This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The European Commission is threatening the Irish government with punishment if it does not agree to criminalize people for their "words, ideas and opinions," but officials in Ireland are fighting back, with promises to defend their own rules of conduct.
It is the Christian Institute that is reporting the commission has given Ireland two months to comply with its own leftist "hate speech" agenda, or else be referred to the EU's court of justice.
But Ken O'Flynn, a deputy in the government, openly challenged the agenda, wondering whether under the leftist ideologies quoting the Bible will "become a punishable act."
"Will this government stand over a law that criminalizes people for what they think, criminalizes people for what they say rather than what they do?" he wondered. "We are not talking about the incitement of violence, we are not talking about threats or harassment, we are talking about words, ideas and opinions; often and sometimes unpopular and uncomfortable, but still lawful expressions, which are supposedly free."
O'Flynn cited the disaster that developed for speech in Finland, when leftists there demanded the prosecution of Parliamentarian Paivi Rasanen, who quoted the Bible online and has been under threat ever since.
Or the case of a Swedish pastor who was sentenced to a month in prison for publishing a sermon.
Both the online statements Bible and sermon contained thoughts and ideas taken from the Bible, with which leftist and radicals disagree.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohue explained that whatever limits are adopted they must be proportionate to offenses, and "recognize the deep value of free speech, and the right for freedom of expression."
A report from the Times quoted a government official confirming he does not expect any further speech restrictions, and that his nation as a solid defense to the claims from the commission.
The institute reported, "Following widespread criticism, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee removed incitement to hatred from the initial proposals of the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024. But the law still allows tougher sentences in instances where crimes are deemed to be motivated by hostility towards a protected group."
That compromise came about because of concern a previously scheme could have left churches facing criminal charges for preaching Bible-based sexual ethics, which are hated by the LGBT community at large.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joseph Goebbels was the propaganda minister for Adolf Hitler and succeed in warping the media and messaging in Germany at the time in his campaign to turn the public against the Jewish part of the nation's population.
He withheld nothing in his campaign to exterminate those he, as a virulent anti-Semite, disliked.
He explained, "If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself."
Now in what is anything but an endorsement of Democrat politics in recent years, a Rasmussen Reports survey has confirmed about 60% of the party's members STILL believe the lie about Russiagate.
That was the often-repeated fabrication created during President Donald Trump's first campaign, in 2016, in which the Hillary Clinton campaign worked with "opposition research" schemers, a legal team and others to claim, falsely, that Trump's campaign was colluding with Russia in the election. Testimony suggests she did it in order to distract voters from her own scandal of putting government secrets on a private, unsecure, computer server she set up.
A commentary by John Nolte at Breitbart charged, "Despite a full-fledged and endless Special Counsel investigation coming up empty… Despite billions and billions of corporate dollars spent on years-long media investigations coming up empty… Despite all the congressional investigations coming up empty… Despite nearly ten years and a bottomless pile of money available to the organized left that has come up empty… Sixty-percent of Democrats still-Still-STILL believe Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election from Hillary Clinton."
Rasmussen Reports said, "Despite recent revelations about the corrupt origins of claims that Donald Trump 'colluded' with Russia, a majority of Democrats still think it explains how Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
"The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 42% of Likely U.S. Voters consider it likely that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election, including 24% who believe it's Very Likely. Forty-nine percent (49%) don't think it's likely the 2016 election was affected by collusion with Russia, including 36% who say it's Not At All Likely."
The survey questioned 1,014 U.S. Likely Voters July 6-7, 2025, and the results have a margin of error of three percentage points.
The polling revealed 60% of Democrats still say it is very likely (38%) or somewhat likely (22%).
Only 14% said it was not every likely and 15% said not likely at all.
Across all segments of the population, 42% said it's likely, and 49% say unlikely.
And on a theme that Republicans have raised repeatedly, 57% said those "officials who were involved in the manipulation of intelligence to 'get Trump' [should] be criminally prosecuted."
"When asked if what the 'intelligence community did to Trump Donald Trump is bigger than Watergate,' 53 percent agreed — 34 percent strongly and 19 percent somewhat — while only 38 percent disagreed: 27 percent strongly and 11 percent somewhat," Nolte wrote. "The Democrat party is beyond broken. It's a party comprised only of feelings, none of them optimistic… We're talking about feelings only of rage, entitlement, arrogance, a false sense of superiority, preening narcissism, and a refusal to acknowledge reality.
"And it's not just the Russia Collusion Hoax. The obvious horrors of their policies — crime, rotting schools, massive and deadly wildfires, an entire abortion industry that butchers millions of innocents for the sake of convenience… Add to that, the economic and crime disasters that come with opening our borders to the Third World, a second industry dedicated to permanently mutilating children as sacrifices to their unholy LGBT gods…"
He warned: "They tell us the oceans will rise if we use our air conditioning, as they purchase air-conditioned estates along the shoreline and fly private jets. They force the poor into lousy schools while they send their own children to private schools. They turn our movies into something asexual and prudish, as they put gay porn in elementary schools. They tax our cigarettes into something unaffordable as they legalize weed, prostitution, and gambling. They lock up people over Twitter memes as they release rapists, rioters, and child molesters. They so desire cheap, illegal labor that they don't care about the epidemic of child sex trafficking that comes with it. Heaven help us if these people ever again obtain power because they will never again relinquish it."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Out of Cheyenne, Wyoming, is coming a new and touching story that could come from an alternative reality: It's about a businessman whose huge SUV was hit, last winter, by a tiny car driven by a teen who skidded on ice, and his decision to buy her a replacement vehicle.
The Cowboy State Daily tells of financial adviser Bryan Pedersen, whose family was with him in his huge Escalade, when Grace, 16, a teen on her way home from church, slid on ice at a Cheyenne intersection and bounced off Pedersen's vehicle.
His was dented; hers was totaled.
But, the report explains, Pedersen also was impressed with how Gracie handled the situation.
"Although visibly upset and shaky, the teen showed a lot of maturity and compassion, he said," the report explained. "She was in tears because she felt terrible that she had run into somebody. Then you start thinking about what a car represents to someone like her — growing up, independence, working for something."
Pedersen said he made sure his kids were OK, then got out, and was agitated, but looked around.
"She has this parking pass for one of the high schools in her windshield, so then I know that she's just a kid. And she's just dressed very nice and was on her way home from church," he noted.
Her car was "leaking every color fluid you can imagine and was just immovable. Totaled," he said.
The teen immediately was concerned for Pedersen's family, he said. Her first question was, "Is everyone OK?' She's much more put together than I was at that age. That was not me when I was 17."
He decided perhaps a hand up would be the best way to leave both sides better off.
"I was thinking about it all and asked around about her. Turns out, she's a 4.0 student in high school, she's going to graduate early and major in physics (in college). She's just a good kid in her school. She also works for a local hardware store and paid for that car herself. Yeah, she had hit us, but I felt I had a moral responsibility to help her as I could," he explained.
"He put out some feelers to some friends and, along with a few thousand dollars of his own, quickly raised nearly $15,000 to buy Gracie another car," the report explained.
"I knew she could never just go out and replace the one that was totaled," he said.
So he went shopping.
"He found a low-mileage 2018 Ford Echo, red, and recently presented the car to Gracie, who was totally surprised," the report said.
In an interview on CBS, Gracie said, "I didn't even know what to say, I didn't know what to do. It's such a huge gift, obviously, I didn't know how to express how much it really meant."
"Yes, she had hit us, but I felt I had a moral responsibility to help her as I could," Pedersen explained. "It's an opportunity to continue on in her life moving forward. She's such a good kid and deserves to keep on with her goals in life and not have this be a moment that diverts her life into a different outcome."
Pedersen explained Gracie asked about paying it forward.
"She asked me, what can we do to help pay this forward?" he said. "I told her that sometime over the next 20 years, an opportunity will present itself. You'll know it when you see it, and then you can help someone."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Was the first lady of France actually born a man?
Brigitte Macron is now going to the highest court in France after being "devastated" by a lower court ruling last week that let off two women who claim she's actually male.
The pair had originally been convicted for spreading false information before the Paris appeals court on Thursday overturned the verdict. The initial ruling ordered the two women to pay $9,300 in damages to Brigitte Macron, and $5,800 to her brother.
France24 reports: "Brigitte Macron filed a libel complaint against the two women after they posted a YouTube video in December 2021, alleging she had once been a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux – who is actually Brigitte Macron's brother.
"In the video, defendant Amandine Roy, a self-proclaimed spiritual medium, interviewed Natacha Rey, a self-described independent journalist, for four hours on her YouTube channel.
"Rey spoke about the 'state lie' and 'scam' she claimed to have uncovered that Jean-Michel Trogneux had changed gender to become Brigitte, and then married the future president."
Jean Ennochi, the first lady's attorney, told Agence France-Presse on Sunday that her brother was also taking his case to the highest appeals court, the Court de Cassation.
The case has been followed closely by American political commentator Candace Owens, who is among those promoting the notion that Brigitte, 72, is a man.
Owens says she was personally phoned by U.S. President Donald Trump in February when French President Emmanuel Macron was visiting Washington, D.C., and says the commander in chief urged her to stop discussing Brigitte because it was interfering with talks on ending Russia's war against Ukraine.
In a video she released on June 30, Owens said of Trump's call: "It is hard to catch my breath to comprehend that four days ago I'm ending a series about Brigitte Macron, and now I'm speaking to the president of the United States and the topic of conversation no matter which way you wanna slice it is about Macron's wife's penis. I mean there's no other way to say it."
She continued: "I explained to him that she has had this amazing doctor who specializes in transgenderism surgeries or feminization procedures. I'm talking to the president of the United States about this, guys. This is crazy this wacky. … But I'm just trying to get him to understand the truth.
"And then I explained to him why I don't feel so great about this request, because that's the more important part."
"Like you are requesting that I really, and despite your reasoning, which is very sound, that I stop telling the truth. And I said to Trump, and I will be honest, that at that moment I realized that one day this is gonna go into my autobiography and so I got to say something funny, and I just said, I said to him, 'You know, respectfully, Mr. President, it's not my fault that he married someone with a penis.'"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A judge appointed by Barack Obama has ordered the government to continue handing out taxpayer cash to the abortionists at Planned Parenthood on no legal basis, and at least one commentator has concluded that amounts to no more or less than "judicial terrorism."
It was commentator Nathan Stone at the Federalist who delivered that conclusion about Indira Talwani's decision last week to order the continued cash handouts to Planned Parenthood's abortionists.
That was despite the fact that members of Congress in the House and Senate adopted a provision that withheld federal tax money from the abortion industry giant, and it was signed into law by President Trump in the process under which "democracy," actually a representative republic, in America works.
"Indira Talwani, an Obama-appointed judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, ushered in the next chapter of judicial supremacy when she blocked the provisions of the 'big beautiful bill' which deprived Planned Parenthood and its affiliate organizations of Medicaid funds," Stone explains. "If Judge Talwani had 'found' those provisions 'unconstitutional,' or if she had found the whole reconciliation package 'illegal'" it would be another example of judicial usurpation. Business as usual. But she didn't do either. Talwani's temporary restraining order commands that the executive ignore the law and keep shoveling the Benjamins to feed abortions. As Dan McLaughlin said on X, 'You can't argue with the judge's reasoning because there isn't any.'"
The order from Talwani is part of a campaign on the part of judges at the entry level courts to the federal judiciary of opposing President Donald Trump's plans and agendas, even if delivered through ordinary and accept channels. The agenda already has prompted the Supreme Court to say those judges are exercising powers they don't have by repeatedly demanding they have their way on policies and practices of the executive branch, instead of letting the president run that branch, as the Constitution provides.
"The surface irony of this would be comedy gold in a movie. For the last 10 years, the left's bread and butter has been to paint Trump, his allies, his voters, and the Republican Party as fascists intent on destroying 'our democracy.' But, when the sacrament of abortion is in jeopardy, it does a 180 and orders the president to completely ignore a law that was duly passed and signed — textbook fascist behavior," the commentary said.
Further, it said, Talwani's writing "does not even try to pretend to be anything other than naked power that commands lawlessness for the sake of killing babies. Separation of powers, the rule of law, the legislative power, and the very ability of the American people to enact change through their duly elected representatives — one of the fundamental markers of self-governance — are all done away with a flick of Talwani's pen."
The charges against Talwani are that she makes democracy meaningless because she "or one of her clones will just put on their crowns, wave the imperial scepter of leftism, and say, 'You can't do that.'"
"Make no mistake: Judge Talwani is a legal terrorist. Her TRO is the judicial equivalent of an IED, which was supposed to destroy the administration by either disobeying the law or disobeying the judiciary. It's not about the country or an alternate vision. Now, it is only about destruction — pure and sweet."
Joining in the criticism of Talwani's ideological agenda was Margot Cleveland, also of the Federalist.
Talwani actually issued an injunction, with no legal reasoning or basis at all, early last week. When challenged, she dissolved that and issued another, confirming her thinking she's an "imperialist judge."
Her first order, Cleveland wrote, "failed to provide any legal justification for her decision requiring the Trump Administration to continue disbursing Medicaid funding to all Planned Parenthood organizations."
The Trump administration pointed out she refused to follow the "basic requirements" of such an order, so Talwani replaced her first with a second order.
Her first order was defective as it was entered on an ex parte basis without any considering of whether there was, or was not, irreparable injury or loss, any exigency requiring immediate action, and more.
"Judge Talwani attempted to rectify her errors on Friday by dissolving her initial TRO and entering an amended TRO that 'provide[d] the court's reasons for the emergency order.' But rather than remedy the defective TRO, Judge Talwani's reasoning confirms that she never should have entered a TRO in the first instance," Cleveland wrote.
"To obtain either a TRO or a preliminary injunction, a Plaintiff must establish '(i) the likelihood that the movant will succeed on the merits; (ii) the possibility that, without an injunction, the movant will suffer irreparable harm; (iii) the balance of relevant hardships as between the parties; and (iv) the effect of the court's ruling on the public interest.'
In issuing her amended TRO, Judge Talwani focused on the merits of only one of the abortion-giant's legal claims, namely, the Plaintiffs' argument that Section 71113 of the Big Beautiful Bill violates their First Amendment right of association by excluding Planned Parenthood 'affiliates' from Medicaid funding, even though some affiliates do not provide abortions. This provision punishes affiliates based solely on their association with other Planned Parenthoods, the Plaintiffs argued. Judge Talwani agreed, finding the Plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of that First Amendment claim," Cleveland explained.
However, Planned Parenthood itself, the commentary explained, "does not distinguish between the federation and affiliates, commingling funds for purposes of financial reporting. As such, Congress could reasonably consider the entity as an undivided whole in making funding decisions."
In Talwani's "unhinged" claims, the judge made a mistake in protecting the flow of taxpayer cash to the abortion business based on the First Amendment, but also failed to recognize there was no evidence of any "irreparable harm."
The development was simply Talwani demanding to exercise "legislative and executive authority," the commentary said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
On the one-year anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the commander in chief was asked was going through his mind when he woke up on Sunday.
"God was protecting me," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.
"Maybe because God wanted to see our country do better or do really well. Make America Great Again.
"But God was protecting me," Trump repeated. "The more you think about it, the more you see it."
"I don't like to think about it much, you know. I have a job to do," he added.
"It's a little bit of a dangerous profession being president, but I really don't like to think about it too much. I think you're better off not thinking about it."
The president was also asked about FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who has been rumored to be considering leaving the bureau over the non-release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
"I spoke to him today," Trump said. "Dan Bongino is a very good guy. I've known him a long time. He's in good shape."
Trump also commented on the recent success of the U.S. military's destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities, saying: "From zero to 10 with 10 being the best, that attack was a 15."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Laura Loomer, the investigative journalist and ally of President Donald Trump, is making a bold prediction for the 2028 presidential contest, saying she's "convinced" media titan Tucker Carlson will run for the Oval Office.
"I'm convinced that @TuckerCarlson is going to run for US President in 2028 as the extreme libertarian Bernie Sanders," Loomer posted Sunday on X. "Bookmark this!"
Ten minutes later, she expounded on the reasons for her prediction.
"He sure isn't doing all of this for nothing," Loomer began.
"He is trying to fracture MAGA and make inroads with Muslims and the radical left so he can undermine @JDVance."
"Mark my word, in 2028 @TuckerCarlson will try to run against @JDVance and he will attack JD for standing with Trump over Iran, he will attack JD over Blondi not releasing the Epstein files, and he will accuse JD of having dual loyalty because JD speaks out about jew hatred."
She continued: "I wouldn't even be surprised if Tucker tries to accuse JD of dual loyalty because his kids are half Indian. Tucker is working overtime (and is possibly even being funded) to fracture the MAGA base ahead of 2028 for Islamist and anti-Trump interests.
"Tucker hates MAGA. He blames MAGA for him losing his show on Fox News over the stolen election.
"Fracturing MAGA and encouraging a Pogrom in the US is the revenge he has always wanted. Hopefully @JDVance and his advisors see what @TuckerCarlson is trying to do.
"Never trust someone who says 'Hunter Biden is my good friend.' The signs have always been there."
Carlson has not voiced any desire to run for president in 2028, at least not publicly.
But last month he was critical of the Trump administration's involvement in Israel's unilateral military strikes on Iran, even before the U.S. on June 22 carried out its own strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
On June 13, the Independent of Britain reported: "Tucker Carlson has turned on President Donald Trump by accusing him of being 'complicit' in Israel's attacks on Iran.
"The former Fox News host and MAGA figurehead rebuked Trump and the administration in his newsletter titled: 'This Could Be the Final Newsletter Before All-Out War.'
"'Despite being complicit in the act of war, the president hopes last night's events will help his ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran,' Carlson wrote.
"'While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night's events,' the right-wing pundit added."
On April 7, as WorldNetDaily reported, Carlson issued a stark warning against any U.S. military strike on Iran, calling it "suicidal" and claiming "we'd lose the war that follows."
"Whatever you think of tariffs, it's clear that now is the worst possible time for the United States to participate in a military strike on Iran," Carlson posted on X.
"Thousands of Americans would die. We'd lose the war that follows.
"Nothing would be more destructive to our country. And yet we're closer than ever, thanks to unrelenting pressure from neocons.
"This is suicidal. Anyone advocating for conflict with Iran is not an ally of the United States, but an enemy."
Loomer made headlines last week, as WorldNetDaily reported, when she urged President Trump to fire U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom she calls "Blondi," for reneging on her pledge to release more information about convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
"Please join me in calling for Blondi to RESIGN!" Loomer said on X. "How many more times is this woman going to get away with Fing everything up before she is FIRED?"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
There is a banquet table in heaven with a special place reserved for those who know Jesus and love Him. We know this to be true because Jesus told us so.
Many of the good guys from the Golden Age of Hollywood have gone ahead of us to join the festivities. We know that there is rejoicing and probably a lot of wonderful conversations with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has wiped away all their tears.
Some of the good guys are very well-known: Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Jimmy Stewart, and a host of others.
Among that host of well-known was my father, Bob "Tex" Allen, the original Texas Ranger. He ranks among them, having won a Box Office award for his lead in "Love Me Forever" and was rated next to Tim McCoy with his Western series that still airs on Turner Network Television.
Regrettably, we live in a cynical age, which has drifted away from good and evil, as Nietzsche told us it would – an age in which we have forgotten God.
So we look back at that Golden Era and sometimes don't realize that these men not only manifested virtue on the screen, but also in their lives off the screen.
My father, a great rider and roper, was born in 1906, when the cowboys still existed, and before the last U.S. Cavalry battles with the Comanches and Apaches in 1910-1912.
Unlike the portrait painted in today's movies, I remember the stories from those old-timers who said that in the Old West – when one was in a world where death was so close and danger was just around the corner – you lived in awe of God.
Therefore, these real cowboys were good guys who wore high white hats, who didn't curse, who kept their word, and who manifested love and compassion.
In his personal life, my father manifested so much integrity, virtue, and compassion that his example helped me to know God the Father, and the truth of Jesus Christ.
Among other wonderful virtues, he was a mentor and a friend, giving and decent, full of kindness and grace. Rudeness and crudeness so shocked him that I am relieved he has gone on to glory before today's degradation of our government and the officials who act like rude barbarians and hooligans.
It is hard for us to remember, but there was a Golden Age.
There were those who tried to live by standards that are today being torn apart by evil. If we truly love those heroes of the silver screen, we can, perhaps, tell the truth of their stories instead of dragging those stories into the filth of our Freudian decadence.
If we love them, we can try to emulate the virtue that so easily and so well suited them. It is a legacy worth considering.
The Bible tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, who are none other than those wonderful saints that went on to glory before us.
A saint is a person set apart by God when that person is born again through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. I remember quite well the very moment that my father said the sinner's prayer and was born again in my home in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1982.
At the Glen Cove Hospital in the final days of his life, he reaffirmed his faith in Jesus Christ while all my family was gathered around his bed weeks before he died.
However, despite the secure knowledge I have that my father has gone on to glory to a mansion prepared just for him in heaven, I wept when my father died.
Jesus gave His precious life to purchase eternal life for each and every man, woman, and child who would accept His gift.
Although Jesus lived at an extremely pagan time – where life was cheap and disposable, where pleasure took precedence over life, where people were murdered in the Roman Colosseum to entertain the populace, where babies were left to die outside the city gates, where bodies were thrown into stew pots to feed the outcasts – Jesus knew how unique each one of us is, and so He alone redeemed us. He, of course, knew the mission and ministry to which He appointed each of us.
God designed my father to be a gentleman in every way. He possessed great talent, a wonderful mind, and was extremely handsome. He was open, decent, and humble in ways that caused most of those who knew him to love him. Throughout his life, he got better. In spite of all his gifts and talents, my father dedicated himself to his children, often at great cost to himself.
He would often come and visit me in Atlanta and then Hollywood, although it cost him interviews for movies, plays, and TV programs. He would then hasten back home to his beloved Oyster Bay because he loved my sister so much. He wanted to spend as many months a year with her and then with me.
An actor's life is extremely difficult. Getting a part is dependent on having the right look and being at the right place at the right time. When you have a major part, things are great, but when you don't, there is nothing.
I remember many days when we had nothing, but my father always had faith that God would provide. God always did. He provided in miraculous ways.
In spite of the financial highs and lows, my father never complained. He trusted God so much that he sent Kathy to Westover and Vassar and me to St. Paul's and Dartmouth. Thus, my father prepared me for faith in God and for the vagaries of ministry.
Furthermore, when I came to know God after years of rebellion, I saw how much of Him was reflected in my father, who gave himself so selflessly for his family.
Although I wept at his passing, I also rejoiced that Dad had gone ahead of me.
Today, we are confused about what is right and what is wrong, and about what makes us happy and what makes us sad. Many have forgotten that life is tenuous and can be cut short in an instant. Many who ponder the afterlife want it their way without thinking about the consequences.
They are in a sense like the inhabitants of the TV program "The Twilight Zone," who get what they want only to find out that it is not what they really want.
My father was not confused. He lived his values and was certain about the meaning of life. He listened to his family and blessed those who knew him. He saw his whole family come to know the Truth that set them free from the confusions, delusions, and demons of our age. He came to know and understand that Jesus Christ is the only Way.
God gave him faith, which is a gift.
I miss Dad. I love him and thank him for what he did for me. And I look forward to joining him in heaven.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A political organization called Evangelicals for Harris, now renamed Evangelicals for America following Kamala Harris' catastrophic presidential election loss in 2024, has posted online a multipage apology for improperly using Billy Graham's image for their politics.
The organization had used images of the late Christian leader who was in the confidence of presidents for the last 50 years in promoting Harris, who advocated deliberately for the transgender and LGBT ideologies that many Christians find unbiblical and objectionable.
The Billy Graham Evangelical Associated pointed out the misuse, and abuse of copyright law, and a year later the Harris organization has apologized.
The online apology admits that the organization used clips of Rev. Graham without permission and claimed they weren't trying to "give the impression that Rev. Graham would have taken a side in publicly supporting one political candidate over another."
The group concedes that Graham "never politicized the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the works he created through BGEA."
"We appreciate the spirit in which BGEA has approached this matter … and we affirm its intellectual property rights including copyright in these videos, and its missional interest in protecting Rev. Graham's legacy."
It continued, "We have taken down and will not repost our ads that incorporated video clips of Rev. Billy Graham…"
Not the Bee explained, "The long and short of it is that they used these clips of Billy Graham, but didn't get permission from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) to use them in their political attack ads. To avoid being sued into oblivion for lifting these clips and using them for partisan purposes to support an abortion-loving Democratic candidate, they've apologized."
When the dispute arose, WND had reported on Billy Graham's lifelong interactions with presidents, of both political parties:
He was offered government posts by Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and politely said no.
Harry S. Truman not only met with Graham, he received him as his Independence, Missouri, home. Dwight Eisenhower asked him about sending troops into Little Rock during a time of civil unrest. John F. Kennedy met with Graham before he was inaugurated.
Graham was invited to the Johnson family ranch multiple times, and spent more than 20 nights in the White House during his presidency. Graham had known Nixon for years, and the president often asked Graham to pray with him. Gerald Ford explained, "I've heard the comments from some sources that Billy mixes politics with religion. I never felt that and I don't think that thousands and thousands of people who listen to him felt that."
Jimmy Carter was an honorary chair of an Atlanta Crusade by Billy Graham back in his day, Ronald Reagan once said, "It was through Billy Graham that I found myself praying even more than on a daily basis … and that in the position I held, that my prayers more and more were to give me the wisdom to make decisions that would serve God and be pleasing to Him." George H. W. Bush called Graham "an inspiration in my life."
Bill Clinton credited Billy Graham with refusing to racially segregate a crusade audience. George W. Bush said a turning point in his faith came during a private talk with Billy Graham in 1985. Graham said he was pleased to have had Barack Obama visit in his home.
At the time, Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son and now chief of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said, "The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris. They even developed a political ad trying to use my father Billy Graham's image to help promote her—or rather to try to make Donald J. Trump look bad.
"They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don't know that my father was a firm supporter of President Trump in 2016. He appreciated the conservative values and policies of President Trump, and if he were alive today, my father's views and opinions would not have changed.
"President Trump isn't perfect—none of us are—but I believe he has changed over the years. This recent assassination attempt has had a huge impact on him—and I thank God that his life was spared."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Layoff notices have begun going out at the Department of State, which is expected to reduce its staffing level by thousands as the administration of President Donald Trump reorganizes government.
A report from CBS said the immediate layoffs are affecting about 1,300 staff members.
That would include 1,107 civil service members and 246 foreign service workers, according to a notice sent to department workers.
"The total number of staff departing as a part of the State Department's reorganization is 'nearly 3,000,' according to the department, a figure that includes those who took the 'Fork in the Road' voluntary departure offer earlier this year," the report said.
"We took a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused," Marco Rubio, secretary of state, confirmed to reporters on Thursday.
State notified lawmakers several weeks ago it planned to eliminate about 3,400 U.S.-based jobs and close or merge many of its domestic offices.
"At the time, the department said it planned to phase out some offices focused on democracy or human rights that it claimed were 'prone to ideological capture,' and add new offices focused on 'civil liberties' and 'free market principles,'" the network said.
Also inside State now are a few remaining duties of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was shut down by Trump after its employees spent years handing out American tax cash to foreign groups with ideologies often that conflicted with America's interests.
A union representing workers complained that the moves were demoralizing the workforce.
The Washington Examiner reported some of the workers affected will be on 120-day administrative leaves before their jobs are shut down.
Rubio has said a goal is to cut through a "bloated bureaucracy."
"There were 40 boxes on this piece of paper," he told senators in May. "That means 40 people had to check off 'yes' before it even got to me. That's ridiculous. And if any one of those boxes didn't get checked, the memo didn't move. That can't continue."
The plan includes eliminating 132 offices and changing rules to allow the firing of officials.