Rene Echevarria broke into show business by penning episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the ’80s.

Now, the versatile writer/director is putting his Christian faith front and center with a limited series unlike any other.

‘Play it like you don’t know you’re in the Bible.’

“The Faithful: Women of the Bible” debuts at 8 p.m. March 22 on FOX and airs the next day on Hulu. The three-part saga explores the book of Genesis through the eyes of consequential women.

Think Sarah (Minnie Driver), the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac, whose infertility gave way to a spiritual miracle. Or Rebekah (Alexa Davalos), mother of Jacob and Esau and wife of Isaac.

In the beginning

Echevarria’s production partner, veteran TV producer Carol Mendelsohn, came up with the show’s angle.

“She knew I was a believer and loved the Bible,” Echevarria tells Align. “She’s a seeker, with a restless curiosity about spiritual matters.”

The veteran storyteller wasn’t initially convinced that the project would be the perfect fit for him.

“I was a little skeptical ... [asking], ‘Is that too limiting?’” he says of the concept, adding that his initial fears were unfounded. “The experience has been great; it opened my eyes to understanding these timeless stories.”

Deeper truth

Echevarria, who has worked with James Cameron (“Dark Angel”) and Steven Spielberg (“Terra Nova”) throughout his expansive career, says he took care to balance creative license with both his faith and the source material.

“I’ve been blessed to have worked in this business a long time. mostly making up stories. interpreting stories,” he says. Not this time.

“I always have to check myself, and sometimes I wish that little piece of Scripture wasn’t there. It would be so much easier,” he says from a dramatic perspective. “I found that if I didn’t try to avoid the challenges but steer into them, ... you’ll find something deeper, a deeper truth, ... things that I didn’t think of.”

“The Faithful” was shot in Italy, giving the creative team access to lush landscapes, including expanses of olive trees, that created a reasonable facsimile to biblical times. The team decided early in the production to work with mostly British actors and use their vocal cadences in the process.

A new light

The son of Cuban immigrants says making “The Faithful” impacted his personal faith.

“It re-invigorated my love of Scripture. ... I’m seeing things I thought I knew in a completely new light,” he says.

Some cast and crew members didn’t necessarily share his faith, which added nuance to the production.

“There’s a lot of downtime on set. So many times, people shared with me stories about why and how this project came to them at the right place in their lives,” he says. “Like people struggling with having lost a parent or having troubles with their kids.”

Others were skeptical about doing a Bible-based project.

“One actor shared that he found himself drawn in and said, ‘Yes, I want to do that,’” he recalls after the performer’s initial reluctance.

Vertical

No 'unearned piety'

Still, he turned having actors who didn’t know Scripture into a positive development. It made the humanity of the core players pop.

“Play it like you don’t know you’re in the Bible,” he says of his advice to the cast. That allowed them to avoid an “unearned piety” that brought the figures down to earth. “It’s just ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.”

Echevarria wouldn’t mind telling more tales from the “Faithful” perspective. He cites the book of Ruth and the Samaritan woman at the well as stories ripe for future “Faithful” installments. That’s assuming viewers flock to the show, set to wrap on Easter Sunday.

“That’s my fondest hope, that the show finds an audience,” he says. Those chances are better than ever given the current pop culture climate. Shows like “The Chosen” and “House of David” have connected with Christians the world over, and the first part of Mel Gibson’s “The Resurrection of the Christ” series could be one of 2027’s biggest movie events.

“There’s a hunger out there for this kind of storytelling,” he says. “They’re resonating. People are taking notice.”

And he hasn’t forgotten how he entered show business several decades ago. He dreams of rejoining the “Star Trek” universe after penning 30-plus episodes across “The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine.” He’s been noodling with an idea “out of left field” to share in that franchise.

“I’m waiting for the right moment to bring it over there,” he says.

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James Talarico found a verse — and twisted the meaning

Democrats can learn. Political survival demands adaptation, and lately some on the left have started studying their Republican opponents with something like anthropological curiosity. They watch Republicans work a crowd and ask a practical question: What works?

One answer keeps recurring. Republicans like to quote the Bible.

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

You can picture the light-bulb moment. A candidate cites Scripture. The audience nods. Somewhere, a strategist thinks: Let’s find a guy who can do that for us.

Enter James Talarico, the Texas Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate who quotes Scripture all day long.

That tactic may sway voters who enjoy hearing a verse, even when it gets pulled out of context to bless ideas Scripture condemns. Christians who know their Bibles will spot the move fast.

Jesus warned about this exact type: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”

A Bible verse proves nothing by itself. Wolves can quote Scripture, too. So can the devil.

The question is what the verse is being used to defend.

The abortion argument

Talarico claims Genesis 2:7 teaches that a human being becomes alive, and worthy of legal protection, only at first breath.

Wrong. The verse describes Adam’s creation. God formed the first man from dust and then breathed life into him. That account does not describe ordinary human development in the womb. It describes a singular act of creation.

Every other human life begins at conception. A distinct organism exists from that point, with its own DNA and its own trajectory of development. Scripture treats unborn children as living persons. Psalm 139:13-16 speaks of God knitting a child together in the womb.

Even if someone granted Talarico’s “first breath” premise for argument’s sake, the logic collapses quickly into moral absurdity. It pushes abortion right up to delivery. Some activists embrace that conclusion. Most Americans recoil, however, because they sense the truth: Killing a fully formed child moments before birth differs only in location from killing the same child moments after birth.

The ‘nonbinary God’ argument

Talarico also claims God is “nonbinary,” as if that settles the modern LGBTQ agenda.

God has no biological sex. God is spirit. That does not erase the created order for human beings.

Scripture speaks plainly: God created humanity male and female. Genesis 1:27 teaches it. Jesus repeats it when he addresses marriage: “From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’”

Christian teaching on marriage does not float as an arbitrary rule. It rests on creation itself, and Jesus affirms it.

Photo by Gabriel V. Cardenas/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The rainbow vs. the Ten Commandments

Talarico asks why a rainbow flag in a classroom counts as indoctrination while posting the Ten Commandments does not.

The answer isn’t complicated. The Ten Commandments summarize foundational moral truths about God, human life, and justice. They shaped the moral vocabulary of Western civilization for centuries.

The rainbow flag represents a moral program that rejects the biblical account of sex, marriage, and human nature. The two messages do not belong in the same moral category.

Fruit tells the truth

Jesus gave a practical test for identifying false teachers: Look at the fruit.

When someone uses Scripture to justify abortion or to deny the created order of male and female, the fruit shows itself. The apostle Peter warned about this kind of manipulation: “Untaught and unstable people twist [the Scriptures] to their own destruction.”

Christians should not get impressed because a politician can quote a verse. Even Satan did.

The question is whether the Bible is being handled faithfully or weaponized to sanctify fashionable sins.

Stay awake

Christians should stay alert. Not everyone who borrows the language of faith speaks truth.

Know the word of God. Test what you hear against it. Teach your children to do the same.

That’s how you recognize wolves, even when they show up in sheep’s clothing with a Bible in hand.

'Bugonia' and Hollywood's most post-Christian Academy Awards yet

Last night’s Academy Awards brought the usual mix of celebration, surprises, and disappointment.

It also offered a revealing glimpse into how modern storytelling wrestles with the problem of human evil. Again and again, our stories invent new creators and judges — aliens, scientists, political systems — while avoiding the possibility that the answer might be the one Christianity has proposed all along.

Interestingly, the film’s bleak ending inadvertently highlights the beauty of the alternative.

We see this pattern clearly in this year’s Best Picture winner, "One Battle After Another." In that film, humanity’s problems are framed largely as political ones: injustice embedded in systems that must be overcome through struggle here on earth.

The problem of evil

The year’s other nominees approach the same problem from different angles. "Frankenstein" warns about the dangers of human beings assuming the role of creator, while "Sinners" treats Christianity itself as a corrupting force rather than a remedy for human brokenness. The stories differ in tone and message, but they circle the same question: Why does humanity repeatedly descend into violence, cruelty, and exploitation?

And then there's "Bugonia," Yorgos Lanthimos' ambitious science-fiction drama. Although the film failed to take home Best Picture or any of the four Oscars for which it was nominated, its unsettling message reveals much about our post-Christian frame of mind.

The film proposes a provocative premise: Humanity was seeded on Earth by extraterrestrial beings known as Andromedans. But when humanity fails to live up to their expectations — ravaging the planet, waging war, exploiting one another — the aliens decide to erase the experiment and reboot the world.

Spoiler alert: They succeed.

Failed experiment

In the film’s closing act, the Andromedans judge humanity irredeemable. Our history of violence, greed, and environmental destruction becomes the evidence against us. Like scientists abandoning a failed experiment, they extinguish the human race in order to start again.

The premise is morally haunting because it contains a kernel of truth. Humanity has indeed fallen short of what we know to be right. Our history is filled with wars, cruelty, and exploitation of both people and planet. Watching the film, you can almost understand why an external observer might conclude that humanity is incapable of redemption.

But the film’s central idea contains a deeper philosophical problem that it never addresses.

In "Bugonia," aliens replace God.

Persistent theory

Instead of an eternal Creator, we are told that advanced beings from another star system planted life on Earth. Humanity, in other words, is merely the product of a cosmic experiment. The idea echoes the pseudoscientific theories popularized decades ago by Swiss author Erich von Däniken, most famously in his 1968 best-seller "Chariots of the Gods?" He argued that ancient monuments and religious traditions were evidence that extraterrestrials had visited Earth and influenced — or even created — human civilization.

Despite the popularity of those claims, they have been widely rejected by scientists and historians as speculative at best and misleading at worst. Yet the underlying idea persists in popular culture, resurfacing in films, television shows, and speculative fiction like "Bugonia."

The problem is that such explanations never truly answer the deepest question. They merely move it one step back: If the Andromedans created humanity, who created them?

The difficulty with theories that attempt to explain existence without God is that they ultimately arrive at an illogical conclusion — that somehow the material universe emerged from nothing. Matter, life, and consciousness simply appeared. The universe, in effect, would have to create itself.

Every effect requires a cause. Every creation requires a creator. If alien life exists somewhere in the universe — and it very well may — those beings would still be part of the created order. They, too, would owe their existence to something greater and eternal.

A different story

"Bugonia" imagines alien overseers who judge humanity and wipe the slate clean when the experiment fails. But the story humanity actually lives in is far different.

According to Scripture, there was indeed a moment when God chose to “reset” the world. In the story of Noah, humanity had become so violent and corrupt that God sent a flood and preserved only Noah and his family to begin again. Humanity was, in a sense, rebooted.

But even after the flood, humanity fell short again. We continued to quarrel, exploit, and destroy. The human story remained one of brokenness mixed with moments of grace.

The difference between the God of Scripture and the Andromedans of "Bugonia" is not power. It is mercy.

The aliens in the film conclude that humanity’s failures justify annihilation. God reached a radically different conclusion. Rather than abandon His creation, He entered into it.

The eternal God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world — not to condemn humanity but to redeem it. Where the Andromedans choose extermination, God chooses sacrifice.

This is the heart of the Christian story. Humanity fails again and again. Yet instead of discarding us as a failed experiment, God offers forgiveness and transformation.

MEGA/GC Images via Getty Images

Quiet revolution

Even then, the story does not become one of instant perfection. People who follow Christ still struggle. They still fall short. The difference is not that believers suddenly become flawless, but that they now have a path toward redemption.

One of the most profound summaries of that path comes from John the Baptist, who famously said of Christ: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Those few words describe the quiet revolution at the heart of Christianity. The transformation of humanity does not come from our own power or moral superiority. It comes from learning humility — placing God at the center rather than ourselves.

And that humility has consequences. A world shaped by self-interest breeds the very problems "Bugonia" highlights — violence, greed, environmental destruction, and exploitation. A world shaped by love of neighbor and reverence for a Creator begins to look very different.

Radical vision

Interestingly, the film’s bleak ending inadvertently highlights the beauty of the alternative.

In "Bugonia," humanity is judged solely by its failures. There is no grace, no redemption, no possibility that flawed beings might grow into something better.

The Christian story, by contrast, insists that redemption is the point of the whole drama. God promised after the flood that He would not destroy the world again in such a way. The ultimate reset came not through annihilation but through Christ — through renewal.

For all its imaginative power, "Bugonia" ultimately imagines a universe governed by distant creators who abandon their creation when it disappoints them.

The Christian vision offers something far more radical: a Creator who loves His creation enough to save it.

‘String Cheese’: Why an ‘American Idol’ audition is making millions of moms cry

These days, it feels like war is everywhere I turn. Culture wars on social media. Actual war on the news. Spiritual war invisibly raging all around. War inside me. Even the piling dishes and the toys that never stay tidy can feel like a kind of war.

But every now and then, a sunbeam pierces the thundercloud and silences the cacophony for a brief moment, allowing me to breathe and recenter. Sometimes it’s a timely sermon, other times a gentle breeze and birdsong. Coffee with a dear friend can do the trick.

'String Cheese' ministers to my weary soul by reminding me that what I call trials are actually gifts.

But this week, it was “American Idol” contestant Hannah Harper’s song “String Cheese.”

The name is silly; the lyrics are anything but. Right from the start — “I warm my morning coffee up for the third time” — I was smiling, nodding along in quiet recognition. Then the line, “Babies crying, it's pure chaos, but I don't miss a beat,” hit, and my eyes filled. Tears streamed until the final note.

And I’m certainly not the only one reaching for the tissue box. Harper’s anthem about the realities of motherhood has touched the hearts of millions in the six weeks since it went viral.

On February 2, the 25-year-old Missouri mother of three — dressed in a homemade patchwork mid-length dress, her strawberry curls pinned atop her head — proved her talent for both singing and song-writing when she auditioned for the 24th “American Idol” contest by performing her original song.

It was an unsurprising unanimous yes from judges Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie — and seemingly from America herself. “String Cheese” has racked up millions of views (and tears), peaked at No. 14 on Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales chart, and has already become one of the most viewed Idol audition moments in the show’s history.

Suffering through the storm

It’s not like there’s a shortage of music that tugs on our heartstrings, so what about Harper’s country-style ballad is resonating with so many Americans?

I think there are two main reasons.

The first is that there’s something for nearly every woman in this song.

For the new mom under the black cloud of postpartum depression, whose motherhood feels more like a curse than a blessing, “String Cheese” offers the kind of encouragement only empathy can provide. Harper vulnerably confessed in her audition that the song was inspired by her struggles with postpartum depression.

“My youngest is 1, and shortly after he was born, I had postpartum depression, and so I was sitting on my couch ... I was just having a pity party, praying that the Lord would calm my spirit. ... I got up off the couch, and I quit throwing a pity party ... so I wrote this song,” she told the judges.

“Some days I wanna cry, run away and hide / But I worry about their every need,” goes one verse.

Any mother who’s been in the throes of PPD knows this feeling in her bones. The sleep deprivation, the hormonal landslide that occurs after birth, the endless needs, ceaseless crying, and lack of time to meet your own basic needs start to amount to something truly terrifying.

Suddenly, the walls begin to close in, and your biological self-defense mechanisms start screaming at you to flee. But something even stronger — a deep, primitive force that almost scares you — compels you to stay even as you wither. The mere thought of your child’s needs being met by anyone other than you is enough to keep you rooted to his or her side.

So you stay, and you suffer until the storm eventually passes.

Astrida Valigorsky/WireImage | Getty Images

When 'touched out' turns existential

The song also offers a beautiful perspective to the overwhelmed mother, just trying to make it through another day of nonstop demands, tantrums, obligations, and messes.

“When I'm overwhelmed and touched out

They come climbin' up on the couch

Sayin', 'Mama, can you open my string cheese?'"

Sometimes a simple snack request when you’re just trying to catch your breath is the drop in the bucket that tips the scale. For me, it’s seeing tiny, sticky fingerprints on a surface I just cleaned. Every mom has that thing that takes her from typical stress levels to existential crisis.

It’s tempting sometimes to fantasize about the days when life will be easier, quieter, and cleaner, but Harper sends mothers to their knees with this reminder:

“One day I’ll be alone with a hot fresh cup of joe,

Wishing that someone would just drop by.

And I’ll sit and reminisce on times that I sure miss

Scattered toys and a baby on my hip.

I thought finding peace in the quiet’s what I wanted,

But I’d do anything to go back to being needed.”

For the mom struggling to keep her head above the rising tide, “String Cheese” is not only the promise that she won’t drown but that the water isn’t as deep as she thinks. In fact, there will come a day, and soon, when she will long for the feeling of waves lapping at her chin.

Saved from waste

And finally, this tearful anthem is for the woman who is afraid of motherhood. Maybe she feels she doesn’t have the resources — financial, time, emotional, or otherwise — to be a good mom. Maybe she’s bought the feminist lie that motherhood is an unwelcome burden, a barrier to her personal ambitions and dreams, or simply more effort than it’s worth.

Two short lines are the timely message this startlingly large population of women need to hear:

“I never knew this is what my 20s would look like,

But they saved me before I had the chance to waste my life.”

The moment when a mother first looks in her baby’s face, something remarkable happens: All the things she once fretted over — time, money, preparedness, even happiness — lose their power, and a life without that child becomes unthinkable. The career, the travel bucket list, the free time, the clean house, the bank account, the mental stability all take their rightful place behind the tiny, wriggling creature in her arms. She knows that to have everything she ever dreamed of — but not the child — would be exactly as Harper says: a waste of life.

With the exception of the gospel, this is the most important message young women in America need to hear today.

Three women

I think “String Cheese” hits me so deeply because I am all three of these women. I’ve been the new adult in my early 20s, terrified of motherhood, barely capable of caring for myself, unsure that a swanky downtown loft and a cool-girl job that allowed me to travel wasn’t the better path. I’ve been the newly married woman in my mid-20s, wondering how on earth we’d afford a baby.

I’ve been the new mom, crushed by the reality of caring for a newborn who didn’t sleep, nurse, or stop crying for months and months and months (and then some more months).

Today, I am the mom who is just trying to make it through another day of work, meeting the emotional and physical needs of an almost 2-year-old who never stops moving (and still doesn’t sleep that great), housekeeping, and the ceaseless task of keeping tummies full.

“String Cheese” ministers to my weary soul by reminding me that what I call trials are actually gifts.

But it does something else for me too. It pulls my gaze in the right direction: down. Down to the blue eyes and the chocolate-smudged mouth that says “mama” 800 times a day.

And that’s the second reason this song is striking such a chord with so many Americans right now — women and men alike. Every day we watch the world grow more dystopian, as wars rage overseas, political divides deepen at home, and AI swallows entire industries whole. We fret over our children's futures, yet in that very worry, we often overlook one of their most basic needs: our full attunement. This song adjusts our posture in the most simple but profound of ways.

Win or lose, Hannah Harper is already an American idol. In one simple song, she has reminded us that the most profound victories aren't won on distant battlefields or in viral debates. They’re won right here in the ordinary, messy, sacred trenches of the home, where a child's small request for string cheese is really a divine invitation to love fiercely, stay present, and choose joy amid the storms.

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Inside the mind of a Catholic exorcist: Fr. Chad Ripperger talks shop with Shawn Ryan

Former U.S. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan routinely has warriors on his podcast who have battled men using modern weaponry. Last week, he spoke to a warrior who battles demons using timeless weaponry: Christ's name, prayer, and the authority of his vocation.

Over the course of his four-hour conversation with Ryan, Fr. Chad Ripperger — a Thomistic philosopher, psychologist, and founder of the Doloran Fathers — shared insights drawn from years serving as a Catholic exorcist in the Archdiocese of Denver, as well as from his study of church history and Christian theology.

In addition to discussing potential signs of the Antichrist's imminence and the possibility that extraterrestrials might be the trappings of a demonic psy-op, Fr. Ripperger explained the different types of diabolic influence and described how the Church's major exorcism rite is carried out.

Varieties of diabolic influence

Fr. Ripperger — who stressed that he had "no intention of being an exorcist" and only does it out of obedience — identified several forms of diabolic influence, beginning with infestation, "where they infest houses or locations, inanimate objects, animals."

'The demon's not necessarily in the driver's seat all the time.'

The exorcist priest turned to Scripture for an example of animal infestation, referencing the ruination of pigs by the evil spirits cast out by Christ from the demoniac in Gergesa.

Fr. Ripperger suggested that infestations are often the localized byproduct of sin: "It's because somebody has done something particularly evil in a location and, as a result, the demons have gotten their foot in the door there."

Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

While occult activity can grease the way for an infestation, the exorcist said the sins demons tend to "gravitate toward the most — because they're easiest to get human beings to fall into — are the sins against the Sixth Commandment like fornication, masturbation, pornography, those types of things."

Another form of diabolic influence — "the primary way" and a universal challenge — is ordinary temptation, where demons plant notions "in our imaginations," skew perspectives, and manipulate emotions. Though relatively subtle, Fr. Ripperger noted that this form of influence can still be destructive, particularly within relationships and families.

Diabolic obsession is another variety in which demons "attack our interior faculties, specifically the imagination and emotions again — but unlike ordinary temptation, this is extraordinary, where it's very powerful and very strong," capturing the victim's attention and imagination and leaving them with a kind of spiritual "tunnel vision."

While someone experiencing diabolic obsession may initially have periods of lucidity, Fr. Ripperger said those moments of reprieve can diminish over time if the influence persists. Eventually the victim may capitulate and commit a grave sin at the demon's urging — or possibly even become possessed.

The priest described two kinds of diabolic possession. The first is "perfect possession, where the person has given themselves over to the demon entirely, and then the demon possesses the whole body, and the demon is manifested all the time."

According to Fr. Ripperger, this condition — outward signs of which include malice, mendacity, animus, and destructiveness — is rare. Individuals in such a state rarely seek out priests, since they are not desirous of liberation.

Partial possession, by contrast, refers to a temporary and localized possession of part of the body where "the demon's not necessarily in the driver's seat all the time."

The exorcism rite

When asked about the process of conducting an exorcism, Fr. Ripperger said the approach is structured, though the particulars vary depending on what is known about the individual, whether they have had prior encounters with dark forces, and what stage of diabolic influence they appear to be in.

"So in many cases, if the person who's possessed can tolerate it, we'll actually offer Mass so that the person can receive Holy Communion, which then weakens the demon significantly," he said, noting that confession is encouraged beforehand.

After Mass but before the exorcism ritual begins in earnest, a series of prayers are recited "to provide everybody protection that's in the room."

"So we do a series of prayers — binding prayers — which bind the demon from being able to do certain things, and then we'll actually start the formal ritual."

The Latin ritual typically begins with the Litany of the Saints. According to Fr. Ripperger, this serves as a kind of diagnostic tool because a demon's reaction to the names of certain saints can reveal clues about "the demon's particular sin" and how best to proceed.

From there, the exorcist alternates between "deprecatory and imprecatory prayer" — the former asking Christ for help and the latter commanding demons directly, ordering the evil spirits to consider specific truths that cause them pain.

The goal, Fr. Ripperger explained, is to allow the demon's pain "to build to where they finally give you what you need to know in order to get them out."

Canon law stipulates that "no one can perform exorcisms legitimately upon the possessed unless he has obtained special and express permission from the local ordinary."

Such permission is granted "only to a presbyter who has piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life."

The Catholic Church also requires that a suspected demoniac undergo "thorough examination including medical, psychological, and psychiatric testing" before being referred to an exorcist.

The Church distinguishes between minor exorcisms — used, for example, in baptismal preparation — and major exorcisms, the rite discussed by Fr. Ripperger, which may only be performed by a bishop or an authorized priest.

Fr. Ripperger told Ryan that "Protestants have a certain degree of efficacy [in exorcisms] by using Christ's name because it has a force of its own."

However, he suggested that certain types of possession require the authority of the Catholic Church and its clergy — authority that traces back to Christ's commissioning of the apostles.

Bad signs and end times

Asked where evil appears to be gaining ground in society, Fr. Ripperger said the forces of darkness have increasingly targeted good families — "families that historically led good lives, were raising their kids properly, very often very religious, doing the things that they're supposed to do."

The priest suggested this "full-blown attack" on previously resilient targets may indicate that demons are emboldened by a worsening moral climate — or that they "know their time is short," possibly because a divine "corrective" is approaching.

'That is not a reference to the Jewish temple.'

Ryan asked whether such developments might signal the approach of the end times.

While acknowledging that "we don't really have any certitude," Fr. Ripperger said several conditions traditionally associated with the Antichrist appear increasingly plausible.

Among them:

"A worldwide implosion of people's morality," in which "people just aren't following the laws of God or the natural law in any sense of the term";
The emergence of technological and institutional systems — such as unified global financial systems and digital currencies — capable of controlling populations on a mass scale; and
Internal crisis within the Catholic Church prior to a future renewal.

Fr. Ripperger also expressed skepticism about the idea that rebuilding a third Jewish temple in Jerusalem is a necessary precursor to the end times. He argued that the Church Fathers consistently held that such a temple would never be rebuilt and that the prophecy often cited in this context has been widely misunderstood.

RELATED: Understanding hell — Part I

Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

"The difficulty is people tend to misinterpret the Book of Daniel, which says when the abomination of desolation takes its seat in the temple," he said. "What they don't realize is that that is not a reference to the Jewish temple."

Instead, he suggested that the New Covenant superseded the Old Covenant and that the "holy place" referenced in such passages should be understood as the Catholic Church.

'It permanently robbed a person of the possibility of the beatific vision.'

Whatever the signs of the times, Fr. Ripperger emphasized that Christians must remain faithful.

It is critical, he said, that believers "follow Christ regardless of the personal cost."

Demonic psy-op

Former President Barack Obama claimed in an interview last month that aliens are "real."

Although Obama later walked back the remark, President Donald Trump announced he would nevertheless be "directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)."

Asked about UFOs and extraterrestrials, Fr. Ripperger suggested that some sightings could simply be government experiments — a suspicion reinforced by a 2025 Wall Street Journal report that found the Pentagon had at times disseminated false information about aliens to obscure sensitive weapons programs.

However, he noted that many accounts of alien abductions closely resemble descriptions of demonic encounters.

Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

"If you strip the veneer of the alien aspect of it off, then in point of fact what you're dealing with is just — they're just demons," he said.

Fr. Ripperger added that some unidentified anomalous phenomena could also be what he called "diabolic mirage[s]" — supernatural illusions permitted by God in rare circumstances.

Abortion: Demonic empowerment

After Ryan brought up Baphomet — the goat-headed occult figure whose likeness the Satanic Temple adopted as its logo and displayed in a statue in the Iowa Capitol in 2023 — the conversation turned to abortion.

Ryan asked about the demonic interest in child sacrifice.

Fr. Ripperger said demons are empowered by abortion not only because it involves the killing of an innocent but because it denies the child the opportunity for baptism.

"We know of no other means of their salvation other than baptism. ... And so historically, the Church always considered abortion to be such a heinous crime because it permanently robbed a person of the possibility of the beatific vision. This is why the Church considered it so evil," he said.

Obtaining an abortion is an excommunicable offense in the Catholic Church.

The priest argued that demons "are so wed to" the widespread practice of abortion that they will "expend enormous amounts of energy protecting it" in order to prevent children "from ever seeing God."

According to the Guttmacher Institute, an estimated 1,038,000 abortions were executed in states without total bans in 2024. There were nearly 600,000 abortions in the first six months of 2025.

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Megachurch pastor ousted following Robert Morris' child sex abuse scandal starts ministry up again

Brady Boyd became the senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 2007 after serving six years as associate senior pastor and elder at the Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. Elders at the church forced Boyd out last year after it became clear that he had misled his congregation about what he knew about Gateway Church founder Robert Morris' sexual abuse of a child.

Apparently betting on Coloradans to forgive and/or forget, Boyd is launching services nearby.

Background

Cindy Clemishire came forward in 2024 accusing Morris of molesting her when she was a child.

'I am qualified for ministry.'

Morris initially downplayed his interactions with Clemishire as "inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady" that was limited to "kissing and petting." Clemishire contradicted Morris, suggesting that the pastor starting abusing her when she was 12 years old and continued doing so for roughly five years.

Days after Clemishire's public accusation went viral, the church's elders announced that they had accepted Morris' resignation.

In October, several months after his indictment on child sexual battery charges, Morris pleaded guilty to five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.

Boyd could not escape the fallout from Morris' sex abuse scandal.

Boyd — who took over as senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs in 2007 after its former pastor, Ted Haggard, resigned over allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a male prostitute and abused methamphetamine — claimed until 2024 that he was unaware that Clemishire was 12 when Morris started molesting her, the Board of Elders of New Life Church said in a June 22, 2025, statement.

Brady Boyd with former President George W. Bush in 2008. Craig F. Walker/Denver Post/Getty Images

"We believe that to be inaccurate," continued the statement. "Brady also made statements in his public address to the congregation on June 8 that the Board of Elders knows to be inaccurate."

On June 8, Boyd told members of his church that he had no previous knowledge of the allegations against Morris and portrayed himself as a victim of Morris' deception. Court documents suggest, however, that he had some idea of the claims against his associate by late August 2007.

While acknowledging that "Brady had nothing at all to do with Robert Morris' past abuse," the elders claimed Boyd did mislead his flock.

"We believe that trust is the currency of leadership," wrote the Board of Elders. "When Brady recently told our congregation, inaccurately, that he was unaware of certain details regarding Morris’ past abuse, trust was broken, and we, the Board of Elders, asked Brady to resign."

Boyd did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

New life

Within weeks of his resignation, Boyd launched a donation-collecting faith-themed organization called Psalm 68 Ministries, which he said in a July 22, 2025, post would "be operating under the authority of the elders of Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo, TX." Months later, he began a weekly sermon podcast.

Trinity Fellowship Church in Amarillo did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Late last month, Boyd and his wife, Pam, announced in-person services in the same commercial area of northern Colorado Springs.

"We believe we are still called to pastor in Colorado Springs. We received this mandate 18 years ago, and the calling has only grown stronger," said the announcement. "After careful prayer and discussions with trusted counselors and friends, we feel led to start a Wednesday night church service in Colorado Springs that will focus on some simple, but powerful ideas. We’ll pray together, study the Scriptures together, share the Lord’s Table, and enjoy fellowship with each other."

Boyd provided a reminder on March 11, writing, "In one week, we will gather and we cannot wait to see all of you at 6:30 at the Phil Long Music Hall."

When asked whether the new services constitute church services, Boyd told ChurchLeaders, "We are going to worship, study the scriptures, receive communion, and pray. This is not a church plant."

Responding to skepticism about whether he should continue in ministry, Boyd said, "Everyone in my trusted circle of pastors and advisers agrees wholeheartedly that I am qualified for ministry."

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Love one another: What the first Christians can teach us about fellowship

The Bible is pretty straightforward about the most important command Christians have in regard to one another. It sounds so simple: Love one another.

When you want to really accomplish something for the kingdom, a very small discipleship group is an effective tool.

And yet it doesn’t seem so simple, perhaps. Where can we go for practical instruction on how to do this right?

I think a good place to start might just be the very first church.

It perhaps is a bit presumptuous to assume that we are in the “later” days of the church age — the church age being defined as the period between Christ’s ascension and His return. But aren’t there an awful lot of signals that we’re getting closer?

So for my purposes here, I’m going to call us — Christians on the earth today — the “late church,” as opposed to the early church, the first believers described in the book of Acts.

How are we doing compared to our brethren of 2,000 years ago? It’s a topic worth considering, since their example shines brightly for us.

They lived in an upside-down culture characterized by sin, idolatry, despair, pride, hatred, division, and societal expectations completely at odds with Jesus’ teaching. Sound familiar?

But they had it far worse than most of us in the Western world today. Thus far our culture hasn’t quite devolved into killing humans for entertainment on a regular basis.

Meet your oldest brothers and sisters

The very first report we have resulted from the day of Pentecost, when 3,000 souls joined God’s family in Jerusalem:

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. —Acts 2:42

“They were continually” indicates this became a pattern, so let’s break down how they were devoting themselves.

1. They were gathering together to hear teaching

At that point, there was no New Testament, so the apostles — men who had had personal contact with Jesus Christ — were directly sharing Christ’s teaching with His new children.

The apostles were also explaining how Christ fulfilled the scriptures they did have (the Old Testament), and helping the new believers understand how to imitate Him and be part of His family. Eventually these early believers became the first to hear the New Testament writings, as many were letters to their various congregations.

We no longer have apostles, but we do have the books the Holy Spirit inspired them to write that became the New Testament. Hearing all the scriptural teaching is of primary importance. Then, as now, God's word should be the focal point of any good church.

2. They were fellowshipping, gathering together physically

Of course these days you can hear the word preached while sitting on your sofa — but they were gathering together physically. Plenty of scripture backs that up as a commandment we are to follow (Hebrews 10:24-25, Colossians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 14:26, to name a few).

How are we doing on that, Late Church? Are we still sitting on the sofa six years after COVID?

Fellowshipping — of course — is meant to be done in person.

Food for thought: Should churches stop sharing their worship services online? What are the pros and cons of continuing to make it easy for people to “do church” from home? I’m not sure of the answers, but I think the question is worth contemplating.

3. They were eating together

A couple of verses after describing Pentecost, Acts expands its description of the new believers’ day-to-day existence:

And daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. —Acts 2:46

So they weren’t just taking Communion (which is likely what verse 42 referred to), but after meeting together in the temple, they were breaking into smaller groups and going from house to house, sharing meals (gladly!).

4. They were praying together

Praying together, the last thing on this list, could well have meant larger corporate prayer — but likely also meant smaller groups praying together. This is the only way, logistically, that thousands of people can pray together meaningfully for each other. They have to break into small groups.

How are we doing on smaller, accountable groups of fellow believers, Late Church?

Unless your church is very tiny, you need a smaller group of believers to live out these excellent examples of eating and praying together in each other’s homes, as well as digging deeper into scripture, meeting each others’ needs, and providing and obtaining accountability.

But just because something is called a small group doesn’t mean it is. Some churches just throw everyone into a few Sunday-school classrooms each week and call it good. Others offer groups that are far too large for the kind of one-on-one accountability and care that a true small group provides.

sedmak/iStock/Getty Images

A dozen does it

Jesus demonstrated that a very effective size for a small group is a dozen. That’s about the right size for fellowship where we get to know and trust one another well enough to pray for each other, know each other’s needs, and literally show love for one another. And with that number, you might even be able to meet — and eat — in each other’s homes.

My friend Pastor Sam Evans says the smaller the group, the greater the growth — and some churches understand this and encourage very small discipleship groups of two or three individuals (same-sex, usually, so that they can be intimately acquainted). This too is a pattern Jesus demonstrated with His “discipleship” group of just three disciples — the three He met with even more often: Peter, James, and John. When you want to really accomplish something for the kingdom, a very small discipleship group is an effective tool.

Our early brothers and sisters were easy to spot

Author Kristi McLelland notes that the early Christians were easy to spot because they refused to participate in that upside-down culture of their time.

First, they refused to worship the emperor or other gods — which meant they were branded as heretics because Roman emperors were to be worshipped as gods. Instead, they stood as committed followers of Jesus Christ.

How are we doing on worshipping what the world worships, Late Church?

Sports, politics, celebrities — any of that too high on our priority list? Too much of our budget?

Second, they revered life, in a culture that routinely abandoned newborn babies to die (often girls). Instead, they rescued and raised those children.

How are we doing on issues related to life, Late Church?
Do we understand why it is always wrong to kill an unborn child, or do we waffle on that to be seen as more “center”?
Do we support pro-life centers and causes?
Do we reach out to help vulnerable young mothers, foster kids, kids who need a permanent home?
Are our churches filled with families who have adopted at-risk kids?
Do we speak out against societal trends, like gay marriage, that put adult desires ahead of children’s needs?
Do we speak out against the destruction of innocent life in any form?
Are we willing to risk being jailed, as we have seen happen to some pro-life activists?

Third, they ignored the ironclad stratifications of Roman society. Christians who were nobility fellowshipped and ate with Christians who were slaves.

How are we doing on true inclusiveness, Late Church?
Do we ignore the boundaries that some mistakenly promote and reach out to individuals at their point of need?

Fourth, they gave generously, although many suffered significant financial loss as a result of becoming a Jesus-follower. They sold their belongings and shared so that “there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34).

How are we doing on generosity, Late Church?
Do we buy in to the culture’s message that we deserve that new car, fancy vacation, or remodel of a home that’s practically new, or do we want to seek to help our fellow believers?
Do we see the world’s needs through God’s eyes, remembering that everything we have comes from Him, and give accordingly?

Finally, they not only lost livelihoods, they often lost their lives.

Late Church, are we willing to lose our wealth — our freedom — our lives for the cross?

They were, and they did. Not one of them was perfect, just like we are not perfect. But shouldn’t we all work harder at engaging with the “late world” the way they engaged with the “early world” — while we still have the time?

BONUS RESOURCE

If your heart was stirred by the description of the early church here, you might want to consider a new church undertaking, if there’s one of these near you. Church Project is a church, and a project, aimed at building local church communities that mirror the early church, along the lines of the descriptions above.

A version of this essay previously appeared at She Speaks Truth.