Breakfast With a Side of Prayer
If there were ever a time the nation needed prayer, it’s now. Thursday morning after America’s long impeachment nightmare finally came to an end, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) spoke for everyone when he said at this morning’s National Prayer Breakfast, “The Lord works in mysterious ways. I do not think he could have picked a better day to bring us all together.”
If there were ever a time the nation needed prayer, it’s now. Thursday morning after America’s long impeachment nightmare finally came to an end, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) spoke for everyone when he said at this morning's National Prayer Breakfast, “The Lord works in mysterious ways. I do not think he could have picked a better day to bring us all together.”
It was a poignant reminder for everyone, including the two most prominent people on the dais. Hours after the Senate voted to acquit him, Donald Trump sat five seats away from the woman who not only ripped up his State of the Union speech on live television, but plunged the nation into these months of turmoil to begin with. Still, Harvard’s Arthur Brooks said, “[The same Jesus] who taught us to love God taught us to love each other.” Hoping to use the moment to call for healing, he insisted the biggest crisis facing our nation is the “crisis of contempt and polarization.” It’s tearing our society apart, he urged. But in this crisis, Brooks encouraged, “resides the greatest opportunity we have ever had as people of faith to lift our nations up and to bring our people together.”
As the president admitted later, that wasn’t the easiest message to swallow. Behind the bravado, most Americans probably don’t realize what a difficult time this has been for him. “As everybody knows, my family, our great country, and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal…” he said when he took to the podium. “They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country. So many people have been hurt,” he admitted, “and we can’t let that go on.”
Looking at Brooks, he acknowledged how hard the message of forgiveness can be. “I’m sorry,” the president said with humility. “I apologize. I am trying to learn… It’s not easy. When they impeach you for nothing, and you’re supposed to like them, it’s not easy, folks. I do my best,” he said. “I’m working very hard for you, I will tell you,” he had started. Then, to laughter, “And sometimes you don’t make it easy, and I certainly don’t make it easy on you.”
But then, the president launched into the reasons that he hasn’t just made it easy on Americans — he’s made it possible for Americans to live openly and authentically. “All of us here today reaffirm these timeless truths: Faith keeps us free. Prayer makes us strong. And God alone is the author of life and the giver of grace… In everything we do, we are creating a culture that protects freedom, and that includes religious freedom… So much of the greatness we have achieved, the mysteries we’ve unlocked, and the wonders we’ve built, the challenges we’ve met, and the incredible heights that we’ve reached has come from the faith of our families and the prayers of our people.”
We can talk about the Johnson amendment, he said. “We can talk about Mexico City Policy… But I also recently took executive action to stop taxpayer dollars from going to colleges and universities that spread the poison of anti-Semitism and bad things about Christianity. We are upholding the sanctity of life. And we are doing that like nobody has ever done it before from this position.” But, the president insisted, there is “something which wasn’t done nearly enough — I could almost say wasn’t done at all” before his administration: “We are standing up for persecuted Christians and religious minorities all around the world.”
“Religion in this country and religion all over the world — certain religions in particular — are under siege. We won’t let that happen. We are going to protect our religions. We are going to protect Christianity. We are going to protect our great ministers and pastors and rabbis and all of the people that we so cherish and that we so respect… Let us ask Father in Heaven to guide our steps.”
For more on the 68th National Prayer Breakfast, check out my appearance on Fox News yesterday.
Originally published here.
Congress: Acquit While You’re Ahead!
It was the story that started November 8, 2016. And finally, 1,184 days later, the U.S. Senate finally wrote the last chapter — acquitting the president of his only true crime: being elected.
It took three years, but the campaign that started the night Americans picked their 45th leader may finally be put to rest. And yesterday afternoon, after a distraction that threatened to eat up his entire first term, Donald Trump celebrated the victory. “This was not part of the deal,” Donald Trump told his supporters and family in the White House. “I was going to run for president — and if I won, I was going to do a great job. I didn’t know that… when I got in, I was going to have to run again and again and again every week… But [you] stuck with me. And I’m so glad… because we are making progress and doing things for our country.”
For the president, Wednesday’s vote was a relief — not because it was standing in the way of his agenda, but because it was a horrible ordeal for the country. “With all that we’ve gone through,” he said in the East Room, “we’ve done, I think, more than any president and administration. And really, I say for the most part, Republican congressmen, congresswomen and Republican senators, we’ve done more than any administration in the first few years” — despite the ferocious House and liberal campaign against him.
“We’ve been going through this now over three years. It was evil. It was corrupt,” he insisted. “…And this should never ever happen to another president.” But even Trump knows that it won’t be the end for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “I’m sure they’ll try and cook up other things… They’ll do whatever they can, because instead of wanting to heal our country and fix our country… [it’s] almost like they want to destroy our country.” But apart from a lone Republican defector, Senator Mitt Romney (Utah), they won’t have much help.
For most people, including Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who joined me on “Washington Watch” Wednesday, the real shame isn’t just the unnecessary and vicious attack on Trump, but the time the country has lost getting important things done. The president has done remarkable things, despite having two arms tied behind his back and Congress and the media working against him, but just imagine if Democrats in either chamber who were committed to doing things together. Instead, Kevin warned, there’s chatter that the other side is weighing another round of investigations.
“I think [that’s] a horrible mistake. They’ve gotta remember why voters sent them to Congress — and that’s to solve problems for the American people. And there are good things we can do — but not if they launch another impeachment effort.” If liberals try, he predicts, their majority will almost certainly be lost. “I wish Democrats would work with us. But I just I haven’t seen I just haven’t seen much inkling of that.” Maybe now that their impeachment proceedings are over, they’ll have the time to try. Either that, or face some angry voters come November.
Originally published here.
The Starbucks Stop Here
Lynn Meagher seriously considered killing herself. Desperate, tormented, and out of options, she went to see a therapist. How should she cope, she cried, knowing that two of her children wanted nothing to do with her? Two children, who, through horrible, mutilating surgeries, destroyed the bodies she’d carried inside her? “I felt I was living in a dream, a nightmare," she says quietly. That nightmare, the one she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy, is real. And from now on, every time you walk through the door of a Starbucks, you’re telling moms like Lynn you couldn’t care less.
"I can’t even describe what it’s like to see your own child’s face with the opposite gender superimposed on it. It’s just… I can’t even describe it…” Parents like Elaine Davidson still struggle to talk about the bloody bandages covering the place where their daughters’ breasts used to be. “I begged everyone I could [to stop the surgery]. I begged her. I couldn’t stop it.” Losing a child to this tortured life is like a death in the family. Only, there was no goodbye. No ceremony. “No one sent us flowers," Lisa grieves. "No one dropped off a casserole.”
So imagine their horror when they scanned the headlines and saw an American company — one as large and powerful as Starbucks — trying to inflict that pain on as many people as possible. In an announcement shocking even for them, the coffee chain is launching a campaign to actively push kids into sex changes that damage them for life. Using #whatsyourname as its call sign, Starbucks started placing ads in the U.K. featuring a young girl (dressed like a boy) who wants the barista to write “James” on her cup. “Taking a customer’s name, writing it on a cup, and calling it out is a symbol of our warm welcome,” Starbucks says.
But it isn’t just the “welcome” customers are supporting. The mega-chain has a much more serious agenda — donating piles of money to trap kids into this lifestyle of pain and suffering. “In addition to the ad campaign, Starbucks states it is partnering with Mermaids,” an activist group for “supporting trans and gender-diverse children.” “Transgender children,” the website says, “deserve the freedom and confidence to explore their gender identity wherever their journey takes them, free from fear, isolation and discrimination.” The goal? For Starbucks to raise at least 100,000 euros for the cause.
These aren’t grown men and women the coffee giant is after. These are children — young girls and boys who are hurting, confused, and being destroyed by adults pushing them to chase these identities, despite the cost. And the cost, hundreds of parents and patients will tell you, is irreversible.
“I remember breaking down. It was like, this was a mistake. It should never have happened. But what do you do about it? How do you go through another harrowing transition? What do you do? I’ve got no hair. I’ve got a beard. I’ve had all [of] my body mutilated. How do I go back?” Debbie was 17. She would do anything to turn back time. “There are thousands of us," another young woman told the BBC, desperately wanting a way out. A way out from the life companies like Starbucks are telling children is the way to finally get noticed and valued. They don’t mention the heartbreak. The regret. The years of physical agony.
But then, it’s not as if Starbucks’s agenda is a surprise. The liberal business has never truly cared about kids — not after spending thousands of dollars helping Planned Parenthood abort them — or working to deprive them of a married mom and dad. And yet, despite it all, plenty of Christians will still rationalize turning their cars into the first green drive-thru sign they see. "We’re uncomfortable with boycotts,” they’ll say. But surely we’re all more uncomfortable funding a war against innocent children. Try clicking through these stories and finding peace at Starbucks — or any company where your dollars help create more victims. Is the coffee really so good that you’re willing to give a portion of every cup to promote this self-destruction? Ask yourself when you read this plea from a mom whose family will never be the same.
“Once we have cut that beautiful body, when the voice is permanently broken, the beard is there for good, the breasts are gone, what happens if the body was never wrong to start with? What will you tell the daughters that realize, too late, that they have destroyed their ability to bear children, or to nurse them? When they find that their wounds had other causes, other origins, and required other treatments? I plead with you to hear the parents, and the many stories of young people who have changed their minds after medical transition. This is not health care, this is a medical experiment. This is not life-saving care, these are criminal actions. And [it] must be stopped.”
You can help. Contact Starbucks and ask them to stop contributing to agendas that permanently scar our kids. Meet Lynn and hear why below.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
