If Governments Won’t End No-Fault Divorce, Churches Should Help
Anyone confused about what God says about marriage and divorce can find clarity -- and robust scriptural receipts -- in this book.Anyone confused about what God says about marriage and divorce can find clarity -- and robust scriptural receipts -- in this book.Activists protest church's 'hateful' messages on Pride Month — pastor says he welcomes the protests
The pastor of the New Hope Community Church in Palatine, Illinois, says that he isn't backing down from preaching the truth after LGBTQ+ activists showed up to protest.
The protesters are angry at messages the church has posted on its digital sign that refer to Pride Month, and they want the church to stop.
'That gives us the chance to share God's truth. I wish they'd come every day so we can have conversations.'
One of the messages reads, "We love you enough to tell you the truth," while another reads, "Ditch Pride, embrace humility."
"Our goal was to let other residents of Palatine know what this church preaches and that Palatine is better than that," said Paul Dombrowski of the Northwest Suburban Pride Network to WLS-TV.
"It is important to stand up for those in our community who are being marginalized and who are being ostracized clearly in this way," said Chelsea Laliberte Barnes, a member of a group named Liberal Moms of the Northwest Suburbs.
Some said they were concerned about the messages because the church is near a school.
The WLS news video report showed that one protester held up a sign reading, "Hate has no home here," while a report from LGBTQ Nation called the messages "hateful."
Members of the church came out to defend the innocuous messages and discuss the issue with the protesters.
James Pittman Jr., the pastor of the church, said they would not change their messaging and added that he welcomed the protests.
"That gives us the chance to share God's truth. I wish they'd come every day so we can have conversations," Pittman told WLS.
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The pastor explained that the church's digital messages would often reflect the season, such as Christmas or Easter, but in June they refer to Pride Month.
WLS noted that LGBTQ activists had also tried to get Palatine city officials to fly a Pride flag outside of city hall but had been rebuffed.
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What A 20-Year-Old Convertible With A Broken Roof Taught Me About The Good Life
Family, faith, and community are the real basis for the good life. A convertible, whether new and expensive or old and cheap, is at most a cherry on top.Church pastor charged with battery, says male he's accused of beating up threatened to rape, kill his family
A Louisiana church pastor charged with battery this week said the male he is accused of beating up threatened to rape and kill his family.
Tony Spell, 48 — pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central — on Tuesday walked across Hooper Road and allegedly beat up a person who screamed “F**k you," KLFY-TV reported, citing an affidavit.
'They don’t like the church; they made that clear.'
The station said that during a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Spell indicated that the person he is accused of beating up said a lot more than that.
Spell said he was working on a church bus when he heard the neighbor's son yelling at him, WBRZ-TV reported: "He said, 'Tony, I'm gonna rape your wife, I'm gonna rape all of your grandchildren,' and he said, 'The next time you go out of town, I'm gonna kill them — and what the F are you going to do about it?'"
Spell added that he's the "natural protector" of his family and church, and it was his job to take action, WBRZ reported.
“You’re not going to rape my wife. I can’t allow you to do that. You’re not going to rape my grandchildren and me live with the cloud over my head that if I leave, my children and wife are unprotected. I have a duty and an obligation to do what I did,” Spell said, according to KLFY.
WBRZ said sheriff's deputies arrested Spell after the altercation with the 20-year-old.
“This has gone on for years now," Spell also said at the news conference, according to KLFY. "Behind me are several witnesses who can attest to what was said; they have video, they have made numerous complaints to the police and sheriff’s department."
Spell also said that the people across the street have stalked and intimidated church attendees, KLFY noted: “As a shepherd, I have not allowed the sheep to attack the wolves for what was said to them."
WBRZ said it spoke with those neighbors — the Sherwins — who countered that Spell's claims are false and stem from the recent conclusion of a legal battle that began after Spell was arrested for disregarding coronavirus mandates and holding church services while stay-at-home orders were in effect.
"This pastor is a bully who gets mad when he does not get his way," the Sherwins said, according to WBRZ, which added that the family's video cameras captured Tuesday's altercation.
KLFY said arrest documents indicate that the beatdown victim sustained some injuries, including a possible broken orbital bone around his right eye.
Spell's attorney, Jeff Wittenbrink, told KLFY there possibly was a law enforcement failure or a “gap” in the law regarding the ongoing problem with family across the street from the church, which he called “domestic terrorism.”
“They don’t like the church; they made that clear,” Wittenbrink also said, according to KLFY.
Central Police Department Chief Roger Corcoran responded to criticisms against law enforcement, KLFY added.
“Allegations that the Central Police Department has failed to investigate complaints lodged by Pastor or Mrs. Spell are untrue. Our records reflect only five incidents involving Pastor or Mrs. Spell in the past four years, and only one of those involved a complaint against their neighbors," Corcoran said, according to KLFY. "All calls to our department are recorded, and all persons who visit our department to make in-person complaints are captured on video. If dates and times of complaints were allegedly made are provided to me, I will order an audit of our systems to investigate any claim of a failure to investigate."
KLFY said Spell was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a second-degree battery charge. WBRZ said Spell bonded out Tuesday evening; the bond was $25,000, KLFY reported.
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I Want To Be The Loudest Man In Church, Just Like My Dad
For years, I resisted becoming my father. Now I thank God for the parts of him I am inheriting — most of all, his voice.Pastor blasts woke prosecutor for refusing to charge Don Lemon, comrades over church invasion
St. Paul City Attorney Irene Kao — a warrior against what she calls "structural racism" — announced this week that she won't bother bringing state charges against those radicals who stormed into Cities Church in January.
Kao's apparent tolerance for militant leftist agitation has left the church's lead pastor, Rev. Jonathan Parnell, and others wondering whether the woke prosecutor's purported "commitment to protect religious people includes evangelical Christians."
A mostly peaceful church invasion?
Don Lemon — the former CNN talking head who suggested in October that "black people, brown people" should take up arms against Immigration and Customs Enforcement — apparently joined radicals from Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, and BLM Twin Cities for a so-called "ICE Out Action" in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18.
'The law will bend for those whose cause aligns with the politics of those in power.'
Rather than interfere with federal law enforcement operations, this motley crew of leftists stormed into Cities Church, doing their apparent best to drown out sounds of Sunday worship.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network and former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, claimed responsibility for the disruption and indicated that Cities Church was targeted because "David Easterwood is a Pastor at this church and the Acting Field Director for the ICE office in St. Paul."
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The radicals refused requests from church officials to leave the premises and instead hectored churchgoers and screamed in the aisles and pews.
The Trump Justice Department took the matter seriously, securing indictments against all 39 individuals suspected of disrupting the church service, including Lemon, Armstrong, and Jamael Lydell Lundy — a radical who previously worked for Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum; has served as the right-hand man for Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County’s Soros-backed prosecutor; and is married to St. Paul City Councilwoman Anika Bowie.
Whereas the DOJ appears keen on holding the suspected church invaders accountable for federal civil rights violations, Irene Kao is evidently of a different mind.
Decision, backlash
Kao, the leftist daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, announced this week that her office will not bring state-level criminal charges against Don Lemon and his comrades.
"Our office has a legal and ethical obligation to file charges only when the available evidence establishes probable cause and supports a reasonable likelihood of conviction beyond a reasonable doubt," Kao said in a statement.
"Following a careful evaluation of the video footage, investigative reports, and other available materials, prosecutors determined that the current evidence is insufficient to meet that standard for criminal charges under Minnesota state statutes," continued the woke prosecutor.
After noting that her decision should not be read as an endorsement of illegal behavior, Kao wrote, "The right to peacefully protest is protected, as is the right to exercise one’s religious beliefs."
"Balancing these equally important rights is paramount to our decision today," continued the leftist prosecutor.
Doug Wardlow, director of litigation for Truth North Legal and representative for Cities Church, said, "The St. Paul city attorney’s decision treats the church like it's a public sidewalk — as if the sanctuary were an open forum that anyone may seize mid-service, rather than private property where a congregation has the right to worship undisturbed."
"By wrongly characterizing the invasion and takeover of a worship service as First Amendment-protected conduct, the city attorney’s office sends an unmistakable signal: The law will bend for those whose cause aligns with the politics of those in power," added Wardlow.
Rev. Jonathan Parnell said in a statement, "According to the St. Paul city attorney’s logic, it is perfectly fine for agitators to invade a mosque, a cathedral, or a temple, intimidate the families and children inside, and shut down their religious gathering. Just call it a 'protest.'"
The Cities Church pastor noted further that "City Attorney Irene Kao’s decision not to charge the agitators who invaded our church on January 18, 2026, leaves us to question whether her commitment to protect religious people includes evangelical Christians."
In addition to facing criticism for setting a dangerous precedent, Kao has been questioned over her possible self-interest in the case.
After all, Jamael Lydell Lundy, one of the radicals whom Kao let off the hook, is married to a member of city council — the very council that confirms the mayor's city attorney appointments.
KSTP-TV has doggedly — but so far unsuccessfully — pressed the offices of Kao and Democratic Mayor Kaohly Her about whether the case should have been handled externally to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
David Schultz, professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University, told KSTP that Kao's handling of Lundy's case creates the "possible appearance of a conflict of interest."
"Send it outside City Hall, not even move it to a different attorney in City Hall, but to basically hire an outside firm, review the file, and make their own independent decision regarding whether or not to prosecute or not," said Schultz. "That way it would clearly have addressed any of the concerns about the appearance of conflict of interest, and again, assured the public that there was no favoritism going on here."
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There’s No Such Thing As Pro-Life Feminism
It is well past time to scuttle establishment feminism and work with women’s human nature instead of against it.The Sheep Detectives Is Good, Clean Fun With An Accidental Christian Message
It was refreshing to watch a children’s movie that not only avoided inappropriate messaging but also mirrored Christian themes.Pope Leo XIV recognizes martyrdom of Christians slaughtered by Spanish leftists
Pope Leo XIV has recognized the martyrdom of scores of Spanish Christians murdered by leftists in the 1930s, setting the stage for their possible canonization.
Spain was ravaged in the first half of the 20th century by a bloody civil war that saw a motley crew of Soviet-backed leftists — a coalition strained by infighting between anarchists and communists, to the great chagrin of George Orwell — pitted against an alliance of conservatives, nationalists, and monarchists who were alternatively reinforced by German and Italian forces.
In the years leading up to the war, the Catholic Church and its supporters in Spain became increasingly popular targets for deadly leftist attacks and political persecution by the Republican government.
That oppression paled, however, in comparison to the anti-Catholic campaign executed during the "Red Terror" — the leftist counterinsurgency described by the late Austrian-American polymath Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn as "an orgy of rape, sadism, and unspeakable obscenities."
According to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation:
Republican partisans desecrated, burned, and looted churches and shrines all across Spain. Relics and statues were paraded through the streets in mock celebrations; the bodies of saints and clergy were dug up and abused. Priests and religious were hunted and massacred: around 6,800 Catholic clergy, including 13 bishops, were tortured and executed by left-wing forces. Nor were these killings a reaction to clerical abuses. According to historian José Sanchez, "Priests of all types were killed: strict, loose, moral, immoral, libertines and ascetics,” including "some priests who were social activists and had actively opposed the uprisings." Indeed, murder of the local priest became de rigueur for loyal partisans: "Cassock we see, cassock we kill."
On Monday, Pope Leo authorized the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to recognize the martyrdom of Brother Estanislao Ortega García and 48 of his companions from the Montfort Brothers of St. Gabriel along with diocesan priest Emanuele Berenguer Clusella, who were "killed between the months of July and November 1936 in hatred of the faith, in various parts of Catalonia, Spain, in the context of the same persecution."
Vatican News noted that the recognition of the clerics' martyrdom "marks a step forward in the respective causes for canonization."
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InfoVaticana reported that the Archdiocese of Barcelona initially got the ball rolling on these martyrs' beatification decades ago, collecting testimonies and documentation regarding the circumstances of their deaths.
'They are models of consistency with the truth they professed.'
This is hardly the first time that Pope Leo or his predecessors have recognized the heroic faith of Christians murdered by Spanish leftists in the 1930s.
Last year, for instance, Pope Leo recognized as martyrs 109 diocesan priests, one religious sister, and 14 lay Catholics killed during the conflict along with 50 French Catholics who died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
In 2013, Pope Leo's predecessor, Pope Francis, enraged leftists by announcing the beatification of over 520 martyrs, mainly clergymen, killed for their faith during the Spanish Civil War. This beatification further advanced the cause of their potential recognition by the Catholic Church as saints.
The process for canonization, or official recognition of sainthood, is as follows: First, a candidate who "lived a heroically virtuous life or offered their life" is recognized by the pope as "venerable." The second stage is beatification, which requires a finding of "one miracle acquired through the candidate's intercession." Finally, for canonization, a second miracle is required.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops notes on its website that "all Christians are called to be saints. Saints are persons in heaven (officially canonized or not), who lived heroically virtuous lives, offered their life for others, or were martyred for the faith, and who are worthy of imitation."
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI beatified 498 martyrs "who poured out their blood for the faith during the religious persecution in Spain in 1934, 1936 and 1937" and whose ages ranged from 16 to 78.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II beatified 233 martyrs killed during the Spanish Civil War, including Maria Teresa Ferragud, an 83-year-old woman who was savagely murdered on the feast of Christ the King in 1936 along with her four daughters, all of whom were nuns.
"The Church wishes to recognize these men and women as examples of courage and constancy in faith, helped by God’s grace," Pope John Paul II, who was canonized in 2014, said at the time. "For us they are models of consistency with the truth they professed, while at the same time they honor the noble Spanish people and the Church."
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