Christian Nigerian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu was abducted eight years ago by Islamic extremists. Unlike most of the classmates she was abducted with, she has never been freed.
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Kiev.
Kyiv’s Dormition Cathedral badly damaged in major Russian strikes on Ukrainian capital
Kyiv’s historic Dormition Cathedral, part of the UNESCO-listed Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, caught fire overnight after a wave of Russian missile and drone strikes on the Ukrainian capital. CT.
Cultural Marxism Is Thinly Disguised Evil.
Why cultural Marxists want to erase 'mother,' 'father' in New York.
Political movements have long understood that language shapes culture. From the French Revolution to Marxist movements in Europe and Communist regimes in Asia, ideological leaders have sought to advance their agendas not only through political power but through linguistic change.
By redefining familiar terms, elevating preferred expressions, and marginalizing traditional language, they have attempted to reshape public understanding of reality itself. As George Orwell famously observed, the corruption of language often precedes the corruption of thought.
The latest example of the cultural Marxism that has infested blue states like New York is a bill awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul's (D) signature — S.9316. Supporters describe it as a measure making technical revisions to New York family law. But it does far more than that. It raises a fundamental question: What happens when ideology replaces reality?
The bill is officially described as substituting “parentage” for “paternity and filiation” throughout state law. But among its most significant changes are the replacement of “mother” with “gestating parent” and “father” with “non-gestating parent.” For now, its focus is limited to state statutes, not greeting cards, so the Father’s Day card you purchased remains safe, for now.
If Governor Hochul signs the legislation, a number of gender-specific parental terms would be replaced with what supporters call gender-neutral language. Among the changes:
- “Mother” would become “gestating parent.
- “Father” would become “non-gestating parent” or simply “parent.”
- “Paternity” proceedings would become “parentage” proceedings.
- “Putative father” would become “alleged parent.”
As history repeatedly demonstrates, language matters. The question is not whether words shape culture; the question is who gets to define the words. Is replacing mother and father with “gestating parent” and “non-gestating parent” merely a technical modernization of legal terminology, or is it another step in the Left’s effort to further erase our understanding of God’s design for mankind?
Does truthfulness matter in our laws? Does accuracy matter? It should. The Apostle James wrote: “… [A]bove all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No,’ lest you fall into judgment” (James 5:12).
James’s warning is not primarily about oaths. It is about truthfulness, reliability, and integrity in our speech. Words matter because truth matters. As followers of Christ, we cannot participate in the ideological assault on truth, even when it is wrapped in the language of so-called inclusion, modernization, or progress.
The cultural Marxists of our day understand what revolutionaries throughout history have understood: if you can redefine words, you can reshape thought; if you can reshape thought, you can reshape culture. That is why language is always one of the first battlefields in a cultural revolution. And that is why motherhood and fatherhood must be replaced with sterile, mechanistic terms that strip away both meaning and design.
Ultimately, this is not an attack on words. It is an attack on one of the last great bulwarks standing in the way of their vision for society: the family as God created it. The cultural Marxists of our day are paving the way for their political agenda by weakening one of the primary institutions established by God for human flourishing. When a culture can no longer speak truthfully about mothers and fathers, it is well on its way to forgetting what they are.
Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.
CP.
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JD Vance.
JD Vance says wife Usha aided journey back to Christianity, hopes she will convert.
Vice President JD Vance said during a Monday interview that his wife, Usha Vance, played a role in his journey back to Christianity, and reiterated his hopes that she will convert from Hinduism. CP.
The Lex Moralis.
Lex Moralis (Moral Law): The fundamental, eternal moral commands applicable to all people at all times. The best-known example is the Ten Commandments, referred to in Latin as the Decalogue (from the Greek dekalogos and Latin decalogus.)
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
If Burnham Wins - Our Economy Will Get Even Worse. No Sensible Voter Can Support Lowe!
Turmoil over a British by-election carries a warning for America
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My article in today’s New York Post
Later this week, a by-election will take place in Britain that may seal the fate of the UK’s beleaguered prime minister, Keir Starmer. But it’s also sending a warning to all who believe that the fanatical leftists who now dominate progressive politics must be stopped if we’re still going to have a society worth living in.
It’s a warning not just for Britain but also for America’s Republicans, Vice President JD Vance and tech mogul Elon Musk, who are all expressing huge concern about the erosion of Britain’s historic identity and what this means for the West.
The by-election is for the parliamentary seat in Makerfield, a blue-collar town in the north of England. It’s been caused by the vaulting ambition of one man, Andy Burnham, a former minister in Tony Blair’s Labour government, whose recent popularity as mayor of Manchester has made him the go-to candidate to lever the terminally unpopular Starmer out of office.
Because he needs a seat in the House of Commons to do so, the sitting Labour MP obligingly moved out so that Burnham could contest it.
However, the assumption that he might romp home in a tribally Labour area is in doubt. The election is on a knife edge.
Burnham is resented as an unprincipled carpet-bagger. The main threat he faces, though, comes from a key change in British political life.
Blue-collar former Labour voters no longer feel the party represents them. They view it now as a party of the intellectual elites, who have all but driven their nation off a cliff through promoting mass immigration and anti-western ideologies of race and gender.
The resulting march of Islamisation, two-tier policing and the abandonment of justice, fairness and common-sense has made such voters desperate for politicians to stop all such wokism in its tracks.
As a result, there’s a large swell of support in Makerfield for Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which is now neck-and-neck with Labour. Ever since he launched the insurrection that led to Brexit, Farage has dominated the political landscape. More than any other politician, he’s continued to make the political weather over the neuralgic issues of mass immigration and the need to remove Islamist extremists from Britain.
Recently, however, Farage has lost his shine. Policy U-turns, plus the fact that a number of prominent politicians have defected from the despised Conservative party to Reform, have created the suspicion that Farage is really just like all the other politicians who have said one thing and done another.
Now this arch-disruptor is finding an even more disruptive politician snapping at his heels in Makerfield. Rupert Lowe was a Reform MP who spectacularly fell out with Farage and stormed off to form his own party, Restore.
Although it’s currently polling at between 7 and 13 per cent in Makerfield, that would split the anti-Labour vote so badly it would cause Burnham to be elected.
Rocket fuel has been put behind this view by Elon Musk. In January last year, Musk called on Farage to resign as Reform’s leader, claiming he “doesn’t have what it takes,” and praised Lowe for making “a lot of sense”.
Musk often reposts Lowe’s content on X, which gives Lowe’s posts a huge boost. As of mid April, Lowe was the most popular British politician on X with 12.9 million likes compared to 1.9 million for Farage.
As a result, Restore is gathering significant support. Musk’s intervention is therefore likely to produce the very outcome he’s working to avoid.
Moreover, there’s real concern over the kind of people Lowe has attracted. Restore supporters say Britain needs to return to its Anglo-Saxon and Christian roots — which means it must once again be white. So no place in that for black or brown-skinned Brits.
In addition, it has a problem with Jews. Prominent supporters have publicly labeled Jewish people “foreign” and called for their removal from Britain, expressed admiration for Hitler and absurdly blamed all foreign wars — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya — on Israel and the Global Jewish Conspiracy.
They are therefore similar to the Jewish-conspiracy nutjobs on the American right led by Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. The danger they all pose is that they toxify and weaken the resistance to wokism by tarring everyone fighting to defend Western civilisation with the same extremist brush.
As a result, they greatly increase the chances of the Democrats or Labour regaining or retaining power — against the wishes of the people — because the opposition is fatally split.
The axiom that the revolution eats its own, first coined when the 18th-century French revolutionaries started guillotining each other, is generally associated with the left. Now it’s arrived on the right.
By failing to dispatch these extremists and instead including them in their “big tent,” the defenders of the West risk handing victory to the very leftists they’re so desperate to defeat.
Growing In The Desert Seasons.
Life beyond burnout: how Christians can grow in the desert seasons.
(Photo: Getty/iStock)In her latest book, What Grows in Weary Lands, author and Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren explores spiritual exhaustion, resilience and the quiet work of faith in the difficult seasons of life.
She draws from personal experience and ancient Christian wisdom - specifically that of mystics and monks - to examine the realities of modern burnout and how periods of weariness and doubt can become places for deep faith and hope to grow.
Christian Today spoke with Tish to hear about how Christian resilience differs from the modern cultural idea of grit, what the Church can do to address spiritual weariness, and how Christians can weave their identity in Christ into all areas of their lives.
The subtitle of your book focuses on Christian resilience. How is Christian resilience different from cultural ideas of grit or self-sufficiency?
Grit gets us part of the way toward understanding resilience. There is something valuable in our culture’s emphasis on perseverance, on sticking with things, practising patience, and developing discipline. But Christian resilience is different from sheer willpower or stoicism.
The key difference is why and how we endure. Cultural grit often focuses on personal strength, pushing through because we have no other choice, or because we want to prove something about ourselves. Christian resilience, by contrast, is rooted in hope. We persevere not simply to survive, but because we know that God is at work and will ultimately set things right.
A helpful example is the prodigal son’s older brother. He stayed, he was dutiful, he endured, but his heart was distant. He was resentful and joyless. That isn’t Christian resilience.
Christian resilience means remaining not out of resignation, but out of trust. The desert fathers and mothers spoke about “staying in the cell” not as an act of grit alone, but as a place of encounter with God. In staying, we are formed. We believe God is present and working in us.
So resilience is not an end in itself. It’s not about gritting our teeth through life. It’s about sustaining a relationship with God through every season.
As someone who writes about faith, how do you personally guard against burnout?
I don’t try to eliminate weariness entirely, because I think it’s an inevitable part of the life of faith, and often a place where we encounter God.
Part of what I’m trying to reframe is the idea that weariness, doubt, or disorientation are purely negative. These can actually be places of growth if we lean into them rather than avoid them.
That said, I do try to be intentional about renewal. Silence is important for me, especially because I work with words so much. I practise silent prayer to create space to be filled again.
I also try to keep the Sabbath, one day a week without work, shopping, or screens. It’s not perfect, and it’s not a quick fix. Even with years of practising the Sabbath, I’ve still experienced deep weariness. Life stages, like raising children or caring for ageing parents, can make true rest difficult.
Another thing I’m increasingly aware of is the importance of community. Much of our culture’s burnout comes not just from busyness, but from isolation. So one of the ways I’m trying to guard against burnout is by inviting others more deeply into my life.
What role should the Church play in addressing collective weariness today?
I think the Church needs to distinguish between different kinds of weariness.
Some weariness comes from overwork, constant striving, or disordered priorities, chasing success, productivity, or control. In those cases, the Church should name those patterns and call people back to rest, limits, and a healthier vision of life shaped by delight and beauty.
But there is also a kind of weariness that is simply part of being human, and part of spiritual growth. Seasons of dryness, difficulty, or fatigue are not failures. They are normal.
So the Church’s role is both pastoral and prophetic. Pastorally, it should help people discern whether their weariness is a sign of imbalance or a natural part of growth. Prophetically, it should challenge a culture that resists limits and idolises productivity.
At the same time, the Church shouldn’t treat all weariness as a problem to fix. Like sadness, it is part of life. Doing good in the world is often hard, and that effort can make us weary. The goal is not to avoid weariness entirely, but to respond to it with patience, trust, and faith.
How can we take the peace, joy, and identity we have in Christ into our other roles, such as workers, parents, friends?
I think it starts with being the same person everywhere. Not one person at church and another at work or at home, but someone rooted in Christ wherever they are.
That means bringing our faith into the real moments of life, not treating it as something abstract. It’s easy to say we have hope in Jesus in a general sense, but do we have hope when we’re failing at work, struggling in relationships, or feeling like we’ve let our children down?
Christian hope has to be lived in those specific moments. It has to be embodied in our daily lives.
But this also works in the other direction. Being “one person” means bringing our real selves into church. If we’re struggling with doubt or weariness, we should be honest about that. Church isn’t a place to pretend we’re fine; it’s a place to come as we are, in need of God.
You write that culture and the Church tends to ‘lack stories of a long, steady continuation in faith.’ Why do you think that is?
I write in the book about Thomas Aquinas's idea of "arduous goods" - the idea that many of the best things, the "goods" in our life, are difficult and add friction to our days. I don't think, in Hollywood or in global capitalism - in the West in general - we have much of an understanding of arduous goods. We are told to seek our happiness and follow our bliss. But a life of merely doing that ends up a life without meaning.
What do you hope readers will take from this book?
Firstly, I hope weary and discouraged readers find encouragement. I also hope to introduce the idea of stability. In an unstable world, the Christian life involves remaining committed to God, to people, to place, and to the practices of faith, even when we don’t feel like it.
I want readers to engage with the wisdom of the ancient church, the desert fathers and mothers and other early voices, because they offer a deeper and sometimes unfamiliar perspective on faith.
But most of all, I hope readers experience grace. We often live as though the spiritual life depends entirely on us, our effort, our discipline, our strength. But when we reach the end of ourselves, we begin to see God’s sufficiency more clearly.
So I hope readers learn to rest, not in passivity, but in trust. That their efforts become participation in what God is already doing, rather than an attempt to control or perfect their own lives.
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Just What Is The Matter With This Man?
‘Does the way we talk about new arrivals like the parakeet reflect deeper fears about outsiders?’ asks Chris Packham Credit: Channel 4
Do you dislike the way parakeets monopolise the bird feeder, peck at your fruit trees and make an awful din? I’m afraid you might be racist. At least, that’s one of the arguments made by Chris Packham in Invasion of the Parakeets (Channel 4), a barmy documentary which draws a parallel between green parrots and asylum seekers.
“Does the way we talk about new arrivals like the parakeet reflect deeper fears about outsiders?” he muses. No, but don’t let that stop your flow, Chris. “Certain sections of the media choose words like ‘alien’ and ‘invasive’, stirring up fear of the newcomers,” he goes on. I’ve checked the cuttings library and, oh dear, The Telegraph is guilty as charged.
Yuk!
Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Monkeys (1943) Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty
A new Frida Kahlo exhibition is about to open at Tate Modern, with a very different feel from the modern Mexican artist’s last show at the gallery in 2005. That exhibition gathered more than 80 works to celebrate Kahlo the artist. This one, with only around 30 works by Kahlo herself, will examine something else: a phenomenon sometimes described as “Fridamania”, acknowledging her astonishing popularity, and not only with collectors (last autumn, one of Kahlo’s paintings sold at auction for almost £42m – the highest price ever paid for an artwork by a woman).
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Forget Starmer - These Devices Intrude Into Ordinary Life!
They intrude into ordinary life.
At times, I have had five+ people seated in my house and nobody is talking to anyone else. Can you perhaps guess why?
Maybe similar things have happened to you?
It's so desperately easy to get drawn in.
Wouldn't this unpalatable behaviour once have been referred to as 'the height of rudeness?'
What has changed?
If it were just passers-by whom we hardly know - maybe that would have been just about okay but it's almost everyone you know - family included.
It can even happen when eating!!
What I really resent most is that the mighty tentacles of this horror, have even drawn me into its evil web on several occasions!
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The Joy in Being a Christian.
Sonnet: The Joy in Being a Christian:
A quiet peace descends upon the soul,
When resting in the Saviour’s gentle grace.
His perfect love has made the broken whole,
And light divine now shines upon my face.
When resting in the Saviour’s gentle grace.
His perfect love has made the broken whole,
And light divine now shines upon my face.
Though earthly storms may rage and trials rise,
And shadows try to cloud the narrow way,
I fix my gaze upon the distant skies,
And walk in brilliant, never-ending day.
And shadows try to cloud the narrow way,
I fix my gaze upon the distant skies,
And walk in brilliant, never-ending day.
For joy is not the absence of all grief,
But deep assurance that the Lord is near.
A steadfast anchor for a strong belief,
That casts out every bitter doubt and fear.
But deep assurance that the Lord is near.
A steadfast anchor for a strong belief,
That casts out every bitter doubt and fear.
In serving Him, my heavy heart takes flight,
And walks forever in His holy light.
And walks forever in His holy light.
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Uneasy, Huh?
Thomas Nagel covers the same ground when he says: “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope that there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.”
The Nicene Creed.
"Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with God the Father, for the Father is the first divine person of the Most Holy Trinity; our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and earth, for creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God's works."
The Nicene Creed.
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
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Eight Years! I have not forgotten Leah.
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