News is an eternal thing in a transient sort of way. As long as there are human beings on this earth, there is no end to it. And, since mankind is sinful and rebellious, there is no shortage of bad news.
Few are the reports from Armageddon that are uplifting or positive on the human level. The human level is, after all, dirt level, and the blood is already up to the horse’s bridles. And so, we present you with more outrages to righteous sensibilities in this installment. Read on and be informed.
Interrupted Prayer
What is the price for silent prayer? Isabel Vaughan-Spruce of Birmingham, England knows the answer. Vaughan-Spruce was recently harassed and arrested by police for the second time in a year as she stood silently outside an abortion clinic with her eyes closed. Her latest arrest comes just weeks after a UK court cleared her of criminal charges for her first arrest in December 2022.
In a cell phone video of the latest incident, police are seen interrogating Vaughan-Spruce as to her intentions. She repeatedly told them she was praying “in her head.” Police told her that was an offense, according to a Birmingham Public Space Protection Order, which establishes a buffer zone around abortion clinics. The order specifically names prayer, “with respect to issues related to abortion services,” as a form of protesting, and as such it is banned within the buffer zone.
A September 2023 YouGov UK poll found that “three quarters of Britons support banning people from protesting outside abortion clinics.”
Vaughan-Spruce is the Director of the UK March for Life. May her silent prayers be heard.
What is a Woman?
Matt Walsh famously asked and explored this question in his popular 2022 documentary. Apparently, Michigan law-makers are still stumped and no closer to an answer. They recently voted to remove the words “woman” and “she” from the state’s 2014 breastfeeding law to make it more “gender neutral.”
State Senator Michele Hoitenga, a Republican, had sought to preserve the female-specific language of the law by introducing an amendment, but it failed.
“As far as I’m aware, women, specifically mothers, are the only people who can breastfeed or pump milk,” she said. Her Democrat (and a few of her fellow Republican) colleagues were confused enough about plain language and biology to disagree with her.
Meanwhile, in Arkansas, Governor Sara Huckabee Sanders has signed an executive order that bans the use of certain gender-neutral terms by government employees and official documents. “We’re all here today to say, frankly, that we’ve had enough,” she said before signing the order. “Enough trying to erase women and girls, enough denying our biological differences from men, and enough of the craziness that is taking over our country.”
Sanders is the first woman and the first mother to serve as governor of Arkansas. Perhaps a phone call to their friends in the South might have helped the good (?) Michigan lawmakers with their confusion.
Vaxx Law Challenged
Public and private schools and daycares in California are forbidden by law from exempting children from vaccinations for any reason other than medical. Advocates for Faith & Freedom, however, are suing the state’s Attorney General Rob Bantam, citing religious discrimination. The law, SB277, was originally signed by former Governor Jerry Brown in 2015.
According to Fox News, the complaint states that California “allows immigrant and homeless children to attend public and private schools without proof of vaccination,” and “California cannot demonstrate that religiously exempt students pose a greater risk than secular exempt students. The exempt, unvaccinated children under SB277 are still free to sweat in weekend sports leagues together, participate in public extracurricular activities, and sit through hours of services at churches and synagogues.”
The reader is forgiven for thinking the complaint makes perfect sense, because it absolutely does. But its success in the courts remains to be seen. We are talking about California, after all. Land of smoggy L.A. and smoggy political minds that think up is down and down is up. If they fail at the state level, Advocates for Faith & Freedom are hopeful that their suit will be taken up by the conservative-controlled U.S. Supreme Court.
And thus, the news!
