Nike loves selling kids shoes — it just doesn’t care if they have a home to wear them in. That’s the amazing revelation from a new campaign against Tennessee adoption. The sports giant, which is still on a lot of Americans’ you-know-what list after dissing the national anthem, isn’t doing itself any favors by signing a letter telling Christians to get out of the childcare business.

In a letter that was also signed by corporate titans Amazon, Dell, Mars, IKEA, Hilton, Marriott, and others, a collection of national CEOs warned the state that letting faith groups keep their adoption and foster care offices open is somehow a threat to the economy. “We believe Tennessee’s continued growth and innovation rely on the state being open and welcoming to everyone,” the coalition's letter stated. “The recent passage of HB 836 sends the opposite message… [and puts] put our collective economic success at risk.”

No one knows quite how, since the law that Governor Bill Lee (R) signed actually makes it possible for the state to place more children in loving homes, not less. How, exactly, is that bad for business? According to these companies, it’s not fair to the LGBTQ community. But obviously, no one at these multi-million dollar businesses bothered to actually read the law, since the only thing it does is give religious social services the freedom to keep placing kids as they see fit. Not one sentence of the policy makes it harder for anyone to adopt. The same avenues that were available to people before are available now. The only difference is, faith-based groups won’t have to choose between placing kids with same-sex couples or shutting down.

If anything, Governor Lee’s stance is in complete agreement with these companies: Tennessee should be inclusive. That’s why he’s giving every organization a right to participate in the system. But then, these businesses were never interested in real equality. Instead, they’ve become cultural bullies, co-opted by LGBTQ activists who want to force true diversity out of the marketplace and make it an arena where only people who conform to their radical ideas about gender and sexuality are welcome. It’s hypocrisy, plain and simple.

Speaking of Big Business hypocrisy, these same companies have no problem climbing down from their moral high horse to partner with China — one of the most unwelcoming and repressive societies around. In fact, they’re so unconflicted that some of them have joined in the effort to track down and profile religious minorities (a problem I talked about in my capacity as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom during a speech at USAID).

If Nike, Amazon, Dell, and the rest of these businesses are so concerned about “targeting” people, maybe they need to take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves how they can rationalize profiting off of violent and inhumane regimes. Until then, no American — not in Tennessee or the rest of this country — can possibly take their moral crusading seriously.

Originally published here.

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Pete’s Abortion Extremism a Mayor Mistake

You’ve got to hand it to Pete Buttigieg. While the rest of the competition is out there in far-left field, he’s trying to carve out a nice little niche for himself in the space no one’s bothered to occupy: the middle. For the last several weeks, there’s been a whole lot of elbow room for the South Bend mayor, who’s making hay pretending to be a mild-mannered moderate. There’s just one problem. Behind the disarming façade, his positions are just as extreme as everyone else’s.

Buttigieg’s schtick has played especially well in places like Iowa, where everyday Democrats are desperate for a candidate whose every other word isn’t “socialism.” As a young, charismatic Midwesterner, Pete’s managed to connect with a lot of voters who haven’t found a reasonable-sounding Democrat in the race. In a party that’s done everything it can to distance itself from God, this is a man who’s gotten quite good at throwing in the odd reference to faith. It’s part of the reason people like this Iowa caucus-goer are so shocked to find out he has a husband. They just assume that when Mayor Pete talks about Christianity, he also practices it.

Now, as Buttigieg starts surging at the polls and he’s pressed more intently on the issues, the veneer is starting to crack. On abortion and religious liberty, especially, the mayor is being revealed for what he truly is: an ardent extremist with no regard for what the Bible actually says.

Pete’s ruse had a lot of Americans fooled until more public appearances — like his recent stop at “The View” — started unraveling his “centrist” cred. The show’s token Republican, Meghan McCain, didn’t pull any punches on Buttigieg’s abortion views, asking him to explain what he meant by his statement “life begins at breath,” which she called “pretty radical.” “I think people, even Democrats…" Meghan said, "want to know exactly where your line is.” Buttigieg didn’t directly respond, instead insisting that if there was a line, the government shouldn’t draw it. “So if a woman wanted to invoke infanticide after a baby is born, you’d be comfortable with that?”

“Does anybody seriously think that’s what these cases are about?” he fired back in the ultimate insult to the hundreds of documented abortion survivors. Then, without ever answering her question, he implied that the only time women seek out late-term abortions is when doctors discover something wrong with the baby. (A lie, incidentally, that’s been completely debunked, even by pro-abortion groups like Guttmacher Institute.) Regardless, Pete rambled, “I don’t know what to tell them morally about what they should do,” and, as far as he’s concerned, the government shouldn’t either.

First of all, yes. People actually do think that’s what these cases are about. If it weren’t, why would the U.S. Senate waste its time with a hearing on born-alive protections? Liberals want you to think that infanticide is a fake crisis invented by pro-lifers. Trust me, I wish it were. There are literally hundreds of infants being thrown out like garbage every year — a fact we know thanks to eyewitnesses like Jill Stanek. When the CDC says there were 143 cases of babies born alive between 2002-14, the agency is only basing that number on the reports from six states! Factor in the other 44, and the hundreds of undocumented “snippings” and stabbings of born babies by monsters like Kermit Gosnell and Douglas Karpen, and we’re talking about entire schools of children disappearing.

But either way, the number of children affected has nothing to do with the morality of infanticide. If there were only two kids on a burning bus, people wouldn’t shrug and say, “Oh, the bus isn’t full. Don’t bother.” And yet, Mayor Pete can’t bring himself to say that killing a living, breathing, born baby is wrong. It’s a matter of personal morality, he believes, and the government shouldn’t intervene. How about rape — is that matter of personal morality too? Or child abuse? Should the government ignore a man beating his wife, because that’s his choice? If killing a newborn is a personal decision, what about killing a teenager? The problem with the Left’s sliding scale of morality is that it doesn’t work. Right and wrong goes beyond Scripture to the laws of nature inscribed upon the hearts of people everywhere.

And how does Buttigieg square his political radicalism (“I support the position of my party”) with Christianity? Well, he insists, “We all come at faith in a different way… You don’t have to vote a certain way because of your faith.” In other words, the Bible is a nice collection of stories that are convenient to mention but should have no bearing on daily life. His brother-in-law finds that appalling, tweeting after “The View,” “Pete misuses scripture to fit his own political agenda, such as in the case of advocating for abortion. This is disturbing and I think he needs to be held accountable for that. Pete’s thoughts on abortion are extreme and evil.”

While he’s busy dressing up his views to look like Vacation Bible School puppets, FRC’s David Closson argues that what’s really dangerous about Pete “is that he’s not just mistaken about what the Bible says. He’s actually twisting God’s word to advance a political agenda that is antithetical to biblical Christianity. With Pete’s apparent victory in the Iowa Caucuses, and his rise in polls across the country, there is a real chance the former mayor will make a credible run for the Democratic nomination. Thus, as he continues to attract attention, Christians must realize that while Pete can come across as reasonable and even charming when he talks about social and cultural issues, he is guided by a worldview at odds with God’s Word.”

For more on Mayor Pete’s version of Christianity, check out David’s piece, “Buttigieg’s ‘Different Way’ Is Not Biblical Christianity.” Also, for an eye-opening look at where the mayor stands on the fundamental question of freedom, don’t miss Mary Vought’s column, “Pete Buttigieg Is No Friend of Religious Liberty.”

Originally published here.

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Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Illegal Masses

If there’s any state that should’ve learned the importance of national security, it’s New York. And yet, even after terrorists turned the Twin Towers into two gigantic craters, the state’s liberals haven’t learned those painful lessons. Instead of being more careful about who enters the country, they’re throwing open the doors to criminals and illegals alike. And this president isn’t about to stand by and watch.

After Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) and the state’s Democrats decided to let illegal immigrants loose on the state, offering them driver’s licenses through the “Green Light Law,” the administration was forced to make a statement of its own. After non-citizens rushed to the state’s DMVs in droves, nabbing passports, licenses, and other official documents, acting Homeland Security Chad Wolf knew the situation was dangerous. Apart from giving harbor and cover to people who have no right to be in America, the new policy is a major compromise of U.S. security.

For starters, Secretary Wolf explained on “Washington Watch,” it specifically restricts information-sharing with the government. If U.S. officials or law enforcement wanted to access New York’s DMV database, they couldn’t. That means, for instance, people at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who run a number of the country’s trusted traveler programs wouldn’t be able to cross-check any applications through the New York system. So, rather than put the entire Global Entry or other traveler program at risk because of this radical new law, the DHS suspended the program for New York residents entirely.

“We can’t validate these individuals,” Wolf explained. “And so unless we get access to this database, we cannot enroll or re-enroll new individuals into these programs. And that’s what we informed them of [Wednesday].” And unlike other states, who have more lenient immigration laws, New York’s is truly in a class all its own. “It’s the only state in the union that restricts access to CBP,” Chad pointed out. “Other states certainly do that from an ICE perspective. But in this case, we’re not talking about ICE. ICE does not run our trusted traveler programs. CBP does. We would not have taken this action had the two decades of information-sharing and cooperation continued… Then we wouldn’t be talking about this. But New York made a decision for whatever reason — whether it was political or [otherwise] — to not grant access [of their records] to law enforcement. And as a result, this is the consequence.”

And that consequence is a big one for the 86,000 New Yorkers affected immediately (and as many as 800,000 over the next five years).

But the irony, at least for a lot of people, is that New York is the one doing this — and it was the biggest target of 9/11. Coming out of that tragedy, one of the things the government wanted to be more intentional about was communication and information sharing between the different law enforcement and intelligence communities. “We should be tearing down information silos,” Wolf insisted, “not trying to build them. And that’s what’s occurring here.” Why would stand in the way of a government tracking down criminal organizations and people who pose a threat to America? “It’s just unconscionable,” he said.

Under this administration, the secretary points out, actions have consequences. “And if they’re not going to change this, then unfortunately, the department has to take steps to mitigate the vulnerabilities. And that’s what we’re doing.” Homeland Security is willing to work with New York. But whether liberal leaders are willing to give up this political stunt and cooperate is anyone’s guess.

Originally published here.

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This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.