal education funding.” “We will not hesitate to act if students’ civil rights are being violated,” a spokesman insisted. At least two other departments are playing the same “conform-or-else” hardball, which would put tens of billions of North Carolina’s dollars on the line. Lt. Governor Dan Forest (R) was stunned that the administration would stoop to these thuggish tactics. “It would be wrong — even illegal — to single out North Carolina for unfavorable treatment,” he argued. “I’m confident that we will continue to receive this federal money despite the threats from a few in Washington, D.C.”

Even experts think the government’s threat is a stretch. For starters, the administration doesn’t have the statutory authority to blackmail states. (Not that the law has ever factored much into this president’s decision making.) “Disregarding the facts,” Governor McCrory fired back, “other politicians — from the White House to mayors to state capitals and city council members and even our attorney general — have initiated and promoted conflict to advance their political agenda and tear down our state, even if it means defying the Constitution and their oath of office.”

Interestingly enough, Duke University’s Jane Wettach thinks the threat — like so many of the Left’s — is an empty one. “I think the federal government would be loath to do it and would give North Carolina every possibility, every chance to change their position, to change the law, to negotiate, to make some exceptions.” Based on the rash of assaults and evidence about how these policies are being gamed, the last thing North Carolina should do is reconsider. Just because liberals are operating outside reality on anatomy, human nature, and even public safety doesn’t mean the rest of the country should.

Of course, the real irony in all of this is that the federal government has never adopted the law that the Tar Heels just rejected. How’s that for hypocrisy? Like most Americans, it has always believed that real freedom is letting businesses set their own policies. But if the federal government will yank states’ funding over something as radical as gender politics, what’s next? Will officials use taxpayer dollars to trample on states’ Second Amendment rights too? Anything is possible in a country whose biggest bully is the one leading it.

For more on the fallout from North Carolina, don’t miss FRC’s Peter Sprigg on CNN earlier today.

Originally published here.

Fallen Heroes and a Missing Remedy

The men and women who protect American lives continue to take their own, as the crisis of military suicide shows no signs of slowing. For the seventh straight year, the number of service members who killed themselves topped 200, the Pentagon announced Friday in a grim report about the internal war our troops are fighting. A stunning 265 active-duty service men and women were casualties of the struggle that has taken an unprecedented number of our troops since 2008. The spike in suicides continues to worry administration officials, who fail to consider that many of their own policies may be to blame. Once again, the Army mourned the biggest losses, burying more than 120 soldiers whose personal struggles were ultimately too much to bear.

And while the administration insists it’s committed to finding solutions to this epidemic, its five million dollar investment into the problem can’t compete with one of the greatest weapons in the fight: faith. “Reducing suicide risk entails creating a climate that encourages service members to seek help,” said a Pentagon spokesman. Unfortunately for too many of these troubled troops, the help most could use is the comfort of a God who is no longer welcome in much of military culture. For most troops, the last seven years have been an emotional roller coaster of budget cuts, low morale, LGBT indoctrination, overseas threats, and sexual politics. Stressed and stretched thin, most service members say they’re fighting another foe: distrust and dissatisfaction. The only thing in shorter supply than funding is morale, as troops admit to the greatest burnout in recent memory.

Meanwhile, the one comfort our brave men and women used to have — their faith — is being wrenched from their hands and driven out of the service. By not just undermining — but punishing — the belief that most troops cling to in difficult times, the Obama administration may have taken away the military’s greatest deterrent to suicide. Now, without the solace that faith provides, more service members have nowhere to turn. The crackdown has led people like the Coast Guard’s Rear Admiral William Lee to question whether he should even point a 24-year-old to the meaning his life was missing. Lee told the story a couple of years ago that he felt strongly that he should give a soldier, who had tried and failed to commit suicide, a Bible. Under the current climate of hostility, he knew he could face consequences. “The lawyers tell me that if I do that, I’m crossing the line. I’m so glad I’ve crossed that line so many times.”

It’s time for the Pentagon to look at the big picture on military suicide and realize that driving out faith is more than unconstitutional — it’s depriving men and women dealing with the stress of military life from the help they need.

Originally published here.

Movie Previews Conflict over Faith

Batman v. Superman may be dominating the box office, but it’s faith v. the cultural bullies that’s dominating the conversation! God’s Not Dead 2 debuted over the weekend to rave reviews of a lot more than the Perkins family. The popular sequel, which pulled in an impressive fourth place finish in ticket sales, is certainly touching a nerve with Christians who feel increasingly attacked for their beliefs. “There are no special effects or bloody battle scenes featured in God’s Not Dead 2,” wrote the Christian Post’s Christine Thomasos, “but the movie does depict a war.”

Through a series of legal battles, audiences get a glimpse of the religious liberty threats that are hitting a little too close to home for U.S. families. The most significant case pits a teacher against her school district when she compares the teachings of Jesus Christ to Martin Luther King Jr. With her career on the line, she’s forced to defend her faith in court. Unfortunately, her story and others aren’t fiction; this is what’s happening in America. In fact, at one point, I leaned over to my wife and said, “I feel like I’m at work.”

This is a great movie to take your family to — and even invite some friends to come along! Our church filled two entire theaters last night and the comments of those coming out were over the top. Yes, the hostility toward Christianity is growing here in America, but increasingly there are men, women and young people standing up to this intolerant agenda and winning. (My book, No Fear, showcases several of them.) God’s Not Dead 2 is a must-see for every Christian looking for inspiration and encouragement in the battle to protect our First Freedom!

Originally published here.