BreakPoint

In a recent episode of “60 Minutes,” interviewer Scott Pelley said to his guest, “You don’t have much time. Why are you spending time doing this?” His guest, former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, who received a fatal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in December, replied with a laugh, “You invited me, so I assume you needed to fill some time.” Short of a miracle, Sasse won’t see his 14-year-old son grow up. He won’t walk his daughters down the aisle.

Less than two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear yet another First Amendment case arising out of Colorado. St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy involves a law that excludes Catholic and other religious institutions from participating in the state’s so-called “Universal Preschool Program,” or UPK. UPK pays for parents to send their children to a Colorado preschool of their choice, public or private.

Colorado has extended its losing streak at the Supreme Court. Yesterday, the Court ruled in Chiles v. Salazar, a case that challenged a law that prohibited licensed counselors from helping clients, specifically children, reconcile their identity with their sex through talk therapy. The 8-1 decision included all of the Court’s conservative Justices and two of its liberal Justices. Because Colorado’s law would restrict speech based on viewpoint, the Court held, it violates the First Amendment.

Have reports of a revival of Christianity in the Western world been, to paraphrase Mark Twain, “greatly exaggerated?” Last week, the Bible Society of the UK pulled a much-discussed report that had suggested the nation was undergoing a “Quiet Revival.” On the website, CEO Paul Williams admitted that “the 2024 survey sample on which our report The Quiet Revival was based was faulty, and it can no longer be regarded as a reliable source of information about the spiritual landscape in Britain.”...

Earlier this month, an Indiana judge blocked a prolife law, arguing that limiting abortion violates freedom of religion. The claim, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and Hoosier Jews for Choice, argued that an Indiana law “violates religious freedoms by burdening the ability to obtain an abortion in accordance with their sincerely held beliefs.” Judge Christina R.

John and Maria discuss three lawsuits in the news; the guilty verdict for a Finnish lawmaker over an “insult”; Moody student teachers can stay in Chicago classrooms as part of their training. And a Jury finds Meta harms children. Also, how should Christians view the deaths of Kermit Gosnell and Paul Ehrlich.

A recent BBC podcast told the story of a young pianist who found God through music. Though she now goes by her baptismal name of Eleanor, Yirui Wenggrew up in Communist China. The stringently atheistic education she received there emphasized the importance of hard work and that reality only consisted of the physical world. She learned technique, not about transcendent concepts like beauty, much less the God behind beauty.

This year, as America celebrates its 250th anniversary, Breakpoint will examine aspects of the American story through the lens of a Christian worldview. Today, why was slavery established in a country built on such a strong Christian consensus. Thomas Jefferson is rightly called a hypocrite.

According to an article in Religion Unplugged, Roman Catholic officials are considering the Augsburg Confession as a basis for Christian unity. For those not up on their Church history, this was written in 1530 by Philip Melanchthon as a joint statement for Protestant leaders in Germany.

In a recent viral social media post, podcaster Aakash Gupta shared results from a 2024 study of the human brain. The study, he said, “should mass-humble every AI lab on the planet.” In it, scientists digitally mapped a cubic millimeter of the brain, equivalent to two grains of sand. The results are mindboggling.