New York Yankees all-star Aaron Judge this week discussed his faith in God, when asked about money and fame.
Judge was <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMG2BgGg2QU/">asked</a> on Monday by a CBN Sports reporter, &#8220;What would you say to someone who thinks fame and fortune is the answer to all their problems?&#8221;
Judge responded by pointing his fans to Jesus. &#8220;Our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. He’s given me this platform, this ability,&#8221; Judge said. &#8220;The fame, getting the chance to do this is great and all, but it’s not fulfilling as much as the relationship I have with Him.&#8221;
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During the MLB All-Star Game on Monday, Judge showcased a bat that featured his daughter’s name, Nora, and a Bible verse reference.
&#8220;For we live by faith, not by sight,&#8221; the verse, 2 Corinthians 5:7, reads. Judge&#8217;s bat says, &#8220;Faith, not sight.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_948589" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-948589" class="wp-image-948589 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-864x576.jpg" alt="The bat of Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees before the Workout during MLB All-Star Week at Truist Park on July 14, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2224529063.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />New York Yankees/Getty Images</div>
Judge has been open about his Christian faith his whole career. The ball player&#8217;s social media <a href="https://x.com/thejudge44?lang=en">bio</a> reads in part, &#8220;Christian. Faith, Family, then Baseball.&#8221;
The athlete has spoken specifically about his adoptive parents and how their love informs his faith, as well.
&#8220;The position I was in, being adopted by my parents &#8212; for them to pick me, choose me, to put me in their lives, it&#8217;s incredible,&#8221; Judge, who was adopted when he was a one-year-old, <a href="https://sportsspectrum.com/sport/baseball/2025/05/01/yankees-aaron-judge-blistering-start-faith-foundation/">said</a> last year. &#8220;Having His blessings, keeping the faith through good times and bad times, knowing He&#8217;s always with me, that&#8217;s definitely helped me get to this position.&#8221;
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Judge learned he was adopted at age ten. “I knew I didn’t look like them,” he <a href="https://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/columnists/bob-klapisch/2017/06/23/klapisch-aaron-judge-never-forgot-his-roots/420872001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> NorthJersey.com in 2024. “I finally said, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ And that’s when they told me.&#8221;
&#8220;I was fine with that, they were the only parents I ever knew,&#8221; he added. &#8220;It actually wasn’t a big deal.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dodgers-ace-clayton-kershaw-adds-bible-reference-to-rainbow-hat-for-pride-night">Dodgers Ace Clayton Kershaw Adds Bible Reference To Rainbow Hat For Pride Night</a>
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Aaron Judge

Yankees All-Star Aaron Judge Asked About Fortune And Fame, Directs Fans To Jesus

Bible

Christianity

Major League Baseball

New York Yankees

Religion

Sports

U.S.

​​I want to offer condolences to the family and all of the followers of John MacArthur, the Southern California preacher, who died on Monday at the age of 86. He was someone I would venture to say was my friend.
John MacArthur was an amazing human being. He had millions and millions of followers in the Christian community.
In its obituary, Christianity Today <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/07/died-john-macarthur-study-bible-expository-preaching-controversy/">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>MacArthur said the most important mark of his ministry was that he explained the Bible with the Bible, not cluttering up sermons with personal stories, commentary on current events, or appeals to emotion, but teaching timeless truth. The longtime pastor of Grace Community Church said a good sermon should still be good 50 years after it is preached. “It isn’t time-stamped by any kind of cultural events or personal events,” MacArthur said. “It’s not about me. And it transcends not only time, but it transcends culture.”
He published the MacArthur Study Bible in 1997, with 20,000 notes on specific verses, as well as an index of important doctrines, introductions to each book of the Bible, and suggested Bible-reading plans. It sold 2 million copies in 22 years. His New Testament commentary—a series that Moody Publishers put out in 34 volumes over 31 years—also sold more than 1 million copies.</blockquote>
Of all the people I have known in this sphere — and I have known quite a few — MacArthur was absolutely staunch in his defense of the Bible. He never shied away from the messages of the New Testament, and that made him controversial. 
And that was a good thing. 
In the first interview I did with him, a lengthy interview, he spent 30 minutes of the interview talking to me about why I ought to convert to Christianity.
As a Jew, not only was that not insulting, it was absolutely useful.
Why?
Because he was saying what he believed, and I think that was a good thing. 
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2238-democrats-abandon-barack-obama?elementPosition=1&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
The reason I considered him a friend is because he&#8217;s somebody who cared about my eternal life.
We could have disagreements on what would happen with regard to heaven or hell, or whether the New Testament was true or not, depending on whether you&#8217;re a Christian or a Jew. 
But I was never upset by the fact that he believed I ought to convert to Christianity, because, of course, many Christians believe that I ought to convert to Christianity. That is not an insult, because it shows they care about my spiritual welfare. 
We may disagree about how to attain that spiritual welfare, but it&#8217;s because he was able to say hard truths as he saw them to people like me that he was also able to say hard truths to everybody about Biblical values.
And that meant he was never shy about Biblical values, which is absolutely useful in a time when moral relativism runs rampant. 
Last year, he was on the show, and he said:
<blockquote>I would just say this in a general sense: Read the Bible. Just read the Bible. It has the ring of truth. It defends itself. It&#8217;s like a lion. You don&#8217;t defend it. You don&#8217;t defend a lion. You open the cage and let it out. That&#8217;ll be okay. And the Scripture is like that. &#8230; Even morally, there&#8217;s something in the heart of people that resonates with biblical morality. Obviously, their sinfulness fights it.
But the law of God is written in every human heart. That&#8217;s part of being created in the image of God. And you can fight that law. You can resist that law. You can violate that law. But that law is there. That is part of being created in God&#8217;s image. And I think if your heart is open to the truth, you go to the Word of God. And I&#8217;ve seen this now for all these years I&#8217;ve been in ministry. The ring of Biblical truth is so powerful to a person who honestly reads the Scripture.</blockquote>
I think that message is deeply necessary. In a time when so many have fallen into moral relativism, have fallen down a bunch of rabbit holes looking to fill the God-shaped hole in their heart.
I think that his work is going to be read for generations.
The nice thing about the Jewish view of the afterlife is that in Judaism, if you&#8217;re not Jewish and you fulfill seven basic rules, the Noachide laws, which include items such as no blasphemy, no adultery, and no murder, among other things, you have a spot in heaven.
So it doesn&#8217;t conflict at all with my faith to say that John MacArthur is with God right now. That is something he always longed for.
His uncompromising fealty to Biblical values as he saw them meant that he was also able to walk into political frays without fear.
Way back when, he shellacked a young San Francisco mayor named Gavin Newsom regarding same-sex marriage <a href="https://x.com/JCRyle/status/1879524136218992685">on CNN</a>. Gavin Newsom was playing at being a pastor, saying loftily, “I&#8217;m a practicing Catholic. I got married in the church two-plus years. I don&#8217;t see what we&#8217;re doing in terms of advancing the bond of love and monogamy and extending that to families, families of same sex, in any way, shape or form takes away anything from the church or the sanctity of the union that my wife and I have.”
MacArthur replied. “I would just like to ask the mayor: As a practical, practicing Catholic, do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?”
“Yeah,” Newsom answered. “Look, pastor, I&#8217;m not going to get in a theological debate with you.”
“It&#8217;s not a theological debate,” MacArthur said. “That&#8217;s just a straight question. Do you believe the Bible is the authoritative word of God?”
“Yeah, I, I, with respect, I guess I do,” Newsom answered.
“The Bible says when God created man, he said, ‘One man, one woman, cleave together for life.’ That&#8217;s a family,” MacArthur said bluntly.
MacArthur had that kind of clarity.
(You could see Gavin Newsom smirking, blustering, “I&#8217;m a practicing Catholic and I&#8217;ve been married for two years,” to lead off that particular clip. He was at that point married to Kimberly Guilfoyle, whom he would later cheat on.)
When you have a moral grounding in Biblical values, which John MacArthur did, it gives you the courage to walk in like a lion.
That is something John MacArthur did his entire life.

MixCollage-15-Jul-2025-02-51-PM-6761

A Tribute To John MacArthur, A Lion Who Was My Friend

Ben Shapiro

Jewish

John MacArthur

Judaism

Opinion

This month, America commemorates the 100th anniversary of a landmark cultural event that taught us about the dangers of censorship. July of 1925 witnessed the “Scopes Monkey Trial,” where a Dayton, Tennessee, public school teacher was put on trial for violating a state law that prohibited teaching human evolution.
The teaching of scientific ideas should never be banned, much less criminalized. We like to think of censorship as something from the dark ages of the past, before our modern enlightened era vanquished intellectual intolerance. But 100 years after Scopes, we have what the late Supreme Court Justice Scalia once called “Scopes-in-reverse,” where scientists and scholars face reprisals if they challenge neo-Darwinian evolution.
For about 20 years I’ve been collecting examples of academic speech codes that prevent faculty from discussing scientific alternatives to Darwin. For example:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Back in 2005, Cornell’s interim president devoted a State of the University Address <a href="https://president.cornell.edu/the-presidency/archives/rawlings/20051021-state-of-the-university-address/">to denounce</a> &#8220;intelligent design (ID),&#8221; arguing that it has no place in science classrooms. &#8220;The answer is that intelligent design is not valid as science, that is, it has no ability to develop new knowledge through hypothesis testing&#8230;&#8221;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Also in 2005, the president of the University of Idaho instituted a campus-wide <a href="https://evolutionnews.org/2008/10/banned_book_week_and_intellige_2/">speech-code</a>, where “evolution” was “the only curriculum that is appropriate” for science classes. This was done in retaliation against biology professor Scott Minnich, who had just testified in favor of intelligent design at the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial — a case which ultimately banned ID from public schools in Dover, PA.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Jerry Coyne, a University of Chicago evolutionary biologist and atheist blogger, <a href="https://evolutionnews.org/2011/03/jerry_coyne/">once wrote</a> that “adherence to ID…should be absolute grounds for not hiring a science professor.” In 2013, Coyne attacked Eric Hedin, a physics professor at Ball State University (BSU), for briefly teaching about ID in an honors seminar. BSU’s president then caved, and issued a speech code declaring that “intelligent design is not appropriate content for science courses.”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In 2020, two Norwegian scientists published <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519320302071">a paper</a> in Journal of Theoretical Biology citing the work of leading ID theorists and arguing for “a Design Science.” Facing pressure, the journal’s editors then issued <a href="https://retractionwatch.com/2020/10/15/editors-say-they-wont-retract-intelligent-design-paper-despite-subject-being-not-in-any-way-a-suitable-topic-for-their-journal/">a disclaimer</a> addressing no substantive arguments in the paper but implementing another speech code, announcing: “intelligent design is not in any way a suitable topic for the Journal of Theoretical Biology.”</li>
</ul>
Perhaps the most ironic recent example of evolutionary censorship will take place this month at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, not far down the road from Dayton, as it celebrates a “<a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/evolution/scopes-symposium/">Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial Centennial Symposium</a>.” Co-organized by <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/evolution/">Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Institute</a> and the National Center for Science Education, the symposium includes many credible speakers from science, philosophy, and law. Intelligent design is on the schedule, and there is an entire session devoted to the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. Yet exactly zero pro-ID scientists or scholars are slated for the symposium.
In February, and again in May, I emailed the organizers of the Scopes Symposium, offering to provide names of credible pro-ID scientists who would be open to participating in their event. No one even replied.
The irony is palpable: a symposium that is supposed to be remembering the dangers of censorship regarding evolution is itself practicing censorship regarding evolution.
An even worse irony is that Vanderbilt’s website hosts an official <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/dialogue-vanderbilt/free-expression/">“Dialogue Vanderbilt” / “Commitment to Free Expression”</a> page which boasts of the university’s supposed commitment to “bringing together people of differing viewpoints for a common purpose.” The page continues:
<blockquote>Transformative education, pathbreaking research and the timeless search for truth all require a wide variety of viewpoints, the uninhibited exchange of ideas, the persistent challenging of conventional wisdom, and courageous and vigorous debate.
A university that dutifully transmits canonical knowledge, but is not at the same time alive with diverse perspectives, probing critique and the practice of query and argument, is a university in name only.</blockquote>
The page then lauds the importance of “institutional neutrality,” quoting former Vanderbilt Chancellor Alexander Heard stating: “A university&#8217;s obligation is not to protect students from ideas, but rather to expose them to ideas, and to help make them capable of handling and, hopefully, having ideas.”
The one-sided Scopes Symposium completely rejects these ideals, aiming to “protect” students from non-Darwinian viewpoints — directly violating the Chancellor Heard’s warning. By Vanderbilt’s own standards, apparently it is “a university in name only.”
A century ago, religious fundamentalists excluded evolution from education. Yet today, evolution advocates do the same to intelligent design. Vanderbilt’s Scopes symposium is just the latest reminder that in our modern era of “Scopes-in-reverse,” the power dynamic has shifted 180 degrees, but the problem of censorship still remains.
* * *
Casey Luskin holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg and a law degree from the University of San Diego. He is Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute and co-author of the book &#8220;Science and Human Origins.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

William Jennings Bryan At Scopes Trial

A Century After The Scopes Trial, Censorship Still Thrives In Evolution Debate

Charles Darwin

Debate

Supreme Court

Tennessee

trial

Vanderbilt University

The following is an adapted monologue from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1765-after-big-wins-trump-s-head-on-mount-rushmore?elementPosition=3&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=The+Michael+Knowles+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
There were horrific storms and massive floods in Texas this past weekend. So far, over 100 people are confirmed dead, and that number is almost certainly going to rise. Many people are still confirmed missing, including dozens of girls from a Christian summer camp. Just absolutely horrific. We all pray for everyone, for the family, for the dead, and for the rescue efforts.
One thing we should not do, however, is react in the way that prominent people on the Left have been reacting. Their reactions are repulsive and nauseating. But they get to a real problem at the heart of liberalism.
Here’s just one example. <a href="https://x.com/KyleKulinski/status/1941856657069252610">Kyle Kulinsky</a>, a fairly well known Internet person on the Left, writes:
<blockquote>With the flooding in Texas and all of those precious little girls dying it&#8217;s important to remember this was 100% preventable. Elon and Trump slashed the national weather service and massively reduced the number of weather balloons in the country, destroying our ability to accurately forecast severe weather events. I&#8217;ve personally experienced forecasts being way off multiple times already. They have blood on their hands and they should be arrested for the deaths of those little girls.</blockquote>
Listen to the sanctimony, the self-righteousness from this guy: “&#8230;all of those precious little girls dying,” “They have blood on their hands.”
None of this is true. This was not “100% preventable.” Elon and Trump slashing the National Weather Service? As Michael Shellenberger <a href="https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1941616444724346983?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">points out</a>, the National Weather Service got this right. The issue was not the National Weather Service. There do seem to have been errors in sending out alarms at the state level, but there&#8217;s no evidence that the National Weather Service failed at all. There&#8217;s also no evidence that suddenly, just now, in the first year of the second Trump term, the meteorologists are getting forecasts wrong. Obviously, that has happened so frequently that it&#8217;s a punch line for as long as there have been meteorologists.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
We also know this isn&#8217;t true — that it’s not attributable to any supposed “cuts” made during the second Trump term — because of Hurricane Harvey. The confirmed death toll so far in this awful storm is now 100. Hurricane Harvey killed at least 68 people in 2017 — many years before the supposed cuts to the National Weather Service by Trump and Elon. What would the Left and Kyle Kulinsky blame that on?
Let’s go back further. Tropical Storm Allison <a href="https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/severe/this-day-in-weather-history-june-5-2001-tropical-storm-allison">killed</a> 41 people in 2001, long before anyone really considered President Trump a serious presidential candidate.
Well, let&#8217;s go back even further than that, because the other thing that people are going to blame this on is climate change or global warming. How about the Galveston Hurricane? The storm surges and floods from that storm killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people in 1900, long before any global warming — “climate change” — and long before Trump, and long before any of the things the Left is going to blame this natural disaster on.
Plenty of people on the Left have reacted the same way as Kyle Kulinsky.
This reaction entails a lot of vice. You have to have a lot of personal vice and sin to have this kind of reaction. But ultimately, ideologically, it&#8217;s about a denial of original sin.
The tragedy has to be preventable because the world can&#8217;t be fallen, because there can&#8217;t be any such thing as original sin, because there can&#8217;t be any limits on human potential. We must be able to control everything. We must be able to prevent every bad thing. We must be able to perfect society. It must be true. That is the premise of liberalism.
But it&#8217;s not true because it is a fallen world. And you couldn&#8217;t have prevented any of these things. Not in 1900, not in 2001, not just this past week. Bad things just happen sometimes. And bad things happen to good people. It’s called theodicy. Great thinkers have dealt with this problem for millennia, but modern people — modern liberals in particular — cannot deal with that because there cannot be such a thing as original sin.
‘Bad things can&#8217;t just happen,’ they say. ‘We must be able to stop it. We are human beings. We have the potential to totally control the world. We can make ourselves into gods.’
That&#8217;s the theory, and it’s false.
When you ask liberals what would you have done to prevent the flood? They will say things like, “I would have funded the National Weather Service.”
There&#8217;s no problem with the National Weather Service. 
They might say, “I would have had more carbon tax credits. I would have had more electric vehicles.”
But nothing they’ve proposed will stop natural disasters. They wouldn’t have stopped Hurricane Harvey, they wouldn’t have stopped Tropical Storm Allison or the Galveston Hurricane or any of the others. There has been flooding. There have been natural disasters. There has been evil and sin and death in the world since Adam and Eve were booted out of the Garden.
Yes, there are things we can obviously do to protect ourselves, to try to cope, and to comfort people who deal with the suffering that life entails. But this ain&#8217;t it.
What it comes down to is a fundamental error in modern ideology — in liberalism, most notably: the hubris, the pride to say, “We can prevent evil. We can just totally stop it. We can perfect the world. We can save the world.” That&#8217;s the error.
These people certainly can&#8217;t. None of us can. There is one person who can save the world. And He has.

Death Toll Rises After Flash Floods In Texas Hill Country

Texas Floods And Liberal Hubris

Catholicism

Floods

Michael Knowles

National Weather Service

Natural Disaster

Texas

Gracie Hunt, the daughter of the Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, mourned the loss of her 9-year-old cousin Janie Hunt, who was one of at least 27 campers and counselors tragically killed in the floods that suddenly engulfed Camp Mystic last weekend. 
Hunt <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DL0hBPwOrBA/">posted</a> a message on Monday to her Instagram account, offering a tribute to the deceased and sharing a hopeful message from the Bible to her followers. 
“Some days, it’s hard to understand how the world can hold both so much beauty and so much pain,” she wrote. “How can the same God who created the stars and set the planets in motion allow such deep suffering? The truth is, we live in a broken world—one that groans for redemption (Romans 8). But Scripture promises that one day, Christ will make all things new—a new heaven and a new earth (2 Peter 3:13).”
“My heart aches for our extended family and friends who lost daughters – for every life lost and every family shattered by the floods in Texas. I don’t have easy answers, but I do know this: following Jesus doesn’t spare us from pain – but it means we never face it alone.”
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The death toll from the Texas flash floods has risen beyond 100 people in the state. In Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, first responders have recovered the bodies of 84 people, 28 of whom were children. 
Ten girls from Camp Mystic and a counselor are still missing. The camp’s 74-year-old director, Dick Eastland, was killed in the flooding, along with Chloe Childress, an 18-year-old camp counselor.
Hunt ended her message with encouragement, asking her followers to “hold on to hope,” and shared verses from 2 Corinthians and Psalms. 
“Even in the darkest valleys, we hold on to the hope that this is not the end of the story,” she posted.
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Over the past 10 years, Northern Nigeria has quickly risen to the top of the list as the most dangerous place to be a Christian. More Christians are killed here than anywhere else in the world.
The data show us that it’s not by slim margins. According to International Christian Concern, in 2022, <a href="https://www.persecution.org/2023/09/11/90-percent-of-the-5500-christians-killed-in-2022-were-nigerian/">90%</a> of all Christians killed in the world were killed in Nigeria. Last year, that number was around <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261571/nigeria-tops-report-for-number-of-christians-killed-kidnapped-in-2024#:~:text=The%20World%20Watch%20List%2C%20released,countries%20in%20the%20same%20year.">70%</a>.
The persecution of Christians in Northern Nigeria has quickly evolved into a full-on genocide. But how did this happen? How did the region become a stronghold for this violence against those who follow Christ?
Most of the region is a virtual “wild west” of Africa, leaving Northern Nigeria largely unchecked with a sparse military presence. The geography, coupled with a rise in Islamic extremism, has allowed groups like Boko Haram and ISIS-WA (ISWAP) to flourish unimpeded.
<div id="attachment_74449" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-74449" class="wp-image-74449 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/12/ISIS-Truck-1024x576.jpg" alt="A vehicle allegedly belonging to the Islamic State group in West Africa (ISWAP) is seen in Baga on August 2, 2019. - Intense fighting between a regional force and the Islamic State group in West Africa (ISWAP) has resulted in dozens of deaths, including at least 25 soldiers and more than 40 jihadists, in northeastern Nigeria. ISWAP broke away from Boko Haram in 2016 in part due to its rejection of indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Last year the group witnessed a reported takeover by more hardline fighters who sidelined its leader and executed his deputy. The IS-affiliate has since July 2018 ratcheted up a campaign of attacks against military targets." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/12/ISIS-Truck-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/12/ISIS-Truck-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2019/12/ISIS-Truck-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A vehicle allegedly belonging to the Islamic State group in West Africa (ISWAP) is seen in Baga on August 2, 2019. AUDU MARTE/AFP via Getty Images</div>
According to the most <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1197570/deaths-caused-by-boko-haram-in-nigeria/">recent statistics</a>, Boko Haram alone is responsible for the deaths of 38,000 people between 2011 and 2023. Their growth has been so staggering that it has essentially overwhelmed the Nigerian government’s attempts to stop it. In 2023, I witnessed Nigerian soldiers walk off the job when ordered to fight Boko Haram militants. They told me that fighting Boko Haram was a suicide mission. These terrorist groups keep the people of northern Nigeria in a constant state of fear. They yield this fear skillfully to maintain control. While I truly believe Nigerian President Bola Tinubu wants to see change in the region, his government is outnumbered and outgunned.
Another equally devastating contributor to the problem is the ethnic conflict between Fulani Muslims (herders) and Christians (farmers). While this is not “terrorism” in the traditional sense of Islamic Jihad, the results are no less deadly. There are approximately 17 million Fulani Muslims in Nigeria. Most Fulani are nomadic and predominantly raise cattle to maintain their livelihood. In this region, Christians have largely settled and sustain themselves by planting crops. As the Fulani migrate their cattle over vast distances, those cattle often wander into the farm fields of Christians, destroying their crops. While some Fulani Muslims have been radicalized, the herder vs. farmer crisis is overwhelmingly the result of tensions over land.
<div id="attachment_939751" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-939751" class="size-large wp-image-939751" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-1257123144-864x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - A Fulani pastoralist rests at a water point in Loumbel Lana, Matam region on May 19, 2023. For pastoralist the extreme heats direct effect is that their livestock drink double what they usually do. Usually one sheep will drink around 2,5 litres of water a day, now they need 4 or 5 litres a day. Pastoralists now need to get to water points multiple times a day (up to 20km away) and spend double the money buying water. Since April the region of Matam has regularly been flagged as the hottest place on earth with temperatures reaching 48 degrees celsius in the shade and fifties in direct sun. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP) (Photo by JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-1257123144-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-1257123144-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-1257123144-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-1257123144.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images</div>
For years, I have brokered peace agreements between hundreds of Fulani Muslim and Christian communities. In nearly every case I have worked, the root cause of the conflict boils down to violence that arose from cattle destroying crops. And that violence is not one-sided. Christians have retaliated for the destruction of their crops; however, more often than not, these conflicts result in an inordinate number of Christian deaths.
The most recent example is the massacre of nearly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/terrible-massacre-hundreds-of-christians-killed-by-jihadists">200 Christians</a> that happened on <a href="https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/fulani-jihadists-massacre-over-200-christians-in-nigeria">June 14, 2025</a>. As a result of Nigeria’s diminishing areas for cattle grazing, the Fulani Muslims attacked Christians as a means to claim land for their cattle to graze. Further evidence is that every dry season, when access to good feeding grounds is at its lowest, there is a surge of violence between the Fulani herders and Christian farmers.
Northern Nigeria, like much of Africa, is gripped by severe socio-economic challenges that fuel instability and hardship. Most people in Northern Nigeria live on the equivalent of a little more than <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2024/08/20/majority-of-workers-in-nigerias-largest-city-earn-below-62-50-monthly-report-reveals/">$1 USD per day</a>. Currently, a <a href="https://maypatronic.com/bag-of-rice-in-nigeria/#:~:text=in%20the%20market.-,Price%20Ranges,such%20as%20region%20and%20quality.">10kg (22-pound) bag of rice costs about $35 USD</a>. People barely earn enough to feed themselves. The <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/nga/nigeria/inflation-rate-cpi#:~:text=Nigeria%20inflation%20rate%20for%202023,a%201.85%25%20increase%20from%202019.">annual inflation rate is around 24%</a>, which drives the cost of food higher and higher. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/25-million-nigerians-high-risk-food-insecurity-2023">UNICEF has placed Nigeria on its crisis list</a>, stating that over 25 million people are at high risk of food insecurity. These conditions have created an environment that keeps people in a perpetual state of survival.
But how do dire socio-economic conditions contribute to Christian persecution?
<div id="attachment_168513" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-168513" class="wp-image-168513 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/11/BH-1024x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Mourners attend the funeral of 43 farm workers in Zabarmari, about 20km from Maiduguri, Nigeria, on November 29, 2020 after they were killed by Boko Haram fighters in rice fields near the village of Koshobe on November 28, 2020. - The assailants tied up the agricultural workers and slit their throats in the village of Koshobe. The victims were labourers from Sokoto state in northwest Nigeria, roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) away, who had travelled to the northeast to find work." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/11/BH-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/11/BH-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/11/BH-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/11/BH-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2020/11/BH-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />TOPSHOT &#8211; Mourners attend the funeral of 43 farm workers in Zabarmari, about 20km from Maiduguri, Nigeria, on November 29, 2020 after they were killed by Boko Haram fighters. AUDU MARTE/AFP via Getty Images.</div>
Inflation and food shortages exacerbate the conflict between Fulani Muslim herders and Christian farmers because, to them, every day is a desperate fight for survival. Tensions over grazing land — the source of sustenance for both the herders and farmers — run at a fever pitch. These socio-economic conditions are also the reason why so many young men are drawn to radical Islamic groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP. Not only do these groups provide a support system, but they also pay well for people willing to follow their orders and commit violent acts. I’ve heard reports of Boko Haram paying their fighters $100 USD for the successful execution of a single act of terrorism. That’s a small fortune in this part of the world.
The desperate conditions of Northern Nigeria are the fuel that keeps the fire of persecution burning.
These are complex problems in a complex part of the world. That’s why, at <a href="https://www.acrossnigeria.org/">Across Nigeria</a>, we are driven by a powerful mission: not only to uplift suffering Christians but also to extend Christ’s love to Muslims. Through our network of primary schools across Northern Nigeria, we empower Fulani Muslims with transformative education and literacy, building bridges of hope and understanding. In every area where we operate a Fulani school, the violence has dropped by 60 to 70%. We have found that providing people with options and opportunities is the best way to deter them from resorting to violence.
By helping Muslims overcome these challenges, we are helping to significantly reduce the violence and bring an end to the suffering. We have done a lot, but we have a long way to go. With the proper support, I believe we can reduce the violence and bring an end to suffering for the Muslims and Christians in the most dangerous region in the world.
* * *
<a href="https://www.acrossnigeria.org/ourfounder">Brad Brandon</a> is the founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.acrossnigeria.org/">Across Nigeria</a>. Since 2018, he has been actively serving in predominantly high-risk, highly persecuted areas like Northern Nigeria and other parts of West Africa.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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The Silent Slaughter: Inside Nigeria’s Christian Persecution Crisis

The Silent Slaughter: Inside Nigeria's Christian Persecution Crisis

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Pressed by the Trump Administration, the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/smithsonian-to-conduct-wide-content-review-requested-by-trump-94012153?st=vLn2o8&amp;reflink=article_copyURL_share'">ordered a review</a> of its museums for what President Trump calls “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology.” Mike Gonzalez at the Heritage Foundation observes that “The ordered review can’t come fast enough.” 
<a href="https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/commentary/the-smithsonian-institution-audit-only-the-start">He writes</a>:
<blockquote>The Smithsonian has wholeheartedly enlisted in the leftist imperative to “decolonize the American mind” and to change America’s narrative from one that made citizens proud of this nation’s astonishing achievements to a counternarrative that focuses on where America has fallen short and drums shame into citizens. Unfortunately, this shift has accelerated since [Dr. Lonnie] Bunch became the leader of the Smithsonian in 2019.</blockquote>
Gonzalez provides dismaying examples from the National Museum of American History, the National Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 
Also in need of fixing, however, is the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). The nation’s museum shouldn’t be in the business of shaming the nation. But neither should it be in the business of belittling human beings, by all but equating us with chimps.
Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture (CSC) has given extensive attention to the false science being fed to the nearly 4 million yearly visitors to the NMNH. Dr. Casey Luskin, Associate Director of the CSC, recently <a href="https://evolutionnews.org/2025/05/letter-to-the-smithsonian-correct-your-signage-on-human-chimp-genetic-similarity/">wrote an open letter</a> to Lonnie Bunch, the Smithsonian’s Secretary, raising concerns about the Human Origins exhibit which states that “You and chimpanzees [are] 98.8% genetically similar.” It also says, “There is only about a 1.2 percent genetic difference between modern humans and chimpanzees throughout much their genetic code.”
Those figures, often repeated by science media and science educators, are known to be quite inaccurate. That’s mostly due to a recent paper published in the journal Nature. Much-needed explaining of the paper’s results has appeared in <a href="https://evolutionnews.org/tag/1-percent-myth-series/">a series by Dr. Luskin at Evolution News</a> on the “1 percent myth.” In fact, the human-chimp genetic difference is not 1 percent but 14.9 percent. The Smithsonian also misstates the degree of genetic difference between human and gorillas and between humans and orangutans. Luskin writes:
<blockquote>According to data reported in a scientific paper, Yoo et al. (2025), recently published in Nature, these statistics are scientifically false. This paper presented for the first time “complete,” de novo, updated, telomere-to-telomere sequences of the genomes of various ape species. These “complete” genome drafts are vastly improved over previous drafts of ape genomes. Yoo et al. (2025) is thus able to provide much improved calculations of the actual degrees of genetic difference between human and ape genomes at a level of comprehensiveness and accuracy that has been previously unavailable.</blockquote>
The paper Luskin refers to is by geneticist DongAhn Yoo at the University of Washington and his colleagues, “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08816-3">Complete sequencing of ape genomes,</a>” Nature, 641: 401-418 (May 8, 2025).
Why does it matter? After all, any visitor to another Smithsonian facility, the National Zoo, will quickly be able to detect that there’s a lot more than 1 percent — in fact a lot more than 14.9 percent — difference between the chimps at the zoo and the human beings gazing at them. There is no chimp equivalent of the Smithsonian, with chimp curators educating chimp visitors about chimp origins. There are exactly zero displays of humans at zoos available for chimps to casually observe.
As I discuss in my new book &#8220;<a href="https://discovery.press/b/platos-revenge/">Plato’s Revenge,</a>&#8220; these percent differences are evidence that something transcending the genetic information in DNA must be directing the development of organisms. Evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg and others have made similar arguments. 
Regardless, the 1 percent myth is intended to be a put down to human significance — to the exceptional status of human beings in nature, and in the cosmos as far as we know. Yet, when popular atheist scientists like Bill Nye “The Science Guy” brandish the term, it results in human self-hatred, what we might call the “‘I Suck’ Principle,” now a staple of atheist rhetoric. 
As Nye put it <a href="https://youtu.be/WR51OrawqIg?si=NHD7xZ0yxQdWX1Oh">in a speech</a> to the American Humanist Association, speaking (as he sees it) on behalf of all human beings, “I’m a speck on a speck orbiting a speck among other specks among still other specks in the middle of specklessness. I suck!”
The false percentage figures are as worthy of being corrected as the insults to American greatness found elsewhere at the Smithsonian. Yet, when challenged on it, a museum spokesman answered with the equivalent of a, “Yeah, well, maybe we’ll get back to ya on that sometime.” As Elizabeth Shenk at World Magazine <a href="https://wng.org/roundups/architect-or-ancestry-1749756281" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, “The Smithsonian replied that, if it ever updates its numbers, it will take the study into account.” That non-answer should not be acceptable to the taxpayers who foot the bill at the museum. 
Whether humans are unique or just another beast in the forest is among the most consequential questions we can ask ourselves. On it, there hangs the difference between a noble culture and a depraved, animalistic one. The Smithsonian audit is indeed overdue, but it should include not only the insults to us as Americans but to us as human beings.
* * *
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute. He is the author most recently of <a href="https://a.co/d/aB2dtdf">Plato’s Revenge: The New Science of the Immaterial Genome</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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On Wednesday, I had a pretty incredible experience. I went to the Vatican for an event at St. Peter&#8217;s Square that’s held every Wednesday when the Pope holds a general audience.
It’s an amazing event. There are tens of thousands of people — divided by country of origin — who gather in St. Peter&#8217;s Square from all over the world. It&#8217;s a reminder that godly, Biblical values are the guiding force for billions of people around the world. The world seems like a very dark place from time to time, but the reality is that if you stick to eternal values, it does make the world a brighter place.
The Pope came in his vehicle, drove around, greeted the entire audience, and then he came up in the center of St. Peter&#8217;s Square, right in front of the basilica, and gave an address about the Bible which was read out loud in a variety of different languages.
I got to sit up there near where the Pope was. What the Pope said was quite beautiful. He quoted from the Book of John, the story about the Pool of Bethesda, in which Jesus goes to the Pool of Bethesda, where there are people who are ill and people who are paralyzed. There&#8217;s a man there who&#8217;s been sick and infirm for 38 years. And Jesus goes to that man and he tells him that he ought to get up, take his mat with him, and walk.
And the Pope said we should all reflect on Jesus&#8217; statement. At that moment when we feel stuck and trapped in a dead end, instead of allowing that to become an excuse for others to take care of us, we should not allow this to become a justification to avoid making decisions about our lives. Instead, we should get away from fatalism and embrace personal responsibility.
It is these kinds of messages that are implicit in the Biblical narrative that the Pope is spreading, and that is a wonderful thing for our civilization.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2220-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
I&#8217;ve talked about this before — I&#8217;m an Orthodox Jew. Obviously. I don&#8217;t have a dog in the fight when it comes to internal battles over doctrine in Catholicism, except to the extent that the Catholic Church remains a lodestone for Western civilization, a great spreader of Biblical values to humanity.
In the same way, there are Protestant churches that do the same. People of God, people of the book, people of the Bible are spreading eternal values. It is worth acknowledging that and honoring that.
That&#8217;s actually what I said to the Pope when I had an opportunity to meet him. I handed him a letter asking for an interview and introduced myself. You&#8217;re supposed to bring the Pope a gift.
I explained who I was. (Obviously, he has a lot of things to do, so I doubt he&#8217;s a regular listener to my show.) At this point, I explained to him that I was there to pay honor to the fact that he was representative of biblical values in the world. Then I added, “I happen to have been a devout White Sox fan since the time I was a child.”
Of course, Pope Leo is a White Sox fan. He recently spoke at Comiskey Park via video to some 30,000 people.
I told him that while he is Catholic and I am Jewish, one of the miracles that we can agree on is the 2005 White Sox winning the World Series. I brought with me from my personal collection a 2005 World Series White Sox baseball signed by the entire team, and gave it to him.
He seemed a little bit surprised, not by the fact that I was giving a gift, but because it was a gift and not just me showing him something cool, I suppose. You could see him crack a bit of a smile as he received it. He was pretty delighted by it.
So it was really a terrific experience. Honestly, the entire event was amazing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It was an honor to meet His Holiness, <a href="https://twitter.com/Pontifex?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Pontifex</a> in Vatican City today, and to thank him for standing up for Biblical values in a chaotic world…and to present him with a signed 2005 White Sox World Series baseball I had in my collection (we’re both fans). <a href="https://t.co/hxlhUnKU7F">pic.twitter.com/hxlhUnKU7F</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1935350580458733762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
My impression of him is that Pope Leo seems to be a man who has enmeshed himself in the office. And when you meet the Pope, you can see he’s a deeply humble man. You can tell that right away just from meeting him. And you could see the sheer joy that he had, I think, from getting the baseball, which is such a small thing for this man who has the weight of the spiritual fate of over a billion people on his shoulders.
I share that because there are a lot of moments in the political world that are not uplifting. There are a lot of moments that are fraught, that feel as though darkness is encroaching.
And so, there needs to be a meeting of the minds between all of us who believe in Biblical values, and that those Biblical values ought to be purveyed. It&#8217;s one of the reasons why I have encouraged people who are Catholic to go to church, people who are Protestant to go to church, and Jews to go to synagogue and relearn their traditions and engage with those traditions.
I&#8217;m very much in favor of the strengthening of the Catholic Church and the strengthening of Protestant churches all over the United States and the rest of the West.
I&#8217;m very much in favor of people reengaging with the values that made the West what it was in the first place.

Pope Leo XIV Arrives To Lead His Weekly General Audience At St Peter’s Square In The Vatican On June 18, 2025.

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In stark contrast to the battle cries of antisemites, and now the loud chorus of pundits defending Iran and its terror network, our message as Christians is this: preserve Israel and all she defends. As friends of Israel — of freedom, democracy, human rights, holy and ancient tradition — our prayers in her defense must overwhelm the rockets aimed at her annihilation.
Right now, Israel’s enemies are loud. So her friends need to be louder. Because once again, Israel stands on the verge of destruction.
The Iranian regime has openly and repeatedly vowed to annihilate the State of Israel. Since the October 7 terror attacks, Iran-backed terrorists have wrought havoc, ruining their own country, Yemen, and others, while targeting Israeli civilians from afar. When their terrorist friends again launched dozens of rockets at Israel recently, with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/houthi-missile-strikes-near-israeli-airport-after-evading-missile-defenses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one landing at Ben Gurion Airport</a>, at least eight individuals were seriously wounded. Over the weekend, Iran launched more missiles at Israel — and not at military targets, but as is typical for Iran, at innocent civilians and young children.
And now, Iran has reached the brink of producing nuclear weapons. This is not a theory. This is a very real, existential threat.
We must say it clearly: there will be no second Holocaust. No more helplessness. No more October 7 massacres.
With Iran as unhinged as ever before, the State of Israel was reborn for such a time as this — to be a refuge, a free nation with the ability to protect and defend the Jewish people. Israel has the moral and sovereign right to defend itself against those who seek its destruction.
We must stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters — not only because of shared values, but because of a shared God who calls us to be a light in the darkness. I am incredibly thankful for leaders like President Trump, who have stood firmly with Israel in its time of need. This is beyond politics and policies; this is about moral clarity. As followers of Christ, we are called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, to stand against injustice, and to take action, proving that when we say, “Never again,” we mean it.
Our congregation and global partners have chosen to support the people of Israel by investing in the Northern Galilee Emergency Hospital, by donating to the construction of 800 safe houses throughout the Eshkol region, and by building other bomb shelters, civil defense centers, and psychological treatment centers throughout the country. But if you cannot donate funds, donate your voice to amplify our message of peace.
This is also a pivotal moment for Iran, particularly Iranian Christians. The global church must lift them up in prayer and find ways to support them right now. Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the tyranny and violence they have faced in their own country. We pray that the freedom to preach the Gospel there will finally be possible and that Christians can practice their faith within Iran without fear.
As Christians, Scripture guides us more than any fleeting opinion of man. In Genesis 12:3, we read this about the historic nation of Israel: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
So, our mandate is clear, and we must state it clearly: We will always stand side by side with our Jewish brothers and sisters, and we will always have their backs.
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Pastor Jentezen Franklin is the senior pastor of Free Chapel and was recently appointed to President Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/05/president-donald-trump-names-advisory-board-members-to-the-religious-liverty-commission/">Religious Liberty Commission</a>. Each week, his television program, Kingdom Connection, is broadcast on major networks all over the world. He is also a New York Times best-selling author of several books.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT

The Choice Is Crystal Clear: Christians Must Defend Israel As She Confronts Evil

Iran

Israel

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Middle East

October 7

President Trump

Religious Liberty

Andrew Klavan’s new book arrived in my inbox with providential timing. Only a few hours before I started perusing The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness, I’d signed a publishing contract for my first novel — a story of murder, prostitution, and the many debased things that fallen man is willing to do in pursuit of his ambitions.
But a tiny part of me blushed at the plot I was preparing to put down on paper — what would compel a Christian, a self-professed church lady no less, to tell such a sordid tale?  What compels other Christians to read them? Klavan, as might be expected from an award-winning crime writer and very public Christ-follower, has long been thinking about such questions and now provides an answer.
“We should look at the question from the other direction,” Klavan says, “what good does it do anybody to write about the world as it&#8217;s not?” And the world, as he details through the true stories of three notorious killers — including history’s first killer — can be a very dark place. Portraying that darkness accurately in our art, Klavan contends, is one way we can better recognize and appreciate the light.
As one endorser of The Kingdom of Cain said, the book is part meditation and part memoir. I’d add, it’s also part apologia, as Klavan makes an argument for the ultimate triumph of not just a generic goodness but a Christian goodness. Evil, he argues, in the tradition of C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain, is the unwelcome guest to the original state of creation, which, as we know from Genesis, was very good.
“The shall-nots of the Ten Commandments are not restrictions on our true selves,” writes Klavan, “They are a guide to clearing the path to our original nature so we can become who we truly are.” Another way to say it is that the world began with a moral order, and what goes against that order is the intruder. Klavan explains why this reality should inform the work of any Christian artist seeking to write words that ring true. “I will write about absolutely horrific things,” he says, “but always in the moral world.”
What does writing dark works in the moral world look like? He shows us.
While analyzing the great fictional works his three case studies inspired, Klavan’s insights give new relish to film classics, offering fresh revelations about their appeal to audiences. One of his chapters on 1950s cross-dressing serial killer Ed Gein dissects how he is reimagined in the film Psycho. Unlike the novel it was based on, the movie recognizes not just the psychological brokenness of its villain, but his spiritual deformity. What the Catholic Hitchcock “understood in his bones,” Klavan writes, “is that there is a tension between the things of the spirit and the things of the flesh.”
And so, the great director played up that tension, bringing about his female lead’s murder right as she is in a moment of redemption, preparing to make amends for stealing $40,000 from her employer. This elevates the story from simple scare fest to tragedy.
“[Lead female character Marion’s] work in the film is the work of the spirit,” Klavan writes. Through her death, Hitchcock picked up on an aspect of Gein’s history that Psycho’s initial author didn’t — &#8220;the struggle to reconcile religion with eroticism is real.” This is something Hitchcock subtly points to by having Norman Bates use a biblical painting of Susanna and the Elders, which depicts two spiritual leaders trying to sexually exploit a woman as she is bathing, as a peephole to spy on Marion undressing for the shower.
From the Book of Daniel to the Bates Motel — the baser impulses of men will ever be a threat to women.
Other works inspired by the Gein case, like The Silence of the Lambs, compel because they not only tell us truthfully of the violence associated with perverted sexual desire, they also mock the idea that the explanations for such violence will be provided by psychiatry rather than religion. Hannibal Lecter is simply the face of unapologetic evil — like the icy Nietzscheans Leopold and Loeb (whose story Klavan also details), there is no Freudian concept that will restrain his malevolence. He would have to become an entirely new creature for that, a magic that only Christianity can work.
The book is full of similar, worthy insights, particularly when it comes to works inspired by the story of Cain. It is clear that for Klavan, there is no joy like the joy of accurately representing the human experience, and humanity is sinful. You cannot tell compelling stories while hiding reality, something the Bible’s authors apparently knew very well, given the horrors that fill Scripture’s pages from incest, to gang rapes, to, well, crucifixion.
Too often, Christians forget the “true” part of the Apostle Paul’s admonition to think about: &#8220;whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.” Truth is sometimes ugly, but all truth is God’s truth, Klavan tells me, and will reflect God’s moral order. “Every honest story, every true story, has God,” he says
“Whether you believe or not, if you tell a true story, if you tell the truth about life, God will be there.”

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Andrew Klavan’s Dark World

Andrew Klavan

United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee presented his credentials last week to Israel’s President, Yitzchak Herzog, and immediately demonstrated why he is the right person for this vital position at this critical time. It is true that Ambassador Huckabee has visited Israel more than 100 times, in his capacity as a Baptist preacher leading his congregation and as a politician accompanying his constituents, but even more importantly, he understands Israel, its uniqueness, its role in history, its abiding friendship with the United States, and its challenges.
Huckabee declared at the reception that he returns to Israel with “absolute joy and an overwhelming sense of awe that I am in a land where G-d Himself said, ‘This is mine, and these are My people.’” Such sentiments are not often expressed in Israel and not articulated often enough by Jews but they provide the foundation for defining the rightful place of the State of Israel, its reason for existence, and even the relentless antagonism of its enemies. The land of Israel was not only the land of the Bible in ancient times; it remains the land of the Bible and awaits the fulfillment of the prophetic vision of the future. Perceived through that prism, Israel’s struggles against implacable foes take on a new light that is visible only to someone who shares Ambassador Huckabee’s perspective.
Indeed, it is hard to imagine another ambassador having visited the country to which he was posted 100 times before assuming the role. It means that Huckabee’s commitment to Israel’s security stems from his correct understanding of America’s place in the world and its capacity to foster good and promote peace and prosperity.
So, what should be on Ambassador Huckabee’s agenda, especially mindful that he is the U.S. Ambassador who should advance American interests in the region?
The Ambassador has been outspoken in recent years as to the non-viability of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel, now rendered especially incongruous and perilous in light of the Hamas massacre of October 7, the ongoing war, and the Palestinian Authority’s reluctance to condemn that war. As ambassador, he can thwart the subtle encroachment towards a Palestinian state favored by Europe and some elements in the United States by reiterating a number of steps taken during the first Trump administration. He can again shutter the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA), located on Agron Street in the western part of Jerusalem, which was revived by the Biden administration in violation of U.S. and Israeli law and functioned as a quasi-diplomatic mission to the Palestinians. During the first Trump term, this office was closed, and its services provided out of the American embassy in Jerusalem to which it reported directly.
The OPA as currently constituted is an affront to Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. Ambassador Huckabee, together with Israel’s Foreign Ministry, can use his good offices to limit or halt the activities of the several European consulates that are located in Jerusalem and operate as missions to the Palestinian Authority in defiance of Israeli and international law. The ambassador can persuade, and certainly the U.S. government can act, to support Israel’s closure of these hostile outposts in the heart of Jerusalem.
<div id="attachment_914553" style="width: 840px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-914553" class="size-large wp-image-914553" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2206862784-830x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 25: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. Huckabee, the former governor and presidential candidate, answered questions on Israel and its campaign against Hamas. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)" width="830" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2206862784-830x576.jpg 830w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2206862784-300x208.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2206862784-768x533.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/GettyImages-2206862784.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" />Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images</div>
The Ambassador can urge the State Department to finally designate “Jerusalem, Israel” as an official place of birth on American passports. The State Department has long embraced the chimera that Jerusalem’s status as part of Israel — as Israel’s capital, no less — is somehow still subject to the outcome of negotiations. This policy should be repudiated and U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem who so desire should have their place of birth recorded as “Jerusalem, Israel.”
Ambassador Huckabee should also encourage the Trump administration to follow through on its temporary suspension of funding to UNRWA and make that suspension permanent. UNRWA, although barred by Israeli law from operating in Jerusalem, still maneuvers behind the scenes, controlling schools and in some cases economic development while advancing the interests of Hamas, with which it was integrally linked during the Gaza War. Cutting aid and resigning from UNESCO, another UN organization that is antagonistic to Israel and the United States, is also an American interest.
Additionally, for many decades under Democratic administrations, any type of residential or commercial building in Jerusalem by Jews – not by Arabs – drew immediate condemnations from the State Department. This too must end, and the ambassador is well positioned, as is President Trump, a real estate mogul, to take the lead in supporting Israel’s plans to construct new neighborhoods in Jerusalem and even to explore the expansion of Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries to encompass satellite towns on its periphery.
To his great credit, President Trump has appointed two distinguished emissaries to Israel – David Friedman in his first term and Mike Huckabee in his current term. A person of faith, such as Ambassador Huckabee, deeply understands the centrality of Israel in the narrative of world history. But this ambassador also deeply understands the Israel of the future, and the pivotal role played by the city of Jerusalem, and even more how a secure and prosperous Israel will strengthen the United States and bring the world closer to the vision of peace on earth.
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Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq., is Senior Research Associate at the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP.ngo).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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