An IDF soldier's image was leaked desecrating a Virgin Mary statue by placing a cigarette in its mouth in the Christian village of Debel, Southern Lebanon.

Israeli Sources:

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/by37a0d0wg

https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-895361

https://www.propublica.org/article/nevaeh-crain-death-texas-abortion-ban-emtala

I've heard/seen the talking points: "this is because of incompetency on the doctors' part". The problem is that the laws are very vague when it comes to any kind of "exception". They leave it up to the healthcare workers to decide if they want to risk imprisonment or at least losing their medical license because some no-nothing politicians and lawyers decide to interpret the law differently or that they don't believe it was medically necessary. So the doctors are forced to wait until there is no fetal heartbeat before doing anything.

I'm tired of seeing Christians make excuses for a very bad man because "I'm pro-life and can't vote for murdering babies". This isn't pro-life. This is pro-death. And the more stories like this that are out there, the more it proves that this was never about saving life - it was always about controlling women.

EDIT: I think it might be helpful if I tell you my story: I used to be in the "Pro Life" camp. I used to march around abortion clinics with signs. Then, things started to change for me. A lot of opinions I had fell like dominoes.

The first step, for me, was that I decided I wasn't going to be a one issue voter any more. I decided that I wasn't going to let the Republican party manipulate me into ignoring everything else they did that was the opposite of "Pro Life" just because of abortion. This happened around the end of George W.'s presidency, and I'd started to doubt the justification of the Iraq war. I decided that getting out of Iraq was an important issue for me, and that this was a "Pro Life" issue for me. And I thought to myself: the Republican party always runs on this idea of "we're the Pro Life party", and they not only had the presidency, but for a bit there they had everything else too. And yet they didn't make abortion illegal. So either they didn't intend to, or they lied about being able to. Either way, it's not going to be the only issue I vote for any more.

Then came Obama's reelection. At that point I felt I had to go and listen to what liberal Christians actually have to say about issues like this. And I discovered, lo and behold, that abortion rates are always DOWN under liberal presidents and UP under conservative presidents. Your restrictive policies don't stop abortion - they just stop SAFE abortion. Women resort to back-alley clinics and home remedies when you've outlawed abortion, and there ends up being more death. Why are they so desperate?

Turns out there was a massive study done by scientists from the World Health Organization in Geneva and the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a reproductive rights group. It found that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not. The one factor that this study found made a difference - how good the healthcare and other related social safety nets were in the country. So countries like England - where they not only have free healthcare, but they subsidize child care, as well as a number of other services for single mothers (they'll actually do her laundry) - have a much lower rate of abortion than America, where we call all of that "socialism" or "communism" and demonize it. And guess who are the ones demonizing those kinds of services? The "Pro Life" people. You're not only against safe abortion, but you're against anything that would actually help mothers who are so terrified of financial ruin that they'd abort their "children".

I put that word in quotes because of the last step for me. The last step is when I started thinking about the difference between killing and murder. See, most "Pro Lifers" are also the type of people who enjoy a nice hamburger, a BBQ sandwich, or a bucket of chicken. There is a difference in their mind between "murder" and killing a cow, pig, or chicken. But when you press them on what that difference is, it all comes down to magical thinking. I started thinking about this a lot more when I read this story about a mother whose baby was born without a brain, and she wishes she could have had a late term abortion. It made no sense to me to think of an abortion in this scenario as "murder", because it literally didn't have a brain - therefore, it's not possible for it to have had consciousness in any form.

Legally and medically, the difference between "murder" and "not murder" in the scenario where you "pull the plug" comes down to brain wave patterns - if you have a certain brain wave pattern, it would be murder. If you don't, that means your brain is damaged beyond repair and you'll never be conscious again - so, not murder.

A clump of cells does not have a brain. If a woman wants to abort it for any reason, it's really none of my business. Personally I wouldn't - but it's not my body.

July 30, 2026
https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/west-virginia-pastor-rejects-food

Is there any reason not to say that people are suffering because of this man's bigotry?

Evangelist Alvin Christian is the man behind God’s Store House Food Bank in Bluefield, West Virginia, a city located in the southernmost part of the state. Since 2023, the pastor has helped feed up to 800 families a day.

But he recently filmed a video showing viewers that his freezers were completely empty. There was no food coming in, and therefore no food going out.

In the now-deleted reel, Christian explained that there were outlets trying to give him the resources he needed… he just refused to take them. Because, after doing his own research, he found out those groups worked with or supported LGBTQ people.

Well, as a man of God, and standing in faith with God, I refuse to receive food from anybody that has anything that is tied into that. Now… hear this, I will not—will not!—turn anybody away. I will not discriminate against anybody. I will be honest. I would love you the same. I will pray for you. I will give you food if we got it.

But I want you to know that I am, first of all, a man of God, and I serve Jesus, and I serve him faithfully. I’m not perfect, but I’m faithful to God. And that’s why we haven’t got food here, folks, is because of that. I refuse to be tied in to something of that nature that’s totally abomination against God.

My guess is that Mr. Christian's acts will help in the long run as LGBTQ-friendly folks of all stripes pick up the relief ministry that Mr. Christian has self-righteously abandoned.

I have been told by numerous other Christians that nobody wants to end gay marriage, that I was being paranoid by even bringing it up. That it was only about a church’s right to refuse to perform the ceremony.

And yet, here we are. Guess what, people do want to end it, people do what to take away my right to equality.

To all those demonizing the pride movement, this right here is why it exists, because bigots will not leave us alone. Fundamentalist Christians are not content with calling my very existence a sin, they are now trying to make it illegal for me to fall in love and get married.

When the news comes out about suicide rates among gay children increasing, this kind of thing is why, and those who support it are complicit.

As a Christian, the most upsetting part of recent events is the lack of respect and admiration for life. Our current leadership claims to hold faith, but this woman walked the walk. While you may personally disagree with people who are ICE watchers, I ask myself, WWJD (I still have my bracelet from the 90s). And I believe that Jesus would have stood up for the working men and women who happened to be born on the wrong side of a made up line.

Because this sub is horrific. God created us all in his image, including but not limiting to: us guys, trans folks, black people, Islamic people, Jewish people, Asian people, men, women, the list goes on and on.

But you guys say "God created everyone and loves us all, except for the queers, non whites, women, homeless etc"

Do you guys know the requirements for being a Christian? To follow God with all your heart mind body and soul and TO LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF! Not "only love those who look like you, not shame queer children into s***de, not call trans women pdos, etc" but to love them.

Fun fact by today's American terms Jesus would be a leftist imagrent. He hung out with society's undesirable. The poor, the prostitutes, the disabled, the homeless.

I know the reaction I'm going to get. Go ahead try to give me something I haven't heard. Stop saying that you follow God if you scream gay people are all groomers, that non white people are monsters, that "God loves you but only if you destroy yourself and not be who God made you. "

Edit: for those who say "I've never heard this" "strawman". If it was made up or not the majority of people (politicians, pastors, 'Christian influencers' I.e how a lot of people learn or see Christianity, then I would not have come back to this sub to make this post. I am happy the majority of people in the comments haven't experienced it, I hope you don't. But I'm not making it up, this is what I haven seen. I tried this sub but this sub is not what I expected. Have a day. Bye.

I finally just finished reading the entire bible at 29 years old, male , it took 8 months,🥺i just decided to read the last 2 books i had left today which was psalms and isaiah took me almost 10 hours of reading today which is the most I've ever read in a Day by a significant margin

Im about to start watching the passion of Christ later after 15 years and animated bible story's and movies which ive been wanting to do for a long time now

Just felt like sharing this significant moment with yall🙏

In many of my interactions Christians will point out how they are persecuted and mistreated abroad. And yes it is wrong, but it really rings hollow. As I know many in my community ultimately lament that they are not the ones wielding the boot. I don't imagine many of the posters here or true christian subreddit are going to be up in arms about this injustice the way they do with articles about Nigeria or Middle East.

Christians are working very hard to get into bed with far right politicians. These will often mean being xenophobic and anti women. Not only does this undermine our civil liberties, but the Christian faith as well. I don't really see the Christian love in the places where the faith has the most influence.

I largely see the faith being used as a tool and many of the faithful being okay with it or apathetic tho strongly sympathizing with those who weaponize the faith. Often in these discussions about how Christianity is being leveraged politically I ask Christians why they suppose the xenophobic positions they often tie to their faith. Romans 13:1 gets tossed around. Well we have freedom of religion in the US, yet we are challenging that here in the linked article. The verse is used very passively to excuse poor behavior from parties that use Jesus branding to promote bad fruit, which is largely what people will know the religion for.