Jordan Peterson Wants To Keep His Faith Private But Also Make A Profit Off It
Jordan Peterson still wants to keep his beliefs private. Fine, but then he should stop using God to line his coffers.Jordan Peterson still wants to keep his beliefs private. Fine, but then he should stop using God to line his coffers.Christian influencer couple arrested after teen girl alleges sexual and physical abuse, police say
A popular Christian influencer couple was arrested for allegedly abusing a 14-year-old girl, according to Texas police.
39-year-old Seth Michael Day is accused of sexually and physically assaulting the girl after a high school teacher noticed injuries to her face and head.
The girl said she had suffered numerous instances of abuse and reported some of them but that Heather Day had lied to officials in order to cover it up.
The teacher reported the injuries to the Keene police, who interviewed the girl. She claimed to have suffered ongoing abuse by Day and said he injured her with a cell phone.
After receiving treatment at the Cook Children's Medical Center, she also said that Day had sexually assaulted her.
In the last incident of abuse on Sept. 22, the girl said Day assaulted her while his wife, Heather Marie Day, was in the home.
Police said they found evidence of the physical and sexual assaults at the Days' home after obtaining a search warrant.
The girl said she had suffered numerous instances of abuse and reported some of them but that Heather Day had lied to officials in order to cover it up.
She allegedly told the victim that she had an autoimmune disease called hereditary angioedema, which causes swelling. Police noted that swelling would not explain the the injuries the victim had.
Records show the Days were both booked into the Johnson County jail but were released on bail of $100,000.
Heather Day hosts a Christian podcast, and the couple have authored several books, including one titled "I'll See You Tomorrow."
Seth Day is also a professor at Southwestern Adventist University, but he was placed on administrative leave after his arrest.
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"We are fully cooperating with law enforcement," the university said in a statement that indicated the allegations did not involve its students, staff, or other members of the faculty.
"The safety of our University community remains our first priority. We will share additional details as appropriate," the university added.
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How Boomers Can Save What’s Left Of America For Younger Generations
The Baby Boomers grew up in a completely different world than their children and grandchildren live in today. They need to know that and respond.Leftists and Muslims fret over France's Catholic revival: 'My reflex is to recoil'
During his Wednesday address in St. Peter's Square, Pope Leo XIV reflected on his recent four-day apostolic visit to France, noting that there is an unmistakable "renewal" underway in the formerly majority-Catholic nation.
While some Catholics are excited over the prospect that the same country that waded into the modern age through the blood of Catholic clerics and lay people might now be returning to the faith, radical leftists and a Muslim activist group are alternatively panicking.
'The American Catholics will now flood the world with their soft power.'
'Rebirth'
The Roman pontiff claimed in his address on Wednesday that the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris "can symbolically shed light on this entire Apostolic Journey, offering a perspective that I would summarize in one word: rebirth."
The cathedral, which was gutted centuries ago by French revolutionaries and again in April 2019 by a devastating fire, "has been rebuilt and is more splendid than ever," said the pope. "That disaster sparked a positive reaction at every level, some more visible and practical, others more hidden and of a spiritual nature."
The pope noted that the cathedral is but the "image of the Church made up of living stones, of the holy people of God."
Having observed the French come out to Mass en masse, the pope proclaimed, "This is the true reconstruction, the restoration of the Church that only God can bring about, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary."
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Over 80,000 young people packed the Stade de France stadium north of Paris for a prayer vigil with the pope on Friday; an estimated 700,000 people joined Pope Leo for Mass on Saturday in the center of Paris where Louis XVI was guillotined; and over 150,000 people joined the pope for Mass in Lourdes on Sunday.
Corentin Dugast, the French author who goes by "Un Homme Catholique" online, told the National Catholic Register that the pope's visit helped "put a lasting end to the timidity surrounding the faith, particularly among bishops, who sometimes seem afraid of their own shadow and reluctant to proclaim the gospel when it challenges the world."
While there was clearly widespread enthusiasm over his visit, Pope Leo — who on Monday emphasized that "one cannot speak of Europe without mentioning Christianity" — noted that signs of Catholic renewal in France predated his visit and have been "evident for some years now, namely the remarkable and growing number of young people and adults seeking baptism."
Whereas 4,278 adults were baptized in 2022, 13,234 adults and 8,152 teenagers were baptized at Easter this year, according to the French Bishops' Conference.
Opposition
The usual suspects have begun fretting about France's potential return to its ancient faith.
Someone from Miséricorde pour l’Humanité France, an Islamic propaganda outfit that targets traditional Catholics, for one described feeling "sad," "helpless," and apparently resigned that "France will become Catholic again."
According to an X translation, Miséricorde pour l’Humanité France complained on the first day of the pope's visit to France, "I feel sad when I see all this fervor surrounding Catholicism; I've been predicting this for years, and I feel like a CIA agent helplessly witnessing the return of the Soviet Union. In 45 years, France will become Catholic again, and we'll be left with nothing but our tears."
"I’m a good sport, nevertheless the Catholics are much better organized, as well as more determined, than us Muslims and even than the Zionists; you have to know how to recognize the strength of the Catholic international," the Muslim group member continued. "The American Catholics will now flood the world with their soft power, to the detriment of both Muslim spiritual hegemony in Western Europe and the Zionist lobby."
Charlie Hebdo, the satirical publication whose Paris office was targeted in a 2015 Muslim terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 17 people, also lamented some of the images out of the pope's visit.
Deputy editor Jean-Loup Adenor concern-mongered during a recent TV panel discussion about the sight of Catholics engaged in the sacrament of confession on the streets of Paris during the pope's visit. According to a Google translation of his remarks, Adenor said, "When I see confessors hearing people's confessions — my reflex is to recoil."
Adenor — whose publication routinely mocks Christ, Christianity, and the Catholic Church without consequence — noted further that he feels the need to strip away "the mystique" of the pope and "bring him down to earth," in part because Pope Leo "is someone capable of mobilizing Catholics in a country like France — a country where religious engagement is often a battleground, and where politics and faith intersect."
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The so-called National Federation of Freethought advanced the suggestions that the pope's visit was a "violation of international law" and that "only lackeys and compulsive kneelers refuse to see that this is clearly a religious and pastoral visit intended to glorify and exalt the Catholic faith."
The radical organization also complained about the predominantly Catholic private education system's receipt of public education funds; the pope's condemnation of euthanasia; and supposed violations of the codified separation of church and state.
French news outlet Le Monde decided the pope's visit was an opportune time to frame the Catholic faith's resurgence in France as a potential problem, primarily because of its rightist support.
After noting that "bishops and priests are now witnessing a distinct resurgence of interest across their dioceses and parishes" and pointing out that "churches in working-class neighborhoods [are] filling up again on Sundays," Le Monde's Sarah Belouezzane pushed an anonymous priest's claim that "a more political form of Catholicism exists today — and is increasingly prevalent, particularly on the right."
Le Monde warned that while there are progressive forces within the Church, there are also "highly conservative — or even reactionary — forces aligned with the ideas of certain politicians seeking to promote the concept of an 'eternal France' (inherently white and Catholic)."
While the Catholic Church appears to be enjoying a comeback in France, it has a long way to go given only 29% of the urban population identifies as Catholic, according to National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies data from 2020.
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Sara Gonzales reacts: James Talarico's ‘mentor’ gets exposed as a FRAUD by undercover video
Texas Senate Democrat candidate James Talarico has long made wild and untrue statements regarding Christianity, and now it’s become clear why.
His own pastor, Dr. Jim Rigby, holds equally insane beliefs about the religion, and he was caught on camera proudly announcing them.
“James Talarico calls Jim Rigby his mentor,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments. “And so Jim Rigby, according to his biography on the St. Andrews website, has a love of world religions and a passion for social justice.”
“And of course, James Talarico has referred to him as the biggest influence on him as a Christian and a human being,” she adds, before playing undercover footage obtained by Blaze Media of Rigby discussing the “problem” with evangelical Christians.
“They are people who are just not that smart, and like abstract thinking, which is where a lot of the liberal stuff and the principles of human rights, all that stuff, comes up ... it doesn’t show up on their radar,” Rigby told the undercover reporter unwittingly.
“They panic when that stuff is laid out in front of them. They know there’s something they’re not seeing. It’s like they have black-and-white vision and somebody’s showing them a color photograph or something like that,” he added.
But that’s not the worst of it. When Rigby was asked by the reporter if he needed to profess the belief that “God became a baby and that a virgin had a baby” in order to become a member of his church, Rigby answered that “we all got in by lying.”
“That’s the least you can do,” he added.
“It’s just a social club that we have,” Gonzales mocks, “We call ourselves Christians, but we don’t actually intend to live by any of the principles set forth in the actual document, the Bible.”
Matthew Marsden is shocked by the footage but unsurprised that he’s linked to Talarico.
“I don’t get this Talarico thing,” he says. “It’s almost as if they went, ‘Let’s get the worst possible candidate, especially for Texans, and let’s roll him out and let him just express what he thinks.’"
“And he’s still in the running. It is completely mind-boggling to me,” he adds.
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Is Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia' Netflix sending a 'transgender' message?
Netflix’s upcoming "Narnia" adaptation is leaving BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey with some concerns, especially considering the original author C.S. Lewis’ work has helped shape her to be the Christian she is today.
“His work really exists like in the backdrop of my mind,” Stuckey says, explaining that his work “drew [her] heart and [her] mind into wanting to understand Christianity better."
“When you understand what he is trying to articulate when it comes to the battle of good and evil, the creation of the earth, the eternal plan of redemption that God is carrying off without a hitch, then those seemingly small and mundane descriptions in 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,' they really just, they catch you,” she continues.
“And C.S. Lewis has an incredible way of doing that. And so I really care about this adaptation. I really care about how people are introduced to C.S. Lewis’ work,” she adds.
However, she doesn’t believe director Greta Gerwig is the right one to make the introduction.
While Stuckey admits that Gerwig is “very talented” and has directed films like "Little Women" and "Barbie," she is now making headlines for “creating Narnia as what she describes as a rock opera.”
“And she’s cast Meryl Streep ... as the voice of Aslan. He is the lion, if you don’t know, and he is the creator. He’s the one true king of Narnia. He is kind of the Christ character in C.S. Lewis’ fantasy series,” she explains.
Gerwig explained her reasoning as wanting “someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness. Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight.”
“But Meryl Streep is a woman,” Stuckey says. “And Aslan is portrayed as a ‘he’ through this series. And it’s important.”
“Now I think there’s going to be a lot of guesses about whether or not this is some kind of message about transgenderism or gender fluidity or feminism. I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, it is a strange choice when you think about a woman voicing a male character and continuing to be called male,” she continues.
“I don’t know if that is the political point that she’s trying to make, or if she’s just trying to do what a lot of artists do, and that’s blur lines and do things that don’t make sense,” she adds.
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Vance: Talarico wears Christianity as a 'skin suit' — and it reveals more than just contempt
Vice President JD Vance believes "woke is dead," and he thinks recent conduct from Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico demonstrates the point.
In an episode of conservative Vince Coglianese's podcast that aired on Tuesday, Vance sorted through white and black pills pertaining to the midterm election, which is now only five weeks away.
'Democrats are literally running away.'
Vance acknowledged the recent rightist doom-saying about the election, boosted in part by recent polls indicating that the Democrats have a serious edge in multiple races. However, the vice president emphasized that the country "is not going to be saved by what Thomas Paine would have called sunshine patriots."
"You have got to get in there and win these races and make it possible for Republicans to deny a bunch of crazy communists from having positions of power in the United States of America," said Vance. "It's just that simple."
Vance further suggested that the situation may not be as bleak for Republicans as some think, recalling polls from fall of 2024 that indicated that then-Vice President Kamala Harris was going to trounce President Donald Trump and that the Democrats were going to maintain control of the U.S. Senate.
In a Reuters/Ipsos poll published in late September 2024, Harris led Trump 47% to 40%, while an NBC News national poll showed Harris leading Trump 49% to 44%. Trump ultimately defeated Harris in a landslide, securing the popular vote and 86 more Electoral College votes than the Democrat.
While optimistic that the pollsters may be wrong again, Vance noted there are nevertheless "headwinds" and that seldom does a party that controls the House, the Senate, and the White House maintain its trifecta through the midterm election.
"It almost never happens, but this is very different," said Vance. "Number one, we have a very unique president. Number two, we have a bunch of crazy people running on the other side — yes, people who are promising not to lower your prices or to make your life better. They're promising to trans your kids and steal all your property. Like, that is not what the American people want out of their government."
On the topic of the "lunatics" Republicans must work to deny power, two Democratic names came up: Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, and Talarico, who is running against Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Coglianese noted that "Talafreako" appears to be "spending all of his time running away from every insane position he's ever expressed around with a camera" and referenced recently published undercover footage revealing the radicalism and heresy at the Democrat's church in Austin, Texas.
"This is what I think a particular type of hyper-progressive does to Christianity," said Vance. "They don't actually believe in the Resurrection. They don't believe that Jesus died as an atonement for human sin. What they believe is that Christianity can possibly be a useful tool to acquire political power. So they strip your religion of all of its meaning, of all of its truth, and wear it as a skin suit — and they try to trick people into voting for them."
"That's what Talafreako is fundamentally engaged in," added Vance.
The vice president once again identified a silver lining: Whereas Talarico was previously proud of his theological, economic, and moral radicalism, now when "you turn on the TV ... you would think James Talarico is basically a Republican, maybe a moderate Republican — but you would have no idea if you're just a normal Texas voter watching his advertising who this guy is."
Although Talarico's election-time moderation could be read as naked opportunism and deceit, Vance suggested instead that it means "we've won the argument."
"When you've won the argument so thoroughly that the other side is pretending they agree with you on the issues just to get elected, the result is not the black pill," said the vice president.
"The reason I'm super optimistic about just the nature of the country long-term is we have won the argument. Woke is dead. The Democrats are literally running away from things that they said two years ago in an effort to gain political power. That's cynical. It's ridiculous. But the fact that we won the argument is a very good first step."
Talarico — who had a five-point lead over Paxton in a September Texas Public Opinion Research poll and was tied with Paxton in the new Republican-sponsored Stratus Intelligence poll — recently walked back his previous claims that there are six genders and that "God is nonbinary," as well as his support for male transvestites playing in girls' sports.
A lesbian chaplain at Talarico's church in Austin was recently shown in undercover footage claiming that while Talarico has publicly pivoted about God being "nonbinary," "he'll change his tune back to where he was" if elected.
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What Chris Hansen knows about sin that modern culture forgets
“You see how this looks, right?”
That question captures Chris Hansen’s method. He takes a man who believed he was meeting a child for sex and forces him to look at his own conduct from the outside.
We do not merely lie to other people. We lie to ourselves. That is how ‘I knew it was wrong’ can coexist with ‘I did it anyway.’
For more than two decades, Hansen’s predator stings — from NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” to later investigations — have offered a grim case study in self-deception. The men know the conduct is wrong. They choose it anyway. Then, when Hansen arrives with the transcripts, they scramble to preserve the belief that they are good men.
In other words, Chris Hansen has given us a case study in sin.
The basic scenario is familiar. An adult begins communicating online with someone he believes is underage. The age is made explicit. The conversation becomes sexual. A meeting is arranged. The man drives to the house.
Then Hansen walks into the room.
“Have a seat. What are you doing here?”
Almost nobody simply says, “I came here because I wanted to have sex with a child.”
Instead, the explanations begin.
“I just came to talk.” “I was lonely.” “I wanted to make sure she was OK.” “I knew this was probably a setup.” Sometimes the man insists he intended to warn the supposed child about the dangers of talking to strangers online.
Then Hansen produces the chat logs.
He reads an explicit message in that grave, almost bureaucratic voice and asks, “What did you mean by that?” Everyone knows what it means. The point is that the words are no longer private. Hansen has dragged the man’s rationalizations into the open and placed them next to the evidence.
Now the story changes. Simple denial will not work, so the explanation becomes biography. He was lonely. He was depressed. He had a hard day. The goal is no longer to deny the conduct but to move the audience’s sympathy toward the man who chose it.
Hansen keeps returning to the same question: Does any of that make it acceptable to send sexual messages to someone who told you she was 13?
The excuses collapse one by one.
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Perhaps he missed the message stating the child’s age. Hansen points to the exchange in which the decoy asked whether the age was a problem and the man said it was not.
Perhaps he never intended to do anything sexual. Hansen reads the acts the man described in his own messages.
Perhaps he changed his mind on the drive over. Then why did he keep driving? Why did he knock on the door? Why did he bring condoms?
If he knew it was wrong, why did he still show up?
At some point, the rational answers run out. What remains is the answer many of the men cannot bear to say plainly: I wanted to do this.
Instead, they reach for the self-image they are desperate to protect. “I’m not a predator.” “I’m a good person.” “I just made one stupid mistake.”
The deception is not merely directed at Hansen. Much of it appears to be directed inward.
They are trying to preserve a portrait of themselves that the evidence no longer supports. Dorian Gray had the decency to keep his portrait hidden in the attic. Hansen puts the chat log on the kitchen table.
This is where Hansen becomes an accidental moral philosopher. He keeps asking a question human beings are remarkably good at avoiding: Why did you do what you did if you knew it was wrong?
The answer is frequently, “I don’t know.”
Philosophers have a name for part of this problem: weakness of the will, or akrasia. A person judges one course of action to be better and chooses another anyway.
Christianity goes farther. Sin is not merely rule-breaking. It disorders desire and corrupts our understanding of ourselves. Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful. Paul describes people as suppressing truths they do not want to face.
We do not merely lie to other people. We lie to ourselves.
That is how “I knew it was wrong” can coexist with “I did it anyway.” Fallen human beings do not merely fail to do the good they claim to know. They can learn to love what is evil while renaming it good. Milton gives Satan the line: “Evil, be thou my good.”
Some of the strangest Hansen encounters make the point even more sharply: The men recognize him.
They have watched the show. They know what happens. They have seen other men caught in precisely the same way. Yet they somehow never placed themselves in the same category.
Those guys were predators. I’m different.
Hansen sometimes asks whether they have children the same age as the decoy. Many do. What would they think if a grown man sent their child these messages? The moral judgment suddenly becomes easy — until Hansen turns it back on them.
That brings us to the problem with toxic empathy.
Compassion is a virtue. But compassion becomes morally destructive when it rearranges the categories of victim and perpetrator.
A man who drives to a house believing he is about to sexually exploit a child may indeed be lonely. He may have suffered. He may have psychological problems. Those facts can help explain him. They do not make him the victim of the encounter.
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The child he intended to exploit is the victim.
Our culture increasingly prefers therapeutic questions: What happened to him? Why is he hurting? How did society fail him? Those can be legitimate questions. They become toxic when they displace the more basic moral question: What did he choose to do to someone else?
Hansen’s great contribution is remarkably simple. He puts the evidence on the table and asks the person to account for it.
In an interview with me, Hansen said he learned something from Mike Wallace: Sometimes the most powerful question is simply, “Explain.”
That is why the format has a moral force larger than the television sting itself. Explanation is where excuses either become clearer or finally run out.
For more than 20 years, Hansen’s subjects have demonstrated something Christianity has taught for 2,000 years. “The heart is deceitful above all things,” Jeremiah admonishes, “and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Hansen’s kitchen table is not a confessional. But it is a place where self-deception has a hard time surviving the evidence.
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