Final words revealed from Marine who survived war — but was gunned down at home in Facebook Marketplace trap

A decorated U.S. Marine veteran — who reportedly survived dangerous military missions overseas — was shot and killed at his Missouri home during what was supposed to be the sale of an iPhone on Facebook Marketplace, according to police. The distinguished service member allegedly spent the last moments of his life delivering a heartbreaking message to his family.

According to KOMU-TV, police were dispatched around 8:15 p.m. Jan. 18 concerning reports of gunshots at a residence in Columbia.

'While stationed in Baghdad, Burke founded the Oasis Church.'

The Columbia Police Department said in a statement that 42-year-old Michael Ryan Burke was shot at his home.

Citing court documents, the New York Post reported that Burke was trying to sell his iPhone 15 Pro for $585 after arranging the sale on Facebook Marketplace.

Court docs said Burke provided a buyer with his address, and around 8:10 p.m. one of the suspects messaged the seller: "I'm here."

Moments later, the transaction reportedly spiraled into violence, and Burke was shot. He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Police arrested Alexis Baumann, Kobe Aust, and Joseph Crane, all 18 years old, along with a fourth individual whom authorities identified as a juvenile.

Citing court documents, the New York Post reported that one suspect confessed to investigators that they had "arranged to meet with the victim under the ruse of buying the victim's cell phone."

The Post reported that Baumann told investigators she drove the group to Burke's home, and Crane and the juvenile went inside.

KOMU-TV in a separate story reported that Baumann confessed to investigators that she heard three gunshots from inside the home and recalled that the juvenile ran out of the home; the suspects drove away from the crime scene, according to court documents.

Citing the probable cause statement, WDAF-TV reported that detectives used traffic cameras to determine that the suspects' car traveled in the direction of a nearby Walmart.

Just after the shooting, Burke's stolen phone was sold at an ecoATM at a nearby Walmart, according to court documents.

Court documents indicated that surveillance cameras caught Baumann and the juvenile suspect selling the phone at Walmart.

A day before Burke was killed, the juvenile stole another cell phone under the guise of a Facebook Marketplace sale, according to court documents. The Post reported that the juvenile told the alleged victim, "If you touch me, I'll shoot you."

Baumann and Aust were arrested on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and first-degree burglary; Crane and the juvenile were arrested on charges of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, and unlawful use of a weapon, Columbia Police said.

All three 18-year-old suspects are being detained without bond at the Boone County Jail, while the unidentified juvenile is being held at the Boone County Juvenile Office.

(L to R) Kobe Aust, Alexis Baumann, Joseph Crane. Image source: Boone County (Mo.) Jail

Jerry Reifeiss — who met Burke 24 years ago as a fraternity brother at Mizzou's Sigma Nu — revealed the Marine's heartbreaking last goodbye.

Reifeiss told KRCG-TV that Burke contacted his mother and sister: "He texted them saying that, 'Hey, I'm dying, and I love you.'"

"That was just Ryan," Reifeiss continued. "He always put people in front of him and wanted to make sure people knew how he felt."

Before he died, Burke reportedly called 911 and gave a description of his attackers to the dispatcher.

"He didn't want to go on to the next life and pass away without providing some information to us here that would bring justice to these people and let people know he always loves them," Reifeiss said.

Reifeiss said of the arrests, "I'm very happy the police did their job and were able to get these people very quickly, assuming these are the correct people."

Burke's obituary said he served as a "Force Reconnaissance Marine in the United States Marine Corps, holding the rank of Staff Sergeant, with both active-duty and reserve service."

Burke was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. From 2014 to 2021, Burke served as a medic in Baghdad.

While stationed in Baghdad, Burke founded the Oasis Church. According to his obituary, Burke also founded Holy Smokes — a men's Bible study group. Burke also preached and taught in Uganda, the Philippines, Kenya, the U.K., and throughout the U.S.

The obituary states, "He was deeply committed to creating lasting impact, helping fund schools and churches in Africa and Asia, including support for 14 churches in the Philippines."

One of Burke's passions was fighting human trafficking, and he worked both locally and internationally to help victims.

Burke also served as a firefighter with the city of Columbia.

Police said there is an "active and ongoing investigation" into the alleged murder.

Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact the Columbia Police Department at 573-874-7652 or call CrimeStoppers at 573-875-8477.

The Columbia Police Department did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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Critically ill 'The Blind Side' star shows signs of recovery; family credits power of prayer

A beloved Christian actor is showing possible signs of recovery while in hospital on life support.

Quinton Aaron starred in "The Blind Side," a movie with Sandra Bullock about Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who is taken in by a Christian family and becomes a first-round NFL draft pick.

'I grew up in the church. I was raised in the church.'

In real life, Aaron's wife, Margarita, said she rushed the 41-year-old to the hospital after he lost feeling in his legs. The issues were initially thought to be from a bad sleep, but pain persisted in Aaron's neck and back until he became numb.

His wife is a registered nurse, and she helped him lie down before calling 911. The big man — reportedly around 6'6" — was in and out of consciousness on the way to hospital.

Doctors allegedly determined after several tests that he had a blood infection and recommended he be put on life support, according to TMZ.

A 'fighter'

After initial reports looked grim, the outlet explained that Aaron was partially breathing on his own until Monday, when he "opened his eyes today and gave a thumbs-up," his wife said.

Describing her husband as "a fighter," Margarita had previously said, "He's showing a lot of improvement. We all have faith in God that he will walk out of here fully recovered."

Aaron had been dealing with health issues last March, according to E News. He was hospitalized after experiencing a bloody cough coupled with a fever and was told he was likely dealing with Type A flu and pneumonia.

In 2019, he was also admitted to a hospital for an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis.

Man of faith

The man of faith was interviewed by Blaze News in 2013 when he said, "I grew up in the church. I was raised in the church."

"I do believe in showing more so than having to say. I feel like if I live the Christian life, then the people should be able to see it in my everyday actions."

Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

Outspoken Christian

Aaron has been outspoken about being a Christian in Hollywood. In a 2017 interview, he noted that many people in the film industry are "not very charitable" unless it benefits them.

"I've noticed that, especially with friends in Hollywood, if you want to keep a friend, don't ask them for anything. I tell people all the time, I say, 'The moment you ask for a favor, you're probably never going to hear from them again,'" he explained.

"They may grant that favor, but don't plan on asking for another one," the actor added.

Oher, whom Aaron portrayed in the 2009 film, had eight seasons in the NFL, five of which were with the Baltimore Ravens.

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Knifed for 'being a Christian'? Suspect allegedly stabs man and his dog after asking about victim's religion

A suspect allegedly stabbed a man and his dog Sunday in Washington state after the suspect asked the victim what religion he is, the Pierce County Sheriff's Office said.

The 54-year-old male victim called 911 reporting that an unknown male stabbed him near the S S Quickstop Grocery in Parkland just before 6:30 a.m. and that the male fled southbound on Park Avenue S., officials said. Parkland is about 45 minutes south of Seattle.

'This would actually be a hate crime based on religion.'

When deputies arrived, the victim was in serious condition and told deputies the unknown man had come up to him and asked what religion he was, officials said.

"The victim answered the man and said something about being a Christian, and the man then attacked and stabbed the victim and his dog," officials added.

The victim provided a description of the suspect prior to being transported to a local hospital; the victim's dog was also in serious condition and was transported to a local animal hospital and was taken into surgery immediately, officials said.

Deputies used a K-9 to search the area for more than two hours but were unable to locate the suspect, officials said.

At 8:40 a.m. while conducting an area check, a deputy saw the suspect in the 800 block of 112th St. S, and the suspect fled behind a nearby home, officials said.

Deputies followed the suspect and reported that shots had been fired at 8:47 a.m., officials said.

KOMO-TV reported that the sheriff's office confirmed the suspect was dead and that multiple deputies shot the suspect.

The sheriff's office added to KOMO that the suspect was armed with multiple knives, was resisting arrest, and approached deputies before shots were fired.

Detectives do not know the suspect's identity or his connection, if any, to the area or the house he fled behind, KOMO added.

KING-TV said the stabbing victim, Eddie Nitschke, lives in the convenience store's parking lot in a car with his girlfriend and two dogs.

Nitschke told KING he initially responded to the suspect that he wasn't religious, but the suspect kept pushing the issue about what religion he was, after which Nitschke told the suspect, "I guess Christian."

The suspect then accused Nitschke of pursuing him, KING added: "He said, 'You've been looking for me for some time,' and I said, 'I don't even know you.'"

KING said the suspect soon struck Nitschke multiple times with two knives and punctured his lung.

During the attack, Nitschke told his girlfriend to release their dog from the car, KING reported, adding that the dog attacked the suspect and was also stabbed.

"My shirt was drenched with blood," Nitschke recounted to KING.

Modern pet ownership is a mental illness

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

Man’s relationship with animals has been complicated for thousands of years. From the beginning of time, they have been ours to rule over — for better or worse. Their care has been a sacred responsibility.

What once would have warranted a CPS call is now accepted, even encouraged. Young children crawl where animal feces and urine collect.

Our ancestors offered the best animals as burnt sacrifices. Those who forgot God worshipped the animals instead. We worked alongside them, traveled with them, and fought wars on their backs. We domesticated them for food and clothing. The decent among us treated them kindly and with gratitude.

We have loved animals. We have also misused them for our own needs and amusement.

Friend-zoned

Animals have long been man’s companions. But the idea that an animal is “man’s best friend” did not emerge until the 18th century — and even then, those loyal hunting companions only loosely resembled the modern leashed house pet.

There has always been a role for animals alongside the impaired, the grieving, the lonely, or the emotionally suffering. But such arrangements were not the norm. Animals lived near men because they were valuable. Children played with them outdoors. Sometimes barns were attached to houses. But no decent family would have subjected their children to living in the same space as animals — except in rare cases when an animal was sick and required special care.

What once would have warranted a CPS call is now accepted, even encouraged. Young children crawl where animal feces and urine collect, and no one blinks. Disabilities are suddenly ubiquitous, and everyone feels entitled to an emotional-support companion, regardless of whether it is good for the animal — or their children.

Bred for comfort

These animals we call man’s “best friends” are hardly recognizable as anything God created. We have bred them to suit our desires. We have domesticated wild creatures and enslaved them. They depend on us completely, even as we use them to satisfy our own emotional needs. We have fashioned a kind of Frankenstein for our own comfort, without counting the cost: the animals we have tampered with and overbred, now wandering the streets, feral and forgotten.

As Christians called to be good stewards of all God has given us, we must ask whether we have gone too far. Have we taken advantage of animals under the guise of love?

We excuse this abuse with self-serving justifications. They like it, we say of pets locked inside, barking or scratching at doors—as if anything enjoys being caged, leashed, or confined for another’s benefit. Sometimes we hoard them and claim it is love. We argue, My pet teaches me responsibility and routine. But pets for the sake of learning responsibility are for children. Adults should turn to prayer for discipline. We say, My pet is the only thing that loves me unconditionally.

Image source: Davidson County (N.C.) Sheriff's Office

Tied down

Pet ownership is a sign of mental illness. Instead of seeking help, we entrap animals.

We claim pets make us responsible adults, yet they prevent us from serving others. We cannot travel, volunteer, or do missionary work because of them. They keep us from weddings, baby showers, and funerals. They make us less generous, less available, less free.

The gospel goes unpreached for the sake of man’s best friend.

But what has been done cannot easily be undone. We cannot simply turn pets loose. If taking them was a mistake, abandoning them would be another.

This is not the first time humanity has abused its authority over animals. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors domesticated pigeons — first for food, then as messengers. When technology made them unnecessary, those loyal companions became pests. What we created, we came to despise once it no longer served us.

No easy answers

Rather than continuing this cycle of domesticating and discarding animals, we should pause and ask what we are doing. Are we abusing our God-given authority? How can we make amends without causing further harm? I have no easy answers — only a denunciation of the modern pet industry.

In the meantime, we should not condone animal hoarding. We should reach out to the lonely in our communities instead of outsourcing compassion to pets. And those with unruly animals should make them tolerable, rather than subjecting the rest of us to their filth, noise, and danger. Just as a young man becomes obnoxious without purpose, so do animals confined without work.

We must find a humane way to let pets return to being animals. It would be better for them — and for us.

Malcolm Muggeridge: Fashionable idealist turned sage against the machine

“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality and the most intellectually resisted fact.”

The name of the man who made this pronouncement may not mean much to many readers now. Yet the world he warned about has arrived all the same, whether his name is remembered or not.

When Malcolm Muggeridge — a British journalist and broadcaster who became a public figure in his own right — died in 1990, many of his fears still felt abstract. The moral strain was visible, but the structure was holding. Progress was spoken of with confidence, and freedom still sounded uncomplicated.

'I never knew what joy was until I gave up pursuing happiness.'

Today, those assumptions lie in pieces. What he distrusted has hardened into dogma. What he questioned has become unquestionable. We are living amid the consequences of ideas he spent a lifetime probing.

Theory meets reality

Muggeridge was never dazzled by modern promises. He distrusted grand schemes that claimed to perfect humanity while refusing to reckon with human nature. That suspicion wasn’t a pose; it was learned. As a young man, he flirted with communism, drawn in by its certainty and its language of justice. Then he went to Moscow. There, theory met reality.

What he encountered was not liberation but deprivation. Hunger was rationalized as hope. Cruelty came wrapped in benevolent language. Compassion was loudly proclaimed and quietly absent. The experience cured him of fashionable idealism for life. It also taught him something harder to accept: Evil often enters history announcing itself as virtue, and the most dangerous lies are told with complete sincerity.

That lesson stayed with him. In an age once again thick with certainty, that insight feels uncomfortably current.

Pills and permissiveness

Yet Muggeridge’s critique extended beyond politics. At heart, he believed the modern crisis was spiritual. God had become an embarrassment, sin a diagnosis, and responsibility something to be displaced by grievance. Pleasure, once understood as a byproduct of order, was recast as life’s purpose. The result, he argued, wasn’t freedom but loss.

This realism shaped his opposition to the sexual revolution. Long before its consequences were obvious, he warned that freedom severed from restraint wouldn’t liberate people so much as hollow them out. He mocked the belief that pills and permissiveness would deliver happiness. What he anticipated instead was loneliness, instability, and a culture increasingly medicated against its own dissatisfaction.

Muggeridge also understood the media with unsettling clarity. As a journalist and broadcaster, he watched newsrooms trade substance for spectacle and truth for approval. When entertainment becomes the highest aim, he warned, reality soon becomes optional.

By the end of his career, Muggeridge had dismantled nearly every modern promise. Fame proved thin. Desire disappointed. Professional success brought no lasting peace. Skepticism could clear the ground, but it could not explain why nothing worked.

A skeptic stands down

When after more than a decade of exploring Christianity, Muggeridge finally entered the Catholic Church in 1982, the reaction among his peers was disbelief bordering on embarrassment. This was not the impulse of a sentimental seeker but of one of Britain’s most famous skeptics — a man who had mocked piety, distrusted enthusiasm, and made a career of puncturing illusions.

Friends assumed it was a late-life affectation, a theatrical flourish from an aging contrarian. Muggeridge himself knew better. He had not converted because Christianity felt safe or consoling, but because, after a lifetime of alternatives, it was the only account of reality that still made sense.

As he had written years before in "Jesus Rediscovered," “I never knew what joy was until I gave up pursuing happiness.”

That sentence captures the logic of his conversion. Muggeridge did not arrive at faith through nostalgia or temperament. Christianity did not flatter him. It named pride, lust, and cruelty plainly, then offered grace without euphemism. It explained the world he had already seen — and himself within it.

Washington Post/Getty Images

Truth endures

His Catholicism was not an escape from seriousness but its culmination. He believed human beings flourish within limits, not without them; that desire requires direction; that pleasure without purpose corrodes. Christianity endured, he argued, not because it was comforting but because it was true.

After his conversion, Muggeridge did not soften. He sharpened. The satire retained its bite. The warnings grew more direct. But they were no longer merely critical. Skepticism had given way to clarity — not because he had abandoned reason, but because he had finally stopped pretending it was enough.

More than three decades after his death, Muggeridge’s voice sounds less like commentary than like counsel. The world he warned about has arrived. What remains is the stubborn relevance of faith grounded in reality — and the freedom that comes only when truth is faced, rather than fled.

Matthew McConaughey: Choose God and family, not 'participation trophies'

Matthew McConaughey doesn't want participation trophies, and he doesn't want success to be watered down.

The iconic actor recently gave a speech only he could deliver, forgoing giving traditional advice in favor of providing his own spiritual leanings that work for him.

'I think in the West, because we want everyone to feel really great, participation trophies!'

The movie star was asked about how he critiques his performances on screen and how he gauges success.

"I know if I'm bogeying or if I'm birdieing. ... I've seen myself on screen [and thought], 'You're kind of bulls***ting there,'" McConaughey told host Jay Shetty on his podcast.

Faking the grade

From there, McConaughey trashed the idea of expanded grade-point averages through extra credit.

"I'm not into extra credit. I don't like 4.2 GPAs. That tells me, like, what happened? Are we, then, we're not giving the right test? If 4.0 was the pinnacle, you know, that means not many people should be getting it, if anybody," he explained.

The Texan said that with higher scores, institutions have either over-leveraged the original task or broadened the scope of scoring and therefore cheapened the credit.

"I think in the West, because we want everyone to feel really great, participation trophies! 4.2 GPA. Well, I feel better," he said sarcastically.

It was from there that McConaughey began to explain where he seeks validation from, which was the true shining light of the discussion.

Heavenly helpers

Aside from his wife and kids, McConaughey revealed he has a trio of people in heaven that he looks to for reactions — and God's reaction through them.

"I have a council in the sky. Three people that are extremely important to me in my life: my dad, Penny Allen, and John Cheney."

While the 56-year-old explained that Cheney is his old friend, it was not clear who Allen is.

"I see them, wink at them, talk with them, listen to them ... run ideas by them, run decisions by them, and then I look up and see what their reaction is. And it's been a very trusted council for me."

This is a way to put "souls that are no longer with us" in "a heaven sense," he explained. "They're a conduit from God to me, and I have no expectations of them."

In God he trusts

It doesn't always go well for McConaughey, though. Sometimes his dad is "dancing in his underwear with a Miller Lite and a piece of lemon meringue pie," he laughed, but sometimes "they're not dancing," and he has to figure out why.

Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

The Uvalde, Texas, native said it is very important to him to not have a picture of God in his mind, as he does not want to minimize his meaning.

In the end though, this all leads to McConaughey seeking his own validation, he admitted.

"I try to measure how I counsel and referee myself off of some of the people I just brought up to you," he told the host.

"That's where I prove it."

McConaughey added that he does not look too far outside his own circle, because those he knows are who he trusts.

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'Enough is enough': Fed-up Florida sheriff has tough words for anti-ICE leftists who stormed Minnesota church

Grady Judd, the outspoken sheriff of Florida's Polk County, most definitely is not shy about making his opinions known, whether they're about crime in his own back yard or even crime of concern around the country.

Indeed, after leftists protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement stormed a church Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota, Judd — like many Americans — was outraged and made sure to let residents of his Florida county know exactly where he stands.

'Freedom of religion. It is our right in this United States of America.'

The following is what Judd had to say:

I'm standing in a house of worship. And I think about last weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota, where people who came to worship were attacked — they were attacked by rioters. The service was disrupted. They cut at the very fabric of this great United States of America. We settled this country so many years ago so we could worship free, the way we wanted to, in whatever house of worship we chose. That attack is unacceptable.

Then he added what many in Polk County wanted to hear: "I can assure you that had that attack been in this community, every one of those rioters would be in jail today. That's where the federal government could have found them — on state charges, locked up."

Judd concluded: "And I pray it's that same way all across the United States of America. Enough is enough. Let's join together for the good of the United States of America, let's worship the way we want to, and let's everyone renounce the horribleness of last Sunday in St. Paul, Minnesota."

The video showing Judd's words received over 3 million views and elicited more than 20,000 comments since it was posted Tuesday; the following are some of the more popular reactions:

"Grady Judd for sheriff of the world!" one commenter wrote.
"I love Sheriff Grady Judd," another user said. "We need more people like him in law enforcement all over this great country."
"Freedom of religion," another commenter noted. "It is our right in this United States of America."
"Great commentary," another user offered. "What's troubling is that a segment of the American public is attempting to argue that the individuals who disrupted the church were merely 'exercising their First Amendment rights.' That claim collapses under even minimal scrutiny. Once they trespassed onto church property, any First Amendment protection ceased to apply. More importantly, their actions directly violated the First Amendment religious rights of the church and its members. If there were ever a clear-cut case for the DOJ to set a strong precedent by pursuing felony charges, this would be it. Serious consequences are warranted for conduct this egregious."

As it happens, Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen were arrested Thursday in connection with the church-storming incident. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced later Thursday that William Kelly also was arrested.

However, former CNN talking head Don Lemon reportedly is escaping charges. Lemon claimed to have been acting as a journalist when he joined the group that stormed the church whose pastor reportedly leads an ICE office.

But CBS News sources said a Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused to sign a complaint against Lemon. "The attorney general is enraged at the magistrate's decision," according to a CBS News source said to be familiar with the matter.

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'Anti-ICE' Christians mistake moral confusion for empathy

Christians are called to be people of truth. But when we fail to ground our thinking in biblical principles, we can end up telling inadvertent lies — and mischaracterizing fellow believers in the process.

Exhibit A: this post from a Christian writer and speaker, sharing with her Christian followers, regarding current events centered in Minneapolis.

Empathy for the hurting extends to all those who hurt, and plenty have been hurt by the assault on our borders over the past few years.

She writes:

I’m reading through the gospels right now, and I’m struck by what the leaders of Israel enticed the crowds to demand — that an innocent man be put to death and a murderer (Barabbas) be freed from prison and the obvious consequences of his egregious actions. This is the hallmark of an unjust society, where we vilify those who have done nothing wrong (and treat them like criminals), or we applaud and set free those who harm others.

She never mentions Minnesota or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but her followers’ responses make it abundantly clear they got (and “loved”) the intended message.

'Vilifying' crime?

Apparently the writer perceives illegal immigrants as “those who have done nothing wrong” who we are “vilifying” and “treating like criminals.” (Pro tip: Breaking a law makes you a criminal.) ICE agents, apparently, are “those who harm others” that we are supposedly “applauding” or “setting free.”

She goes on:

I am heartbroken by the current state of things in my country. Deeply troubled. Praying. Worrying, if I’m honest. I keep watching documentaries about tyranny and cult leaders and history.

Tyranny and cult leaders? Since we hear this from the left constantly, we know exactly what she’s trying to say.

And that’s what “deeply troubles” ME.

That the current administration — which is carrying out the federal government’s long-neglected role in protecting our borders and thus our communities — is somehow tyrannical. That those of us who support this, many of us who voted for this, are akin to a “cult.”

Thinking it through

I’m troubled by Christians who knee-jerk react to the world without thinking issues through biblically, as she demonstrates here:

I do understand the nature of evil — to call evil good and good evil.

My friend, we are not the ones confusing evil and good here. Let’s break it down.

First, sin is evil. Period. So when we are talking about evil, we are talking about sin.
Second, breaking the law is sin/evil. Unless the law directly contradicts the word of God.

Can we agree on those two principles?

If I break down your door to get into your home — even if I just walk in your unlocked door — that is a sin.

It’s a sin because it’s against the law (and that law in no way contradicts the word of God).
It’s also a sin because I am taking — stealing — something that belongs to you. Your home, your privacy, your sense of safety, your peace. I have no right to invade your space. I have no right to breach your border.

Profoundly hypocritical

Doors and locks exist for a reason, just like borders and guarded crossing points do. Those who advocate for open borders (identified by their yelling, “No one is illegal!”) live in homes with doors and locks. They are profoundly hypocritical.

They are worse than hypocritical actually. Because while they still seek to protect themselves, they are happy for other people to be stripped of that right. And for other people to have to deal with the loss of safety and peace.

Consider these females, all attacked and murdered by men here illegally: Kayla Hamilton, Ruby Garcia, Lizbeth Medina, Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Joselyn Toaquiza, Melody Waldecker, and Mollie Tibbetts.

And these women are hardly the only victims. In Texas alone, hundreds of people have died in recent years at the hands of people who entered illegally. I mention Texas because nobody else is tracking this particular statistic — Americans killed by illegal border-crossers.

Meantime thousands of illegal border-crossers who are also convicted murderers still roam free nationwide.

Of course, murder isn’t the only evil aided and abetted by illegal immigration. As we’ve seen in recent days from the same troubled state, fraud and taxpayer abuse is rampant as well, with wholly corrupt public officials turning a blind eye or benefiting from the scams.

Law and sin

But even if an illegal border-crosser never committed another crime nor took a dime of taxpayer money — it would STILL not be wrong to send him/her home. There is a line to get in, there are people waiting in that line, and they cut in front. They broke the law. It’s a sin. It’s evil.

(By the way, speeding is against the law too, in case we’re feeling superior in any way. God’s standards are high!)

The left cannot and will not see border issues for what they are, but Christians should take no part in the ungodly confusion of thinking that wanting to curb this evil is itself evil.

No true Christian

One of the comments to the post came from a Canadian:

I don’t even live in the USA but I am deeply troubled also. I am praying for the so called “Christian” to wake up from their slumber and see what’s really going on. True followers of Christ would not support this evil.

This comment, actually, is a sin. Because it’s wrong to assume that fellow Christians whose viewpoints on deportation proceedings differ from yours are therefore not “true followers.”

Especially in an age when people tend to get their news from the same sources over and over, we should tread very lightly in making assumptions about someone’s salvation. That is in fact the judging we’re not supposed to do, because we don’t know people’s hearts — as opposed to the judging we can do, when people say or do specific sinful things.

Can we talk?

A reasonable discussion we might have here could center around specific ICE tactics. But we can’t have that discussion because one side refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of ICE in the first place (many also seem to be under the wholly ignorant impression it didn’t exist or take action before Trump). They also refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of a border, for the most part.

And they certainly refuse to acknowledge the fact that actively impeding lawful efforts to enforce law is in fact breaking the law and is therefore ... yes, a sin/evil.

Peacefully holding a protest sign is not wrong in any way. But let’s not pretend that’s what’s happening here, when “playbooks” are being disseminated online for physically engaging with these federal officers and “anti-ICE” groups openly call for violence. These things, as we have already seen, put the protesters — whether they are paid or just easily misled — in danger too.

Empathy for all

A topic for another time, perhaps, is the over-the-top emotion and angst over this American situation, which at this point involves the sad death of exactly one person who arguably put herself squarely in harm’s way. This response to the writer’s post is a good example:

It’s really hard for me to enjoy life like nothing is happening when so many others are hurting.

This Christian American woman is struggling to enjoy life. Because ICE. Not because thousands of Iranians are being slaughtered by the Islamic Republic of Iran, or the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, or any other people hurting, but because America is deporting people who shouldn’t have illegally crossed in.

Empathy for the hurting extends to all those who hurt, and plenty have been hurt by the assault on our borders over the past few years. With that in mind, another quote from the original post:

The way of Jesus is not conquest, nor is it victory over our so-called enemies. ... It means listening to the hurting, entering into the worlds of those who differ from us, and loving people we disagree with.

I could not agree more. We Christians, who believe any government’s God-ordained job is to protect its own citizens and therefore support deportation of people who “skipped the line” to get in (especially violent people), would appreciate having a civil conversation about this topic.

That — as opposed to indirectly or directly calling us nonbelievers — would be the loving thing to do.

This article was adapted from an essay originally published on Diane Schrader's Substack, She Speaks Truth.

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Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza gives 'all the glory to God' ahead of national championship

When it comes to his role in Indiana's unlikely rise to the top of college football, Hoosier quarterback Fernando Mendoza knows just who to thank: "the man upstairs."

"I really give a lot that I have accomplished this season in my life to the Lord and really give thanks to God. ... Give all the glory to God," Mendoza told reporters ahead of tonight's 2026 National Championship against the University of Miami.

'I really give a lot that I have accomplished this season in my life to the Lord.'

Team effort

At the press conference Saturday, the recent Indiana University transfer stressed that his success was a team effort — a team that includes the priests at his Catholic parish in Bloomington.

"I'm a Catholic man," Mendonza told reporters. "And they've done so much to help me, whether it's confession or just [being] able to talk or just Mass every Sunday."

This is not the first time Mendoza has credited the men of the St. Paul Catholic Center.

Christmas gift

On Christmas Eve, the 22-year-old brought them his 2025 Heisman Trophy. Mendoza won the award — which honors the nation's top college football player — on December 15, thanks in part to the 41 touchdown passes he threw for the Hoosiers this season.

Recalling the moment, Mendoza said, "I think it was really important to take it over [to] those guys, especially those guys who have been great religious mentors to myself."

Chasing a dream

In his Heisman acceptance speech, Mendoza thanked God for giving him "the opportunity to chase a dream that once felt the world away" and vowed to live up to the honor.

Mendoza, who attends Mass weekly and says he prays before every game, also thanked his younger brother Alberto, currently Indiana's backup quarterback. Calling Alberto his "lifelong teammate," Mendoza described him as the one person he could trust to "get through a tough day, tough play, [or] tough game."

"I love you, bro. I love you and thank you for always giving it to me straight no matter the circumstance."

The NCAA national football championship airs from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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A 'fighter'

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