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In a striking turn of events, renowned atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins recently declared himself a “cultural Christian” during an interview with Rachel S. Johnson of LBC. Dawkins’ declaration was sparked by his reaction to the Mayor of London’s decision to celebrate Ramadan with 30,000 lights on Oxford Street rather than Easter. Well known for his critical stance on religion, Dawkins expressed dismay at promoting Ramadan over Easter. Surprisingly, he defended the cultural trappings of Christianity in England, which he perceives as a fundamentally Christian nation. Dawkins’ comments underscore a significant but often overlooked conversation in the West. While Dawkins does not embrace Christianity’s spiritual tenets, his appreciation for its cultural and moral contribution...

Try to imagine an America in which families that have, for generations, urged their children to serve in the armed services stopped doing precisely that. Click for Crossroads podcast Would that be a big news story? One would think so. With that in mind, take a look at the numbers in this chart posted on X by the Missing Data Depot Substack feed. Here’s the written summary from that tweet: Military families have soured on the military. The % of military family members who would recommend service to their children dropped from 55% in 2016 to 32% in 2023. Relatedly the military fell 41,000 recruits short of its 2023 goal & it is now at its smallest size since 1940. Clearly, economic issues — think slow-rising salaries, housing costs for military families, day-care costs and more — are aff...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It’s the Ides of March, and Father James Ruggieri, the bishop-elect of Portland, Maine, is asking about the differences between East Coast rap and West Coast rap. It’s the latest installment in a long-running conversation with a tall Black man standing in front of a table where the priest and other volunteers are giving out food. The man, who thinks of himself as an East Coast rapper, said the people in rehab preferred gangster rap. He has something he wants to get off his chest. “I’m getting kind of nervous,” he says. “Why are you nervous?” the priest asks. “Because it’s time — getting closer and closer and closer to God, you know what I mean?” the man says. “Just be ready,” the priest replies. “Just be ready.” “I’m more anxious than anybody,” the man says. “That’s okay...

(Image: Jochen van Wylick/Unsplash.com) Discrimination against Christians continues unabated as for the third time in four years public officials have sought to not allow qualified Christians to serve as foster or adoptive parents because they reject the current orthodoxy on gender ideology. In the dispute at the heart of this column, despite an acute shortage of caregivers willing and able to be respite or placement resources for children and youth experiencing increased mental, behavioral, and physical health needs, officials forbade a Christian couple in Washington from serving as foster parents. In fact, while 358 children spent 4,570 nights sleeping in hotels, offices, or other temporary accommodations in 2023, officials refused to permit Shane and Jennifer DeGross,&nbs...

We’re all familiar with the idea that Lent is forty days long, and it used to be true that Lent involved forty days excluding Sundays, though this isn’t true now, given revisions to the Church’s liturgical calendar. The length of Lent is inspired by the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness before he began his public ministry (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13). However, there’s another forty days connected with Jesus, and we read about them at the beginning of Acts: To them [the apostles] he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). Jesus then instructed the apostles to remain in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). This happened on Pentecost, fifty days...

Government-funded research says Students for Life is ‘terrorist’ organization Two terrorism experts questioned a University of Maryland center’s labeling of a pro-life group as a “terrorist” organization. The former employees of the Department of Justice and Homeland Security spoke to The College Fix about the university’s research database, “Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States,” or PIRUS. Created by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START, the project purportedly tracks “ideologically motivated criminal activity” and known “extremists” through 2021. The Fix previously reported how two Students for Life of America members who were arrested for writing “black pre-born lives matter” on a sidewalk in 2020 are recorded...