Blaze News original: Game industry veteran canceled for pro-life views helping Christian developer launch biblical blockbuster



Game developer Bible X, an Oslo-based game studio founded in 2020 as part of BCC media, is developing a semi-open world video game set in ancient Israel that is sure to generate major waves in an industry valued at over $240 billion.

While Gate Zero has multiple distinguishing features, what primarily sets it apart from other titles in the historical adventure genre is that it centers on the most important story worth telling: that of a certain Nazarene whose life, death, and resurrection forever changed the fate of mankind and serve as a reference point by which all nations still mark the years of lesser events.

'I truly believe this game can and likely will be one of the biggest things for spreading the gospel — maybe not just only this game, but the start of what this game is doing — since the printing press.'

Gate Zero is hardly the first faith-based game. However, its developers are set on making it the first proper Christian blockbuster — accomplishing for the medium what "The Chosen" and "The Passion of the Christ" managed for TV and film, respectively.

Blaze News discussed the project with Bible X's head of studio and game designer Arve Solli last year and previewed a compelling prototype of the game, which was then touted as an opportunity to "travel back in time to explore ancient Israel, interact with Gospel stories, and examine the deeper meaning of Jesus' words."

In the months since, Bible X has made several bold moves to maximize quality and impact, including the onboarding of John Gibson, an industry veteran who stepped down as CEO of Tripwire Interactive after radicals targeted him for ruin and exile in 2021 over his support for the unborn.

Solli and Gibson spoke to Blaze News this week about mainstreaming the Bible in the video game industry, the current state of the game, Bible X's fundraising efforts stateside, and remaining obstacles.

From exile to Bible X

Bible X announced in January that Gibson had joined the team as executive game consultant.

Gibson indicated that while the opportunity was providential, his path to accept it was anything but smooth or direct.

"It was kind of funny. Every time I opened social media, I was seeing ads for the game Gate Zero. It was like God was tapping me on the shoulder saying, 'You should check this out.' And I kept ignoring it and ignoring it," said Gibson.

Finally, he relented and messaged the company, noting, "I'm John Gibson. I've been developing games for a while. If any of my experience is valuable, I'd be happy to contribute."

Gibson boasts decades of experience, having worn many hats while leading Tripwire, a Georgia-based video game company he co-founded in 2005, which has sold tens of millions of games. He brought multiple well-received titles to market, including Maneater, Chivalry 2, and Rising Storm, as well as the Red Orchestra and Killing Floor franchises.

Gibson recalled that "Arve responded and said, 'I hope you don't mind me saying this: we've been praying for someone like you to come along.'"

Tragedy and misfortune had evidently primed Gibson to lean into the moment.

"I took a break from games for a while," he told Blaze News. "Just to be candid, it was a very difficult thing that I went through. … One of the things I haven't said on Tucker Carlson or some of those interviews, I don't believe, is that almost five family members — right after that whole crisis happened — including my mother at 66 years old, and my little sister at 44, just back to back to back every couple of weeks, somebody died, and it was traumatic."

Blaze News previously reported that after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block Texas’ pro-life heartbeat law, Gibson tweeted, "Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don't get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer."

Gibson told Blaze News that he had seen many of his peers in the industry condemning the law but no one daring to laud it.

"I wasn't trying to go on a big crusade," said Gibson. "But apparently I properly combined uranium to create a nuclear explosion on Twitter."

Not only was he viciously attacked online, but at least one company that conducted business with Tripwire — Shipwright — announced it was canceling all existing contracts with his company.

Various other outfits piled on, making sure to let everyone else know they disagreed with the gaming veteran's opinion and that they supported abortion.

In a statement indicating that Gibson had stepped down as CEO just over two days later, the company he co-founded even apologized on his behalf.

When asked whether he felt a little bit like Job — whether this bout of misfortune was a test of his faith — Gibson told Blaze News, "It was a crisis for me because I’m a fighter and a person of action. And when this all went down, and I get a lot of pushback from other conservatives and believers on this, but my initial reaction was to fight."

Gibson indicated that after his unceremonious exit from Tripwire, he hired one of President Donald Trump's former attorneys, intending to go on the legal warpath.

"I'm like, 'Let’s go. You want to fight? You're going to have one,'" said Gibson. "And I had absolutely no peace at all. I felt in those first few days that God was telling me to take the path of peace. I could fight and I could probably win, but the end result would be better if I just followed what He wanted to do."

Gibson indicated that it was a "battle every single day." Then came the decision to sell Tripwire to Saber Interactive.

"This was 20 years of blood, sweat, and tears," said Gibson, noting that to first get the company going, he borrowed against everything he owned, missed time with his family, and sank months of 100-hour work weeks.

After some soul-searching and counsel from a mentor, Gibson signed the contract, parting ways with his company.

Months later, he heeded the apparent tap of the divine on his shoulder, got in touch with Solli, and met the team in Norway. Shortly thereafter, he joined Bible X on a project he now figures could very well be "one of the biggest things for spreading the gospel" — something Solli noted is critical at a time of dismal Bible illiteracy.

Pulling out all the stops

Solli previously told Blaze News, "We want to create something great because we believe it's the greatest message ever told," adding that "the Christian message deserves to have the same amount of effort, if not more" than other works of entertainment.

This was a factor not only in seeking greater investment but also in adding Gibson to a team that includes individuals who previously worked at Rockstar Games on the Grand Theft Auto franchise and on Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as on the Thief and Assassin's Creed series.

"That's been the goal all the time: to bring on the best people with the best experience and the burning heart for this type of project," said Solli.

Blaze News previously asked Dr. Kevin Schut, a professor of media and communication at Trinity Western University and the author of "Of Games & God: A Christian Exploration of Video Games," about Christian video games and their apparent inability to break into the mainstream.

While the industry's aggressive and transgressive culture has long been a factor, Schut noted that "few developers of explicitly Christian games have either the experience or resources to make really high-quality games."

Bible X appears to be breaking the pattern.

Gate Zero - Screenshot from early demo

Solli noted that Gibson has brought 20-plus years of experience as a founder CEO, game developer, designer, and programmer, as well as his industry network.

"As a startup and as an indie developer — there's a lot of small challenges every day," said Solli. "The more we can shorten the decision time and shorten the time it takes to go from the wrong direction in the right direction, the more effective[ly] we can spend all the money we're using to create this game."

Gibson indicated that there were two preconditions for his involvement in the project.

First, he had to know that the team he would be working with had "the skills and the desire to make an undeniably great game, because not everybody has the skills and not everybody has the drive to do something that successful."

Second, he said Bible X would have to double its budget on Gate Zero to maximize quality and ensure that the game was a knockout.

Bible X had already satisfied the first condition and agreed to satisfy the second. However, the increased budget meant finding new ways to raise funds.

Previously, Bible X successfully crowdfunded several hundred thousand dollars in campaigns for the game on Indiegogo and Kickstarter.

"Since we talked last time, we have started an organization in the U.S. called NextGen Bible Media. The goal there is to first and foremost fund-raise for [Gate Zero], but later on, possibly for other games," Solli told Blaze News.

Bible X appears to be crafting a game that satisfies the expectations of conventional gamers while also delivering biblical content they will never have seen before.

NextGen Bible Media is a nonprofit registered through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services set up to help fund the Gate Zero project in BCC Media. According to the NextGen Bible Media page, which has an option for tax-deductible donations, the project is already 49% funded.

"This is marking great progress, but we need additional support to reach the full target and bring this vision to life," said Solli.

Gibson noted that he is among the donors.

"I am a significant backer of Gate Zero. I'm putting my money where my mouth is," said Gibson. "I'm not just asking people to donate. I'm saying, 'Come alongside me and also donate because — and Arve talks about this a lot — Bible literacy is going down."

According to the American Bible Society's State of the Bible 2024 report, the percentage of American adult Bible users (defined as those who interact with scripture at least three or four times a year outside church or faith services) bounced around 50% for several years but then plunged to 40% in 2022. That downward trend has continued, falling to 39% last year and 38% this year.

Of Millennials, 12% are scripture-engaged, whereas 65% are Bible disengaged. While slightly less Bible-disengaged than the older cohort (61%), Gen Z adults are the least scripture engaged at 11%.

"We have an entire generation that's not engaging with the Bible," said Gibson, noting that such a game would constitute a massive evangelizing opportunity.

"I truly believe this game can and likely will be one of the biggest things for spreading the gospel — maybe not just only this game, but the start of what this game is doing — since the printing press," continued the gaming veteran. "This is how the next generation interfaces with media. Video games are bigger than all of professional sports combined. Video games make more revenue than all of movies and television. So it’s a shame that no one has gotten there yet, but it's time."

When asked whether Bible X has partnered with religious organizations and churches stateside, Solli said, "We haven’t done that yet, but it's definitely an opportunity."

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, previously told Blaze News that "any medium that offers an accurate account of the biblical story and encourages young people to grow in the Christian faith should be welcomed by Christians. With proper parental guidance, it can serve as a platform for more serious study. Gate Zero promises to do just that."

Although Donohue admitted to a limited exposure to Gate Zero, he indicated that it "would be an important cultural marker" should it break into the mainstream. "Young people, especially boys, are being inundated with morally debased videos, so wholesome alternatives are badly needed."

"Some parents may carp that this is not a blue-chip medium, but if a video game presents a realistic opportunity to evangelize the young, its unconventional approach should not be a factor," added Donohue.

The game — and how it has evolved

The version of the game previewed by Blaze News late last year kicks off in a cyberpunk dystopia in the year 2072. Current trends were clearly left unchecked because the soulless society of the 2070s appears to be bereft of Christianity.

Max, the playable teen protagonist, uses his time machine, Gate Zero, to travel back to the first century as part of a resistance group, keen on challenging a corrupted version of history. There, Max explores ancient Israel and follows Christ's ministry in ancient Judea and Galilee.

The sci-fi framing not only coheres the game but permits Bible X to avoid dragging two millennia of social and political baggage into the game.

"The intent behind the time machine is to bring the player back to Year Zero, back to Jesus, and to talk to the Author, basically," said Solli. "The game takes players back to the source, back to Jesus, because we believe that connecting with Jesus is what people really need today. This journey allows players to explore their own questions and find help for their current challenges."

Gate Zero - Screenshot from early demo

"We tried to weave together the story of our player character with the stories from Jesus," Solli previously told Blaze News. "They have certain meeting points where they connect, and then you can explore."

The player is free to explore an intricately detailed world that clerics, archeologists, historians, and other scholars have worked with the Bible X team to ensure is both historically and biblically accurate.

Gate Zero is not, however, a mere virtual museum. The player has agency, is met with both purpose and danger, and is rewarded for curiosity.

'We just have to do our job and be humble every day. Be humble and work hard. That's our secret ingredient.'

Since Blaze News last spoke to him in November, Solli indicated that he and his team at Bible X have been working on the core of the game and strengthening the game loop to ensure that "it's an undeniably great experience."

When pressed on specifics, Solli noted they have been working on action, stealth, and traversal mechanics, as well as on conducting further research to incorporate additional stories into the game.

Gibson said early iterations may have come across as high-quality walking simulators, but the game has radically evolved.

"We want the action parts of the game to be amazing, making it on par or better than other games in these genres," said Gibson, citing Assassin's Creed and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as two examples. "We want the action parts to be on par with that, so that when players play it, they might come into the game going, 'I don't care about the stories, but I hear the game plays really good.'"

"One of the big improvements from what people have seen in the Kickstarter demo is the abilities that Max has to traverse the world," said Gibson. "He's climbing, jumping, and balancing on beams and has some really cool special abilities that we're not quite ready to reveal yet."

Bible X appears to be crafting a game that satisfies the expectations of conventional gamers while also delivering biblical content they will never have seen before — certainly not in a game.

Solli indicated that the primary market the company aims to target is the U.S. and English-speaking countries. However, owing to the committed and ever-growing community, he suspects that the game will be localized and translated into roughly 12 languages on day one.

As for immediate next steps, Solli said, "We just have to do our job and be humble every day. Be humble and work hard. That's our secret ingredient."

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Why the West will return to Christ



Perhaps my most outrageous opinion on anything is this: The West will see mass conversions to Roman Catholicism within the next century.

I say this having traveled to the farthest depths of secular nihilism myself — and having been jilted by the its false promise. The world of pure rationality posited by the "secular fundamentalist" is a dead world in which life's universal drive to live — and to live beautifully — is silenced, buried, and disposed of.

Once a man finds himself standing naked, his faith in modern trivialities shaken and lost, he cannot help but draw near to the cathedral and to Christ in the flesh.

Men cannot live in such a world for long. Eventually, human beings observe the ugliness produced by this manner of thinking, living, and believing — and they experience their "moment."

They pull back, they get canceled, they become disgusted and disillusioned with the very beliefs they once so fervently shouted in the streets. Such a man knows by what he has observed that the fall of man could well be true — and if he has any wits about him, he recognizes that every soul on earth needs guidance to contend with his own fallen nature.

Where better to find such guidance than from an institution that has weathered every storm of the tumultuous history of the West — a contiguous lineage of wisdom that has never been broken since the time of Christ? Its authority was not invented or improvised; it was not created on the fly by false prophets at such and such a date — it was born by the word of the Lord, and it lives.

And what is the antidote to man's wayward nature but selfless love of the other? Was this not, in many cases, the original impetus that brought many human beings to crave "social justice"? Was the secular vision of this thing complete? Was it effective?

It was not — and one finds quickly that it is only by laying down one's life for one's friends that one unlocks the beauty of human life and delves into a flavor of divinity denied by the secular, rational world and its rabid faith.

In short, the astute begin to register that Christ's life and holy sacrifice must represent the ideal vision of human life — that his way has survived as doggedly as it has for a very good reason. Once a man finds himself standing naked, his faith in modern trivialities shaken and lost, he cannot help but draw near to the cathedral and to Christ in the flesh. He cannot help but crave to bear witness to the miracle of the Holy Eucharist — and, in time, to accept the Lord into his own body as completely as a man could.

I do not believe that I am especially biased in making this assessment. I simply think that if history is any metric, solid, lasting, contiguous lineages of faith and wisdom rise from the ashes of false systems as those systems meet their merciful deaths. Spurious cults and sects are flashes in the pan; feverish attempts at rational mastery of life fall flat — and ceaseless hedonism deadens the heart.

When it is all over, the Church is there, and she will receive all who come. You may not believe that what I am writing here is true; you may imagine that it could never be true, but I have an unshakable faith that it will be proven true in due time. Perhaps there is nothing else in my life that I am as sure about.

Dawkins can't believe his atheist ally has become a Christian. Ayaan Hirsi Ali explains the error of his doubt.



Ayaan Hirsi Ali was once a central figure among the so-called "New Atheists." She revealed in a Nov. 11, 2023, op-ed that she had converted to Christianity, both for the meaning it provides as well as for its unifying doctrine, which she wrote can "fortify us against our menacing foes."

Militant atheist Richard Dawkins, her longtime friend and "mentor," penned an open letter to Ali three days later, suggesting the Dutch-American human rights activist, mother, and staunch critic of Islam was insincere about her newfound faith.

"You are no more a Christian than I am," wrote Dawkins. "No, Ayaan, you are not a Christian, you are just a decent human being who mistakenly thinks you need a religion in order to remain so."

It appears Ali's sincerity is just one more thing Dawkins has managed to get wrong.

Ali appeared on stage Saturday with Dawkins for the inaugural Dissident Dialogues conference in New York City, where she identified a number of her past intellectual missteps — apparent missteps Dawkins is alternatively committed to keep making — and made abundantly clear both to the audience and Dawkins that she does, in fact, believe in God, pray, and follow Christ.

The former atheist's profession of faith and admission of past errors electrified the audience, which appeared altogether keen to celebrate both Dawkins' loss of a fellow traveler and Christians' gain of a sister.

Background

Blaze News previously reported that Ali, who lives under a fatwa, was raised Muslim in Somalia. Under what she came to regard as a "nihilistic cult of death," Ali suffered genital mutilation, was denied her artistic loves, and was married off to a distant cousin.

While already chased down the road to apostasy by brutal oppression, the Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks on the U.S. helped accelerate Ali's rejection of Islam. Ali's antipathy toward Islam apparently prompted her not only to reject the Muslim faith but "to adopt an attitude of scepticism towards religious doctrine, discard my faith in God and declare that no such entity existed."

Decades later, she recognized that atheism is a "weak and divisive doctrine."

Ali explained last year in an article for UnHerd that she became a Christian in part because the faith equips believers to internally and externally fight the evils of the day — battles atheism is at best useless in but more often than not on the wrong side of.

Quoting the Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton, Ali stressed that "when men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything."

"We can't withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can't explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can't fight woke ideology if we can't defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can't counter Islamism with purely secular tools," wrote Ali. "Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all."

Ali indicated, however, that Christianity was not simply a sword and a shield for the wars of the age but also a source of ultimate meaning.

"I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive," wrote Ali. "Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?"

Dawkins loses an ally

Dawkins, now a self-described "Cultural Christian," responded to Ali's profession of faith on Substack with his characteristic disbelief, writing, "Christianity makes factual claims, truth claims that Christians believe, truth claims that define them as Christian. Christians are theists. They believe in a divine father figure who designed the universe, listens to our prayers, is privy to our every thought. You surely don't believe that."

"Do you believe Jesus rose from the grave three days after being placed there? Of course you don’t. Do you believe Jesus was born to a virgin? Certainly not," wrote Dawkins. "Someone of your intelligence does not believe you have an immortal soul, which will survive the decay of your brain. Christians believe in a frightful place called Hell, where the souls of the wicked go after they are dead. Do you believe that? Hell no!"

In his response, the atheist conceded Ali's points that Christianity might have "been the inspiration for some of the greatest art, architecture and music the world has ever known," "is morally superior to Islam," and might be "a powerful weapon" against "Putinism, Islamism, and postmodernish wokery pokery" but suggested that such an understanding does not make one a Christian.

Dawkins further suggested that by embracing Christianity, she had succumbed to "weakness."

In March, Dawkins doubled-down, accusing Ali of being a "Political Christian" and noting, "Let's not agree to differ. Let's agree that we don't really differ."

Soulful showdown

Ali addressed Dawkins' doubts about her faith Saturday, indicated she is far more than just a "Political Christian," and expressed regret for having previously aided militant atheists in their attack on religion, reported UnHerd.

With regards to the sincerity of her belief, Ali made clear that while she regards Christianity as critically important from a secular and political viewpoint, she has connected with the faith on a spiritual level and believes in its supernatural propositions.

"On the personal level, yes, I choose to believe in God. And I think that there, we might say, let's agree to disagree," she said. "I think it's something subjective, and it's a choice and there are things that you see and perceive that a different person cannot perceive."

"I'd say you're coming at this from a place of 'there is nothing,' and what has happened to me is that, I think, I have accepted that there is something," said Ali. "When you accept that there is something, there is a powerful entity, for me, the God that turned me around, I think what the vicar is saying no longer sounds nonsensical."

"It makes a great deal of sense, and not only does it make a great deal of sense, it's also layered with the wisdom of millennia," said the former atheist. "And so, like you, I did mock faith in general, Christianity in particular, but I don't do that anymore, and again, I think that's where humility comes into it."

The former atheist's journey to Christ appears to have not only required great humility but some helpful advice.

"I've come down to my knees to say perhaps those people who have always had faith have something that we who lost faith don't have, and people who have faith also, like the woman who told me, 'You ... fight everything and you've lost hope, you've lost faith. Try it. Pray.' I think just in that one word there is so much wisdom," added Ali.

When Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote that she had become Christian, it sounded political.\n\nBut last night she revealed what happened: a spiritual awakening after suicidal depression. Dawkins probed, highlighting \u201cnonsense the vicar says\u201d and Christianity being \u201cobsessed with sin.\u201d Then:
— (@)

Dawkins recycled one of his go-to smears, suggesting Christianity is obsessed with sin. Ali didn't buy the atheist's premise.

"I find that Christianity is actually obsessed with love," Ali said, eliciting applause from the audience. "The teaching of Christ as I see it — and again, I'm a brand new Christian — but what I'm finding out, which is the opposite of growing up as a Muslim and the message of Islam, but the message of Christianity of love. It's a message of redemption."

"It's a story of renewal and birth," continued Ali. "And so, Jesus dying and rising again for me symbolizes that story, and in a small way, I felt I had died and was reborn. And that story of redemption and birth, I think makes Christianity actually a very, very powerful story for the human condition, of human existence."

When Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote that she had become Christian, it sounded political.\n\nBut last night she revealed what happened: a spiritual awakening after suicidal depression. Dawkins probed, highlighting \u201cnonsense the vicar says\u201d and Christianity being \u201cobsessed with sin.\u201d Then:
— (@)

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Muslim family allegedly attacks son for converting to Christianity: 'Repeatedly punched him and spat in his face'



Three members of a Muslim family in Tennessee have been arrested after they allegedly attacked a minor family member for converting to Christianity.

On December 11, police went to a Nashville-area residence to conduct a welfare check after an employer had called to report concerns about an employee, a boy who was still a minor. When police arrived, they reportedly found the boy "trembling and wide eyed" and his hair "disheveled."

The boy told the authorities that his parents — 57-year-old Nick Kadum and 46-year-old Rawaa Khawaji — and his older brother, 29-year-old John Kadum, had physically assaulted him for converting to Christianity. The boy claimed all three "repeatedly punched him and spat in his face," an arrest report said.

The boy also accused his mother of having cut him with a knife. "He stated his mother then took a knife and scratched the back of his right hand with it," the arrest report said. Police also noted that the boy appeared to have been "cut haphazardly" and had lumps on his face, though it is unclear which suspect may have inflicted those wounds.

The boy, clearly shaken, indicated to police that the assault had continued almost until the moment law enforcement arrived at the home.

"He stated his family, including his mother, demanded he recant and say he was a Muslim," the arrest report read.

The parents and the older son were arrested without incident. Nick and John Kadum were charged with domestic assault, while Khawaji was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. All three have since been released. When they are next scheduled to appear in court is unclear.

The boy had been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment for his injuries. His current condition is unknown. No reports have indicated whether the boy has been removed from the home and, if so, with whom he might be staying.

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Actor Rob Schneider has found Jesus Christ



At 60 years old, Rob Schneider has had a long, eventful career in Hollywood.

However, a lot has changed since his early days — including his recent conversion to Catholicism after “going through life slugging along and ignoring God.”

Telling Glenn Beck the story of this major life change, Schneider quotes his late friend and comedian Norm Macdonald, “We are a small fraction of the universe, so if there is such a thing as compassion and love and empathy, then it must be endemic to this whole thing that we exist in.”

“That little voice of Jesus Christ was always coming back to me, even though I was going away from him,” he adds.

Schneider explains that as evil became more obvious in the world, his faith became harder to ignore.

“If there is this really organized evil in the world, and I don’t think it’s at all more powerful, but I do think it’s here to challenge us individually, as a family, as a community, and I think also as you and I, you know, have come to really understand now — as a nation,” he tells Glenn.

Glenn mentions Christ’s forgiveness, which some people use against believers who reject transgenderism or men in women’s sports.

“So they’re trying to say that ‘see, you haven’t really changed because you’re not forgiving all of those things as well,’” Glenn says.

Like Glenn, Schneider disagrees with this idea.

“Christ doesn’t want us to just stand down and accept evil and forgive evil and let it perpetuate. Christ wants us to stand up against it,” Schneider says.

Not only do we have to stand up against evil in general, but even more so when it comes to children.

“We cannot stand down, when you know, especially the most vulnerable members of our society are now under attack,” Schneider explains, adding that those on the side of mutilating children “use our good will against us, which is inherently evil.”


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Prominent atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali publicly professes her newfound faith: 'Christianity has it all'



A central figure among the so-called "New Atheists" revealed in an essay Monday that she has turned to Christianity, not only for the meaning and solace it provides but for its strong and unifying doctrine, which she reckons can "fortify us against our menacing foes."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch-American women's rights activist, mother, and former politician who ruffled feathers by calling Islam a "nihilistic cult of death" beyond reforming, noted in UnHerd that atheism is a "weak and divisive doctrine" that offers no hope, no anchorage, and no defense against destructive forces at home and abroad.

Ali, who still lives under a fatwa, was raised Muslim in Somalia. In addition to suffering genital mutilation and getting married off to a distant cousin, she was told that many of the things she loved, including music, dancing, and movies, were accursed worldly pleasures and instruments of damnation. Her encounters with the Muslim Brotherhood in Kenya helped cement her antipathy for Islam.

Although no longer a practicing Muslim at the time, Ali noted that the Sept. 11, 2001, Islamist attacks on the United States expedited her rejection of religion. The next year, she read British mathematician Bertrand Russell's 1927 lecture "Why I Am Not a Christian" and "found [her] cognitive dissonance easing."

"It was a relief to adopt an attitude of scepticism towards religious doctrine, discard my faith in God and declare that no such entity existed," wrote Ali. "Best of all, I could reject the existence of hell and the danger of everlasting punishment."

Apparently satisfied with the prospect of rotting in the ground, as Russell posited, rather than in some infernal destination, Ali went on to become a prominent atheist, speaking at various conventions and winning the adulation of various secularists.

David Silverman, the former president of the anti-religion organization American Atheists, touted Ali as a "champion of atheist thought" and "atheism activism" ahead of her 2015 keynote speech at the American Atheists National Convention.

Ali suggested that while the fear she had been convinced was a feature of religion had not gone away with her embrace of atheism, she was nevertheless confident that she had made the right choice. After all, "the atheists were clever" and a "great deal of fun," particularly the late Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.

However, good wit and good times were not enough to slake Ali's thirst for meaning.

Ali indicated that her conversion to Christianity — which she previously wished for Muslims across the world — is the result of multiple factors.

"Part of the answer is global. Western civilisation is under threat from three different but related forces: the resurgence of great-power authoritarianism and expansionism in the forms of the Chinese Community Party and Vladimir Putin's Russia; the rise of global Islamism, which threatens to mobilise a vast population against the West; and the viral spread of woke ideology, which is eating into the moral fibre of the next generation," wrote Ali.

According to Ali, secular tools have proven wholly ineffective against these dark forces.

"We can't fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites? The response that 'God is dead!' seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in 'the rules-based liberal international order,'" she continued. "The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition."

Noting that the cultural, legal, and social inheritance secularists most prize is rooted in Christianity, Ali said, "I have come to realise that Russell and my atheist friends failed to see the wood for the trees. The wood is the civilisation built on the Judeo-Christian tradition; it is the story of the West, warts and all."

Trouncing the West's internal and external foes is not Ali's only reason for embracing the faith.

"I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive," wrote Ali. "Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?"

Ali noted that Russell's presumption that "reason and intelligent humanism" come after the fall of religion was wrong. The "God hole" left in the human heart has not gone away but rather has been "filled by a jumble of irrational quasi-religious dogma. The result is a world where modern cults prey on the dislocated masses, offering them spurious reasons for being and action — mostly by engaging in virtue-signalling theatre on behalf of a victimised minority or our supposedly doomed planet."

Quoting the Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton, who penned an essay defending his religiosity a year before Russell's lecture, Ali underscored that "when men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything."

"We can't withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can't explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can't fight woke ideology if we can't defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can't counter Islamism with purely secular tools," wrote Ali. "Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all."

While admitting she has "a great deal to learn about Christianity," Ali indicated she understands that it is "a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer."

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Celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D shares baptism video following her renunciation of witchcraft and the occult



Celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D was long known for her macabre style and dark designs, which often evoked the occult. However, upon recognizing in recent years that there is "a spiritual battle taking place," Von D, whose real name is Katherine von Drachenberg, began working to ensure that she was on the right side of it.

Drachenberg posted a video to social media Monday revealing the culmination of her efforts.

In the video, the 41-year-old Mexican-American daughter of Protestant missionaries and mother of one can be seen dressed all in white, standing before a church packed full of friends and family.

"Katherine von Drachenberg, upon your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in obedience to His divine command, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," her pastor says before submerging her.

Upon re-emerging, Drachenberg embraces her pastor to the sound of applause.

One of the top comments on the video is, "HELL LOST ANOTHER ONE."

Rafael Reyes, Drachenberg's husband, wrote, "I love you so much my beautiful wife, you continue to inspire me every day."

Drachenberg left California behind in 2020, citing its "terrible policies, tyrannical government overreach, ridiculous taxing," and "corruption."

Geography evidently wasn't the only change she had in mind.

TheBlaze reported last year that Drachenberg — whose 2018 wedding ceremony was heaven-and-hell-themed — purged her new home in Indiana of any and all occult items, noting she just wanted to surround herself and her family "with love and light."

"I don't know if any of you have been going through changes in your lives right now, but in the last few years I've come to some pretty meaningful realizations — many of them revolving around the fact that I got a lot of things wrong in my past," she wrote on Instagram. "Today, I went through my entire library, and threw out books that just don't align with who I am and who I want to be."

Among the books exiled from her home were: "The Witches' Way"; "Magik"; "The Sorrows of Satan"; "A Treasury of Witchcraft"; "The Cosmic Serpent"; and "Satan's Circus."

Drachenberg also scrapped her tarot card collection.

Extra to ridding her home of demonic agitprop, in recent years, the artist also began blacking out some of her tattoos, which had only served as "landmarks in dark times."

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Commentary: Roman plagues and American cures: Lessons for today's conservatives from the early Christians



The ongoing dissolution of the liberal status quo has presented conservatives with a unique opportunity to grow their ranks and redefine American culture.

While some reckon the successful way forward for conservative populists would be "Machiavellian means," they may be better served looking farther back than the Florentine Republic for role models — to those who first spread, protected, and died for the foundation of much of what now needs to be conserved: the early Christians.

After all, the early Christian movement appears to have enjoyed explosive growth in the first few centuries after the Resurrection — reportedly from an estimated 1,397 souls in the Roman Empire around 50 AD to over 31 million in 350 AD (with growth projected at an annual rate of 3.4%), and from an estimated 0.15% of the city of Rome’s population in the year 100 AD to roughly 66.2% in the year 300 — while the institutions, temples, and regimes of their contemporaries largely fell into neglect or ruin.

There are innumerable reasons, both spiritual and secular, why the teachings of Jesus Christ did not, as historian Paul Johnson put it, "become nothing more than the hallmarks of a Jewish sect, doomed to be submerged in the mainstream of an ancient creed."

In "The Everlasting Man," the great Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton, mulling over the church's success and spread, concluded that it must have "come forth out of the mind of God, mature and mighty and armed for judgment and for war," confronting the world with "something more human than humanity."

Since the conservative movement doesn’t exactly have that going for it — Christ did not, after all, directly tell Burke, Kirk, or other exponents that the gates of hell would not prevail against their multifaith socio-political cause — it is worthwhile looking instead at what can be replicated.

In his accounting for the triumph of the early Christians, the late sociologist of religion Rodney Stark of Baylor University detailed some interesting behaviors and views that won people to their cause and galvanized the faithful.

Some of these behaviors and views are already — or still — benefiting and distinguishing the conservative movement. Others should be considered.

The Christians converted and transcended the Roman Empire, spreading the faith to the far ends of the world, in part owing to their:

  • appeals to women;
  • fecundity and opposition to abortion;
  • ministry to the sick, pagan and Christian alike;
  • defiance and perseverance in the face of public persecution and brutal repression;
  • provision to prospective converts the opportunity to preserve their religious capital and maintain cultural continuity; and their
  • moral stability and corresponding superior quality of life.

The appeal of the Christian movement to women — something Johnson similarly noted in "A History of Christianity" — was manifold and essential to conversion, particularly since men were frequently brought into the church by the women in their lives. (Peter’s and Paul’s acceptance of intermarriage helped to further this trend.)

What's more, Stark noted that Christian women "often held leadership roles in the church and enjoyed far greater security and equality in marriage" than their heathen counterparts; wedded later than others; could not be discarded via divorce lest their husbands come to shame and be branded as adulterers; and had more sex in their married lives.

Also, since the abortion widespread at the time, executed with "unsanitary and crude methods," was not permissible among Christians, the health prospects for Christian women were much better. Meanwhile, pagan women who were frequently forced into abortion by their husbands not only faced an increased risk of mortality but of infertility later in life as well in the event that they survived.

"In the midst of the squalor, misery, illness, and anonymity of ancient cities, Christianity provided an island of mercy and security," wrote Stark.

This was apparently as true for the sick and needy as it was for women and the unborn.

Roman and other elites are said to have isolated as plagues and sicknesses surged through their cities.

Bishop Dionysius observed this tendency in Alexandria: "At the first onset of the disease, they [pagans] pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirty, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease."

Christians, on the other hand, apparently nursed pagans as well as their own ill — as they were called to do.

Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, said of the second great plague, "Although this mortality has contributed nothing else, it has especially accomplished this for Christians and servants of God, that we have begun gladly to seek martyrdom while we are learning not to fear death. They are trying exercises for us, not deaths; they give to the mind the glory of fortitude; by contempt of death they prepare for the crown."

As a result of this disposition and thinking, "Christians as a group would have enjoyed a far superior survival rate" during the plagues, according to Stark.

The appeal of membership in a hardy group that would not lock down the healthy, spurn the sick, or deny help to outsiders, coupled with the Christians’ vast expansion of the charitable trusts of the Jewish Diaspora, appears to have won many converts to their cause, observers and survivors alike.

While Tertullian noted, "It was the Christian spirit of mutual love and communal charity which most impressed pagans," fortitude also served to impress and convert would-be foes.

Christians have been met with persecution unceasingly throughout these past two millennia, most recently and savagely by atheistic regimes, but the early centuries were particularly brutal.

For instance, Stark details how during "the summer of the year 64, the emperor Nero sometimes lit up his garden at night by setting fire to a few fully conscious Christians who had been covered with wax and then impaled high on poles forced up their rectums."

The Roman historian Tacitus indicated the emperor "inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace."

The horrors the early Christians were subjected to most definitely backfired, serving instead to unify, galvanize, and bolster their credibility. Every martyr slain in the Flavian Amphitheater, every mass bloodied in the catacombs, and every other act of defiance advertised the strength of their convictions, the Christian threat to the pagan status quo, and the insecurity of their persecutors.

Galen, the Roman Greek physician of antiquity, reportedly wrote of the Christians in the second century that "their contempt of death … is patent to us every day."

While not every Christian stood firm, enough did.

"The pagan onlookers knew full well that they would not endure such tribulations for their religion. Why would so many Christians do so? Were they missing something about this strange new faith?" wrote Stark. "This sort of unease and wonderment often paved the way for new conversions."

The Lutheran sociologist suggested that while Christianity was attractive for these and other reasons, a concern for any convert was the desire to "conserve their religious capital" — to enjoy some cultural continuity.

Whereas prospective converts amongst the Jewish Diaspora would have had to give up most if not all of their religious and cultural capital to join various pagan sects, "Christianity offered Diasporan Jews a chance to preserve virtually all of their religious capital, needing only to add to it."

Additive beliefs, as opposed to alternate beliefs, may have helped prospective converts along by leaving them with a feeling of gain as opposed to loss.

Those willing to take a much deeper dive would undoubtedly find countless more takeaways from the history of the early church and its successes, but we already have here something more compelling than the deceitful utilitarianism and callous weighting of love and fear others appear to think worthwhile.

To grow the conservative movement, it is critical to model attractive behavior, which entails bravery in the face of persecution, perseverance in the face of suffering, faith in the face of uncertainty, and mercy in the face of misery.

While an absolute contempt for death may not be necessary, a willing acceptance of risk and rejection similarly strengthens resolve and credibility — just as cowardice alternatively weakens and repulses. Conservatives hoping to inspire others to join their cause should be known for their preference of consequence over dishonor and truth over comfortable lies.

What’s more — and this is a lesson the pandemic taught us: if we cannot or prove unwilling to conserve liberty, tradition, and our proud cultural inheritance in the face of adversity, then we demonstrate that we were never really serious. Those red-state leaders who proved willing in recent years happen to be the same who converted and attracted multitudes.

Stark suggested that contrary to the atheist’s contention that Christianity is all "pie in the sky," the early Christians put the "pie on the table." Similarly, the good that conservatives seek to conserve should be tangible, proudly displayed, and protected.

The conservative movement has long welcomed and been driven by women. Now, to further distinguish itself from the opposition — which regards men and women as interchangeable — the movement would do well to continue to celebrate womanhood; embrace the complementarity between women and men; look to their differences for shared advantage; disfavor no-fault divorce; take measures to bolster marriage and the family; raise boys to be respectful and capable potential partners, rather than the impotent, drugged, and nonthreatening drones the opposition prefers; and reinforce parental rights.

Finally, enabling prospective converts to maintain their cultural capital when coming aboard is something the conservative movement does well, but as with anything, could do better.

Last year, over 1 million voters across 43 states switched to the Republican Party. In recent weeks and months, many high-profile Democrats have done likewise. While the crossover may not be as seamless as Stark figured the turn from one Abrahamic religion to another might have been, to recognize their pasts as valuable — not something to be renounced or regretted — would likely make the transition appear less costly.

Some movements attempt to convert with the sword and/or with intimidation. Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, don’t like being told what to do, and most are ready with an ideological riposte. Despite this combative verve, they are keen observers.

Accordingly, if the conservative movement has a clear value proposition, demonstrates that value, is unapologetic about its aims, and puts the "pie on the table" for prospective converts to see while making it easy to consume, then it will grow its ranks, God willing. Perhaps not by 3.4% year over year, but enough to put the nation back on course.

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