President Donald Trump said Monday afternoon that he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-slammed-for-outrageous-post-depicting-himself-as-jesus-christ?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump+Removes+%E2%80%98OUTRAGEOUS%E2%80%99+Post+Depicting+Himself+As+Jesus+Christ+After+Backlash+From+Supporters">posted</a> the image widely perceived as depicting himself as Jesus Christ, but told reporters that he believed the image showed him as a doctor, not the Son of God.
Trump deleted the image from his Truth Social account on Monday morning after backlash from his Christian supporters, some of whom called the image &#8220;outrageous&#8221; and &#8220;blasphemous.&#8221;
&#8220;I did post it and thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with the Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Only the fake news could come up with that one. I just heard about it and said, &#8216;How did they come up with that?&#8217; It&#8217;s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better.&#8221;
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &#8220;I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor, and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support&#8230; It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/90wyeq1uaa">pic.twitter.com/90wyeq1uaa</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2043733034629836827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The image showed Trump, dressed in a white tunic and red robe, appearing to heal a man in a hospital bed. It also showed a nurse looking up at Trump and another woman who appeared to be praying as she watched Trump heal the sick man. The image appears to have originated on social media in February when conservative social media personality Nick Adams shared it on X with the caption, “America has been sick for a long time. President Trump is healing this nation.”
<div id="attachment_1076721" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1076721" class="wp-image-1076721 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-384x576.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115.jpg 800w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Screenshot: Truth Social</div>
Trump&#8217;s controversial post came shortly after the president&#8217;s spiritual adviser, Paula White, compared Trump&#8217;s civil and legal trials in recent years to what Jesus endured before dying on the cross.
&#8220;President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price,&#8221; White said next to Trump during an Easter event at the White House. &#8220;It almost cost you your life. You were betrayed and arrested, and falsely accused. It&#8217;s a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. But it didn&#8217;t end there for him, and it didn&#8217;t end there for you.&#8221;
Trump shared the image on Truth Social on Sunday night, less than one hour after he blasted Pope Leo XIV in another post, calling the pope “weak” and suggesting he didn’t deserve to be chosen for the position. The pope has been critical of Trump’s immigration policies and the military campaign against Iran.

Donald Trump Jesus post

Trump Offers First Public Explanation Of Jesus Post

Christians

Donald Trump

Jesus Christ

President Donald Trump deleted a post from his Truth Social account on Monday after he was condemned by some of his Christian supporters for depicting himself as Jesus Christ.
The image showed Trump, dressed in a white tunic and red robe, healing a man in a hospital bed as people around Trump looked on in adoration and prayer. The image appears to have originated on social media in February when conservative social media personality Nick Adams <a href="https://x.com/nickadamsinusa/status/2019100728078348415?s=46&amp;t=o-U3qwC25WnWaylJ0oeG7Q">shared</a> it on X with the caption, &#8220;America has been sick for a long time. President Trump is healing this nation.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1076721" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1076721" class="wp-image-1076721 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-384x576.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/04/Untitled-design-2026-04-13T075044.115.jpg 800w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Screenshot: Truth Social</div>
The image was a step too far in the minds of many of his Christian supporters, who often defend the president&#8217;s unconventional social media tactics. Many of Trump&#8217;s Christian supporters urged the president to take it down, with some Christians calling the image &#8220;<a href="https://x.com/JonnyRoot_/status/2043545923192758693">blasphemous</a>.&#8221;
&#8220;I assume someone has already told him, but it behooves the President both spiritually and politically to delete the picture, no matter the intent,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/michaeljknowles/status/2043539668227039475">wrote</a> Daily Wire host Michael Knowles.
&#8220;I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/megbasham/status/2043532479194075630">said</a> Megan Basham, &#8220;But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.&#8221;
The Daily Wire reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump posted the image less than one hour after he blasted Pope Leo XIV in another social media post, calling the pope &#8220;weak&#8221; and suggesting he didn&#8217;t deserve to be chosen for the position. The pope has been critical of Trump&#8217;s immigration policies and the military campaign against Iran.
&#8220;God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs,&#8221; Pope Leo <a href="https://x.com/Pontifex/status/2042588417578668338">said</a> last week. &#8220;Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.&#8221;
In his Palm Sunday message last month, Pope Leo also said that Jesus &#8220;rejects war&#8221; and &#8220;does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.&#8221;
Trump responded to the pope&#8217;s comments Sunday evening, writing, &#8220;I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.&#8221;
&#8220;Leo should be thankful because, as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;He wasn’t on any list to be Pope, and was only put there by the Church because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.&#8221;

Trump Removes ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ Post Depicting Himself As Jesus Christ After Backlash From Supporters

Politics

Religion

Social Media

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In a historic milestone for archaeology and faith, the newly opened Pilgrimage Road at the City of David is welcoming visitors for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. This monumental 600-meter thoroughfare, once the spiritual and commercial heart of Second Temple Jerusalem, has been painstakingly uncovered stone by stone. As of January 2026, the final sections of this &#8220;Stepped Street&#8221; will open to the public, allowing modern travelers to walk the exact path their ancestors used during the great festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
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A truly historic moment &#8211; the newly opened Pilgrimage Road at the City of David is welcoming visitors for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.
This stone-paved path once carried pilgrims from the Pool of Siloam up to the Temple Mount for Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, alive… <a href="https://t.co/U8q2DuGfRU">pic.twitter.com/U8q2DuGfRU</a>
— Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraelinUSA/status/2016874219703873694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The road is a marvel of ancient engineering, stretching from the Pool of Siloam in the south to the foot of the Temple Mount in the north. Eight meters wide and paved with massive limestone slabs, it features a unique stepped design — two shallow steps followed by a long landing — specifically crafted to facilitate a slow, meditative ascent for the millions of pilgrims who once thronged its path.
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While long attributed to Herod the Great, recent coin evidence found beneath the paving stones suggests the road was actually completed around 30–31 CE under Pontius Pilate. This places its activity squarely within the era of Jesus’ ministry, making it the literal surface upon which he and his disciples likely walked after ritual purification at the Pool of Siloam. The New Testament records Jesus performing a famous miracle with a blind man at the pool of Siloam, which sits at the very bottom of this road: John 9:7 states, “And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.&#8221;
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Managed by the Ir David (City of David) Foundation, the excavation of the road is a modern engineering triumph. Because the ancient street is buried beneath the modern neighborhood of Silwan, it has been excavated horizontally using high-tech steel supports. This subterranean &#8220;tunnel&#8221; method allows visitors to experience the bustling commercial hub of the past — where remains of shops, market stalls, and even an elevated preaching podium have been found — while the modern city continues to thrive above.
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The opening of this route fulfills a long-held vision to connect the Pool of Siloam directly to the Western Wall. For visitors, it offers more than a history lesson; it provides a tangible connection to the &#8220;DNA of Jerusalem.&#8221; From the drainage channels where Jewish rebels once hid to the massive stones polished by millions of ancient footsteps, the Pilgrimage Road is the &#8220;opening act&#8221; of a new era of discovery. It stands as a bridge across two millennia, inviting the world to walk the ceremonial way that once served as the primary gateway to the House of God.
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Daily Life In Jerusalem

The DNA Of Jerusalem: Ancient Pilgrimage Road Opens To The World

Jerusalem

The following is an edited transcript from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1893-children-terrified-leftist-mob-storms-church-in-minneapolis?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
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A very controversial statement — at least according to the internet — has just come out of Jerusalem. And not just from the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the chief Catholic prelate there, but from the heads of the other historic churches as well: the Armenian Church, the Syriac Church, the Greek Orthodox Church — all the Apostolic churches of Jerusalem.
Here is what they said. In a statement titled On Unity and the Representation of the Christian Communities in the Holy Land:
<blockquote>The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land affirm before the faithful and before the world that the ﬂock of Christ in this land is entrusted to the Apostolic Churches, which have borne their sacred ministry across centuries with steadfast devotion. </blockquote>
Here is the controversial line:
<blockquote>Recent activities undertaken by local individuals who advance damaging ideologies such as Christian Zionism mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock. These undertakings have found favor among certain political actors in Israel and beyond, who seek to push a political agenda which may harm the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the wider Middle East.</blockquote>
The statement goes on for several more paragraphs and concludes with: “May the Lord, who is the shepherd and guardian of souls, grant wisdom for the protection of His people and the safeguarding of His witness in the sacred land.” 
It is signed by the patriarchs and heads of the churches in Jerusalem.
So what is this about?
We’ve heard a lot about Zionism — the nationalist ideology that arose in the 19th century and sought to return Jews to the Holy Land, where they had lived millennia earlier, though not in large numbers for quite some time. We’ve also heard about Christian Zionism, which is a specifically Christian theological take on that project.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1893-children-terrified-leftist-mob-storms-church-in-minneapolis?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
But who exactly are these “local individuals” sowing discord and undermining proper Christian authority?
I had to look into this, because as a Catholic I don’t exactly keep up with every niche Protestant trend. And I think the patriarchs are referring to a man named Robert Stearns, who styles himself “Bishop Robert Stearns.” He is not part of any Apostolic Christian community, but he calls himself a bishop anyway. He is also a vociferous advocate of Christian Zionism.
Here’s a sample of what he recently said:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“Christian” Zionist Robert Stearns apologizes to Jews at Jerusalem Post conference for 2,000 years of “Christian history” hurting Jewish people.
He says it&#8217;s “irrelevant” if Jesus was the Messiah and claims to be part of a new Christian group “serving Zion.”
Follow: <a href="https://twitter.com/AFpost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AFpost</a> <a href="https://t.co/aHhMgOfpA3">pic.twitter.com/aHhMgOfpA3</a>
— AF Post (@AFpost) <a href="https://twitter.com/AFpost/status/2011500100624040442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Credit: @AFpost/X.com
I was trying to be sympathetic here, but this is just ridiculous. It violates the law of non-contradiction — a principle we’ve known about since at least Aristotle. Opposing statements cannot both be true in the same respect.
Christ’s return cannot be both His first coming and His second coming. It’s one or the other. And if you’re a Christian, I’m happy to break it to you: it will be the second coming. You actually have to believe that.
This attempt to be cute or accommodating doesn’t resolve anything. It just empties theology of meaning.
Stearns also claims that the existence of the modern State of Israel is of biblical and prophetic necessity — that it is required for the end times to unfold. I know plenty of people share this view. But here’s the thing: this theology is new. Really new. Less than two centuries old. It is not the traditional Christian position, and it is not the correct one.
Which brings us back to the Jerusalem statement.
Is it shocking? Is it anti-Israel? Is it a break with tradition?
No. Not at all.
In fact, the position expressed by the patriarchs lines up perfectly with long-standing Vatican teaching. Here is something from 1985 — forty years ago, and two decades after the Second Vatican Council. This declaration from the Vatican goes out of its way to speak respectfully of Jews and is in no way anti-Semitic:
<blockquote>The history of Israel did not end in 70 A.D., but continued, especially in the numerous diasporas, which led Israel to carry to the whole world a witness, often heroic, of its fidelity to the one God… while preserving the memory of the land of their forefathers at the heart of their hope.</blockquote>
That reference, by the way, is to the Passover Seder.
Notice what’s happening here. The Vatican is not talking about the Church as the new Israel — which Christians have always believed — but about the historical, earthly Israel of the Jewish people. It acknowledges their witness, their fidelity, and even their attachment to the land.
But then comes the key clarification:
<blockquote>Christians are invited to understand this religious attachment, which finds its roots in biblical tradition, without, however, making their own any particular religious interpretation of this relationship.</blockquote>
And just to make it unmistakable, the Vatican adds:
<blockquote>The existence of the State of Israel and its political options should be envisaged not in a perspective which is in itself religious, but in their reference to the common principles of international law.</blockquote>
Bingo.
That is exactly what the patriarchs of Jerusalem are reaffirming. And they are completely right.
This is why I would not call myself a Zionist, or a Christian Zionist, or any other kind of Zionist. Not because I dislike Jews — I don’t. Not because I oppose the State of Israel — I don’t.
I am broadly supportive of the nation-state of Israel but not because of Zionist religious claims, which I don’t believe are true. I do not believe Jews are entitled to the Holy Land because of a theological premise. As a Christian, I believe the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament. Christ is the New Covenant. The Church is the spiritual Israel. Those Old Testament promises are fulfilled — not suspended, not postponed.
And I also don’t believe that occupying a piece of land 2,000 years ago grants a perpetual title deed. If that were the case, we’d have to hand Mount Rushmore back to the Lakota Sioux. I don’t believe that logic anywhere.
That said, I still broadly support Israel because I don’t like the alternatives. I don’t want Iran running the Holy Land. I don&#8217;t think the Muslims have been particularly protective of the holy sites. The Ottoman Empire is gone. Baldwin’s Kingdom of Jerusalem isn’t coming back anytime soon. The real-world options are limited.
From the standpoint of international law, the Jews were granted territory by the British Empire, recognized by the United Nations, and then defended it through war. Like it or not, under the modern nation-state system, that matters.
But that isn’t Zionism. And it certainly isn’t biblical prophecy.
You can support Israel without subscribing to the relatively novel theology of Christian Zionism. You can like Jews without turning geopolitics into eschatology.
I love the Jews. I grew up in New York. I’m extremely philosemitic. If you told me I had to choose between hanging out with the guys making pastrami sandwiches or the guys making shawarma, I’m choosing pastrami 100 times out of 100. Okay — 999 times out of 1,000.
And you can do that without embracing a theology invented in the 19th century and dressed up as ancient Christianity.
That is clearly what the patriarchs of Jerusalem are saying. And anyone pretending this is antisemitic, radical, or some kind of rupture with tradition is, frankly, completely insane.

Skyline of the Old City in Jerusalem from north, Israel.

Why Christian Zionism Is Not Traditional Christianity

Christianity

Israel

Jews

Michael Knowles

Zionism

A growing number of parents are opting to exclude Santa Claus in children’s Christmas celebrations.
These people fear that convincing children of such a fantastical story and later revealing that it is, in a literal sense, false, will undermine trust between parents and children, cause children to doubt their faith, or even result in childhood trauma.
Of course, there are still plenty of people who hold that Santa Claus is a valuable part of an innocent, imaginative childhood. But the anti-Santa camp seemed especially vocal this year, particularly among religious conservatives.
Those people may be shocked to hear that they are on the same side as the radicals who perpetrated the French Revolution.
Consider the revolutionary: one who believes that individual reason is supreme, that tradition is questionable at best, and that beauty, mystique, and ceremony have no place in a rational society.
During the French Revolution, these radicals spurned their nation’s political, religious, and cultural history as impediments to man’s liberty. They tried to eradicate French Catholicism, abolished France’s ancient regional borders, and even created a new calendar. Devoted to their own individual “Reason,” they disregarded all ancestral wisdom and attempted to create a new France. Unfortunately, these cool, rational, dispassionate men succeeded only in unleashing decades of brutal war first upon France and then upon the rest of Europe.
How does Santa Claus fit into this? It’s all in the ideology. Many Santa objectors reduce a familial, cultural, and (if properly understood) religious symbol to a “lie.” In so doing, they implicitly align themselves with the rationalistic French philosophes and their Marxist successors, who held that truth must be observable, quantifiable, and physical. No poetic beauty, no metaphors, no affinity for man’s soul.
On the other hand, we have the Claus partisans. Like the great Irish statesman and opponent of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, they recognize the power of tradition, reverence, and beauty to shape a society. They recognize that man is spirit, not just intellect, and that to reduce him to his intellect is to dehumanize him. They recognize, in Burke’s words, that if “all the decent drapery of life is to be rudely torn off” and “the superadded ideas, furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination&#8230;are to be exploded as a ridiculous, absurd, and antiquated fashion,” man will be reduced to a barbarian. Like all good conservatives, these Claus partisans recognize that human beings are passionate creatures who need to be trained, not only in their reason but in their affections, to be virtuous.
In a certain sense, those who object to Santa Claus are right: the historical Saint Nicholas notwithstanding, Santa isn’t real.
But nor are characters in poetry, folklore, or literature “real.” However, as Russell Kirk wrote in his masterpiece The Conservative Mind, “great myths are true in essence, however fanciful in detail.” G.K. Chesterton, too, was fond of arguing that fairy tales are, in a sense, truer than bald facts. They instill in children a sense of wonder, an appreciation for miracles, and a firm sense of morality.
The Santa Claus story is true in its essence of gratitude, wonder, and joy in the miraculous. It is merely presented to small children in an allegorical way, which they can understand. It was this manner of oral tradition and mythmaking that held together the societies of Ancient Greece and Rome and laid the foundation for Western culture. We would abandon it at our peril.
In this sense, is it not insulting to our children to think that they are capable of understanding only the most literal, mathematical truths? Is it not far-fetched to imagine that a fairytale, lovingly passed on from generation to generation, will undermine a parent-child relationship?
Not all Santa objectors are morally deficient successors of the Jacobins. Some parents believe that if they reveal the Santa secret to their children, the children will no longer trust what they have learned about Christ. And indeed, if Santa has managed to supersede discussions about Jesus in a Christian household, it may be best to discontinue the tradition.
But this is not an inevitability. If Santa is a fun addition for a few weeks every year, and Jesus is the center of family life throughout the year, there shouldn’t be any confusion between them.
Emily Claire Boulet is a student at the University of Dallas.
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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If You Don’t Let Your Kids Believe In Santa, You May Be A Jacobin

Christmas

France

Revolution

Santa Claus

It’s a sure sign of Christmas when we hear Nat King Cole crooning about chestnuts roasting on an open fire. While few of us have experienced eating such warm roasted chestnuts, we can surely relate to seeing “tiny tots with their eyes all aglow.”
When children experience the bright lights of the Christmas Season, they can hardly open their eyes wide enough to take in all the beauty. From living room Christmas trees to sparkling downtown squares, bright, colorful decorations are everywhere. And, as the lyrics remind us, the bright lights are most exquisite when they are reflected in the eyes and on the faces of children, especially young children. 
What do we really see on these precious little faces? What best describes the look of wonder reflected in the wide eyes of children taking in the lights?
It’s joy.
The innocent expressions of wonder on the face of a child can bring joy to all of us, even when things aren’t stellar for us adults. A child’s perception of this light-filled season can even melt the hearts of all the Scrooges in our midst.
That’s because children don’t just reflect the season; they are represented by the central character in the Christmas story. After all, the Christ Child is the focus of the attention of all the participants in the nativity. The lowly animals, the shepherds, the wise men, and, of course, Mary and Joseph. Our front-yard nativity sets may have all of those frozen figurines at once, even though the story itself plays out over a longer period. Just as the Star of Bethlehem lit that special night more than two millennia ago, the bright lights we see today can brighten even our darkest nights.
Yet the message of joy that still flows from that manger came with its own set of challenges, many of which we still face today. The pregnancy was unexpected. Housing insecurity was real. A government edict forced an ill-timed travel issue. The soon-to-be husband was not the father of the baby. Such challenges have the potential to steal joy, not bring it. And yet, after 2,000 years, we memorialize it on our lawns, over the mantel, or in dioramas that dominate our home décor. No matter the conditions of their conception, babies have a way of bringing joy and smiles.
Carl Sandburg once said, “A baby is God&#8217;s opinion that life should go on.” That is true with every new life, as much as it was with the Christ Child. The next generation is the hope for the future of our families, our communities, and of the world.
The story of Mary and the manger reminds us that every woman should be loved and supported in her pregnancy, despite her immediate circumstances. The spark of life within every child in the womb should be welcomed and nurtured, cherished and treasured. Temporary obstacles should be overcome so that every tiny tot has a chance to be filled with wonder and joy at Christmas. Each of us should do our part to help someone near us, or close by us, or maybe even someone we’ll never get the chance to meet, be able to greet their little one with joy and gratitude.
That is what motivates the life-affirming work of pregnancy help in communities all over the country every day of the year. Whether around the kitchen table in a maternity home or through an ultrasound at a pregnancy medical clinic, or in the placement of a child into an adoptive family, pregnancy help provides real help for real needs to those dealing with temporary challenges.
All pregnancies are temporary, even the unexpected ones. And every life should have a chance to make a positive mark on the world and future generations.
That holy night reminds us of more than the value of just that one child. That “silent night” stands as a powerful proclamation for each of us to welcome the work of God when it comes as a baby. We should make way, or “prepare him room,” for “love’s pure light” to shine into, and through, our hearts at this special time of year and all year long. That’s what empowers each of us to light up with joy and sing, “Joy to the World!”
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Jor-El Godsey is president of Heartbeat International.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25">Christmas Sale &#8211; Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>

Little Girl Decorating Christmas Tree.

Joy To The World, One Child At A Time

Abortion

babies

Bible

Children

Opinion

Pregnancy

Pro-Life Movement

Fitness influencer Jillian Michaels was amazed to discover that Jesus Christ was a real person whose existence was chronicled in texts beyond just the Bible.
The conversation took place during an episode of Michaels’ podcast while she was speaking with world-class historian and Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson.
Hanson was discussing the specific issues the Romans had with Jesus, which prompted her to admit that she was surprised to learn his existence was widely accepted as a historical fact.
 “I thought we didn&#8217;t even know this guy… this is going to infuriate people and I&#8217;m so sorry and I stay out of it, but I thought we weren&#8217;t even really sure whether or not Jesus existed and the apostles wrote this stuff hundreds of years ago,” Michaels said. 
Hoover explained, “We have Roman documents completely separate from religion, that he was a magnetic, he was a romantic, wonderful person to the people who knew him and he had staged a revolution and that presented a problem in this troublesome province.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Victor Davis Hanson: The Civilizational Crisis No One Expects" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QEXG_SWVdKo?start=1681&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The historian recounted how Pontius Pilate was a Roman official who was most interested in keeping peace in the region, so he pushed the blame for Jesus being put to death onto the Pharisees, using the justification that this move helped achieve that goal.
Hanson also noted how Jesus’ teachings were the antithesis of what the Romans believed. “He&#8217;s got a new religion and unfortunately it&#8217;s turned the other cheek, brotherhood of man, blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor, that&#8217;s not Roman. We have a Roman military ethos that the strong inherit the earth and if an enemy offends you, you hit him twice. And this guy is preaching something very different,” the historian explained.
“When anybody says that the Jews killed Jesus, it&#8217;s more like the Romans wanted a quiet province and they did not like Jesus and what he represented was anti-Roman…So they said basically, well, in Judaism, in Judea, the Jewish establishment, the religious establishment doesn&#8217;t like him any more than we do. So we can get rid of him and then say the Pharisees basically did it.”
“This is so wild. I&#8217;m sorry. I know it&#8217;s not wild for people who know this information, but I genuinely thought, okay, the Jews had the Old Testament, the Torah, and then maybe there was this guy, Jesus,” Michaels said as she looked on in awe. “The apostles wrote stuff, but the first guy who wrote something was like 90 or so years later. We think maybe there&#8217;s some Dead Sea Scrolls kind of mentioned this guy, Jesus.”
Michaels doesn’t talk much about religion publicly, but <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/jillian-michaels-stands-by-criticism-of-the-olympics-opening-ceremony/">described herself</a> as “not a religious person” and “agnostic” in 2024.

Jillian Michaels

Jillian Michaels Is Shocked To Discover Jesus Was A Real Person

Celebrities

Entertainment

History

The daughter of a Christian pastor detained by the Chinese Communist Party alongside nearly two dozen church leaders is warning of a coming “wave” of Christian persecution in China, she told The Daily Wire. 
Last week, the Chinese government rounded up prominent pastor Mingri “Ezra” Jin and at least 22 other church leaders and locked them up in a detention center in Guangxi, a region in southern China. Jin and the others detained are connected to the Zion Church, one of the largest underground church networks in China.
Grace, Jin’s daughter, told The Daily Wire that she fears that these detentions are only the beginning of a nationwide crackdown on Christianity. 
The detained Christians were from all across the country, including cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, she said. All of the detained pastors have been taken to a central location in Beihai, Guangxi — approximately 1,200 miles south of Shanghai and 1,500 miles from Beijing. 
The pastors have been clothed in prison garb and handcuffed, according to Grace.
Their crime? They are accused of illegally disseminating information online. Grace believes additional charges could follow because government officials have been probing the church&#8217;s structure and finances. 
“This is definitely orchestrated by a high-up central government level” because “they were rounding up people from all across China, and they were all bringing them to one location,” she told The Daily Wire. 
“It was almost simultaneous, it was orderly, and it was orchestrated all together at the same time,” she added, noting that the government appeared to be tracking the pastors&#8217; movements in order to track them down and detain them. 
On Monday morning, Grace said her grandmother attempted to bring her father a Bible and his diabetes medicine, but authorities would not allow her or other family members to visit their detained loved ones. She also said her father and many others weren&#8217;t allowed to speak to a lawyer. 
”We don&#8217;t really know how they are doing,” Grace said. 
She added it was tough to see men who only wanted to spread God’s love treated like criminals. 
“The fact that these folks who are just generally always so gentle, so peaceful, so happy to serve others, are seen as this criminal, and treated as criminals, and put into these shameful prison garments, and put into handcuffs and shackles [doesn’t make sense],&#8221; Grace said. 
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Her father first became a Christian after the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
“When the country betrayed them in such a brutal way, it really was shocking, and they lost a sense of direction for my dad,” Grace said. “He then found the sense of purpose and direction in Christianity, and he turned to Christ, and he realized that was the firm foundation that he needed in order to build his life upon.”
After his conversion, Jin initially pastored one of the government-sanctioned churches approved by China, but he soon left after feeling his ministry was being held “hostage” to the whims of the government, Grace said. 
The government wanted Jin to use the pulpit to promote communism and the Chinese Communist Party. It prohibited discussions of fundamental Christian beliefs, including the second coming of Jesus, because officials declared that China was already a utopia. 
In 2017, Jin started Zion after years of theological training in the United States. By 2018, the government had cracked down on Zion by closing its physical location and freezing the church’s assets. 
Grace said that her father has been detained multiple times over the past few years, but never formally charged. Sometimes he has been taken to hotels and harassed, she said. This time, she believes the detention is more serious and they will face a lengthy prosecution. 
Jin’s detention last week captured the attention of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called for him to be immediately released. 
“This crackdown further demonstrates how the CCP exercises hostility towards Christians who reject Party interference in their faith and choose to worship at unregistered house churches,” Rubio said. “We call on the CCP to immediately release the detained church leaders and to allow all people of faith, including members of house churches, to engage in religious activities without fear of retribution.”
Grace, who is an American, was grateful for Rubio’s swift condemnation and wants to spread awareness about her father’s detention. She said Rubio’s message had already been blocked in China. 
China, which is home to nearly 100 million Christians, is regularly ranked as one of the worst offenders when it comes to Christian persecution. Open Doors, a watchdog organization that advocates for persecuted Christians, <a href="https://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/world-watch-list/china/">listed</a> China as the 15th worst country in the world for persecution, according to its most recent standings.
Grace believes that the persecution could get worse, and that her father&#8217;s arrest is only the beginning. 
“We think that this is just the beginning and that there is a wave of persecution that is coming.”

CHINA-RELIGION-RIGHTS

Daughter Of Detained Pastor Warns Of A Coming ‘Wave’ Of Christian Persecution In Communist China

Daughter Of Detained Pastor Fears 'Wave' Of Persecution From Communist China

Communist China

Marco Rubio

Persecution

Religious Liberty

State Department

New Daily Wire host Isabel Brown said on Thursday that when hatred comes for her, it only confirms that she has chosen the right path and is doing the right thing.
Brown explained her position during an event hosted by Young America&#8217;s Foundation, saying that she drew inspiration from the New Testament — where followers of Jesus Christ were warned that they would be hated for following Him and for speaking the Truth.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/theisabelb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@theisabelb</a>: We are promised that we will receive MASSIVE backlash for proclaiming the truth.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve come to learn that when you receive that&#8230;hatred&#8230; it is the perfect sign that you are running in the right direction.&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/yaf?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@yaf</a> <a href="https://t.co/VqjH6WxZGo">pic.twitter.com/VqjH6WxZGo</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1953482412052070657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I believe, as said before, that when we tell the truth to a world rejecting that concept — and I believe truth has a name: Christ — we are promised &#8230; we are promised, guaranteed, that we will receive massive backlash for it,&#8221; she said, and then went directly to the source.
&#8220;Matthew 10:22 says, &#8216;You will be hated by everyone&#8217;  — not just the people who disagree with you, everyone — &#8216;because of me,'&#8221; she continued. &#8220;&#8216;But the one who stands firm until the end will be saved.'&#8221;
&#8220;John chapter 15, verses 18 through 20, Christ reminds us, &#8216;If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you,'&#8221; she added.
&#8220;I have been called every horrible name in the book,&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;It started as a college campus fun prank when everyone called me Hitler Youth Barbie. That was fun. And transphobic, white supremacist, anti-woman — always by men, which totally makes sense — and I thought &#8216;no uterus, no opinion,&#8217; but I guess men can have a uterus now, so all of that went out the window.&#8221;
Brown went on to list a number of other names she&#8217;d been called — &#8220;anti-everything, you name it&#8221; — and concluded, &#8220;I&#8217;ve come to learn that when you receive that backlash, that hatred, that other-worldly level of distance between yourself and our broken culture, it is the perfect flashing marquee sign, airport traffic control director that you are running in the right direction.&#8221;

Isabel Brown

‘You Will Be Hated By Everyone’: Isabel Brown Reveals How She Knows She Chose The Right Path

'You Will Be Hated By Everyone': Isabel Brown Reveals How She Knows She's Doing The Right Thing

Young America's Foundation

Several clips of actress Cynthia Erivo performing as Jesus Christ in the stage production “Jesus Christ Superstar” have been circulating online, with many viewers taking a negative view of that particular casting decision.
The “Wicked” actress played the role in the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice 1971 rock opera — opposite “American Idol” contestant Adam Lambert, who played Judas Iscariot — for a three day showcase at the Hollywood Bowl.
Commenters also pointed out how once again Christianity was being openly mocked while other religions are almost never targeted in the same way.
“It’s no surprise she looks exactly like how demons have always been portrayed,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, wrote in response to one of the clips on X. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Cynthia Erivo plays Jesus in the, Jesus Christ Superstar.
I want to know why does this feel evil? Why does her left hand feel as if it’s a demonic claw? <a href="https://t.co/goNoGcnpu2">pic.twitter.com/goNoGcnpu2</a>
— Mary 🤦🏼‍♀️🇺🇸 (@Mary_McMuffin) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mary_McMuffin/status/1952033414120644824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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“And let’s be real … if you dress like a demon, act like a demon, and mock God like a demon … don’t be shocked when people call it what it is,” she added. “This is intentional blasphemy from Hollywood.”
“Let’s do Muhammad Superstar next … Oh wait &#8230;,” another commenter <a href="https://x.com/SobrietyCM/status/1952683613251899761">replied</a>.
“Far closer to Nosferatu&#8217;s shadow than the divine light of Christ,” another person <a href="https://x.com/DigitalGal_X/status/1952331624256782737">replied</a>. “God will not be mocked.”
“They mock faith for applause. Cynthia Erivo plays Jesus, wears the crown, gets praised like it’s ‘progress.’ Try pulling that with any other religion &#8230; they’d burn Hollywood to the ground overnight,” echoed another.
Lambert addressed the backlash to Erivo’s casting, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/culture/pride/adam-lambert-jesus-christ-superstar-cynthia-erivo-1236034244/">telling</a> Billboard that “Jesus Christ Superstar” is meant to “provoke and challenge.” 
“I’m excited by the challenge of presenting the audience with a production led by a female, Black ‘Jesus’ and encourage the audience to expand their minds a bit,” Lambert told the outlet. “And shouldn’t the teachings of Jesus transcend gender?”
“You can’t please everyone,” Erivo <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/features/cynthia-erivo-billboard-cover-story-1235985902/">told</a> Billboard during a June interview. “It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off. So hopefully they will come and realize, ‘Oh, it’s a musical, the gayest place on Earth.’”
“Jesus Christ Superstar” has been controversial since its Broadway debut more than 50 years ago, with many Christians denouncing it as blasphemous.

Cynthia Erivo

‘Intentional Blasphemy’: Internet Reacts To Cynthia Erivo As Jesus In ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’

'Intentional Blasphemy': Internet Reacts To Cynthia Erivo As Jesus In 'Jesus Christ Superstar'

Theater

Senator Ted Cruz praised Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for promising to restore a historic painting of Jesus comforting sailors adrift at sea back to a place of prominence in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy after the Biden administration moved it to a basement.
Cruz thanked Duffy on Friday for his commitment to moving the 81-year-old painting, “Christ On The Water,” back to its original location at the academy. In a letter to Duffy obtained by The Daily Wire, Cruz said that restoring the painting, which depicts Jesus appearing to sailors lost at sea during World War II, was an imperative step to protect America’s religious heritage. 
“Your public acknowledgment of the painting’s spiritual and historical significance was a powerful moment of moral clarity and leadership—one that resonated not only with the midshipmen in attendance, but with countless Americans who care deeply about preserving our nation’s religious and military heritage,” Cruz wrote. 
Last month, Duffy was met with a round of applause at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, after he called for the painting to be moved out of the basement. The Transportation Department&#8217;s Maritime Administration operates the academy, and gives direction over its policies and management. 
&#8220;Can we bring Jesus up from the basement?&#8221; Duffy said. &#8220;Let&#8217;s not put Jesus in the basement! Let&#8217;s get Him out! Let&#8217;s bring Him up!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy erupted in applause when <a href="https://twitter.com/SecDuffy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecDuffy</a> demanded a painting of Jesus saving merchant mariners be restored.
The Biden admin put a curtain over the painting before putting it in a flood-prone basement.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s bring Him up!&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/qQvLKXKE5r">pic.twitter.com/qQvLKXKE5r</a>
— Jon Brown (@JonBrownDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonBrownDC/status/1909780255633506322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Christ On the Water&#8221; was completed in 1944 by artist Hunter Wood, who trained at the Merchant Marine Academy and was in the Coast Guard. In 1947 the painting was installed at the Merchant Marine Academy’s Wiley Hall Elliot See Room where it was displayed until 2023 when the Biden administration moved it because of a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.  
<div id="attachment_918985" style="width: 797px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-918985" class="size-full wp-image-918985" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-10.18.22-AM.png" alt="" width="787" height="605" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-10.18.22-AM.png 787w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-10.18.22-AM-300x231.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-10.18.22-AM-749x576.png 749w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-10.18.22-AM-768x590.png 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 787px) 100vw, 787px" />&#8220;Christ on the Water&#8221;/ US Merchant Marine Academy.</div>
“Your statement—&#8217;Can we bring Jesus up from the basement?’—was more than rhetorical. I trust it will be seen as an imperative,” Cruz wrote. “Thank you for your principled leadership, for defending our nation’s religious heritage, and for working to ensure that this government-commissioned memorial is returned to its rightful place.”
Cruz said the removal of the painting had no legal basis and was an example of the academy being &#8220;hostile to religion.&#8221;
“Its sudden concealment in 2023—done hastily in response to a single baseless complaint—did a great disservice to the Academy’s heritage and to the memory of those the painting was meant to honor. To this day, no legal rationale has been provided, and the painting is reportedly out of public view in a flood-prone basement,” Cruz said. 
In January 2023, the academy covered the painting with a sheet to avoid the perception that it was &#8220;endorsing&#8221; Christianity, following complaints about the painting.
&#8220;Our priority is to ensure the Academy is a welcoming environment for all and that it respects all religions without endorsing one over any others,&#8221; the academy said at the time. &#8220;In light of this, the Academy has chosen to cover the painting with curtains and will also install a plaque describing its history. The curtains will remain closed when official Academy meetings and events are conducted.&#8221;
Later, the academy decided to discontinue the use of the Elliot See Room for official business and moved the painting to a downstairs chapel area.
Cruz previously wrote to Academy Superintendent Joanna Nunan to argue that displaying the painting did not violate the Constitution, as Military Religious Freedom Foundation President Mikey Weinstein has argued. 
Weinstein has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKmyF-KUpTY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> to start “World War Eight” if the painting is moved back to its previous location, warning the Trump administration to “Eff around and find out.” Weinstein called Duffy a “piece of s***” and said the midshipmen who cheered Duffy were “cowards” who “made a mockery” of their oath to the Constitution.
Last week, Duffy <a href="https://x.com/SecDuffy/status/1919917774681317457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1919917774681317457%7Ctwgr%5E20725f8371ab5afe20016015fa273d316e88f5ea%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.faithwire.com%2F2025%2F05%2F08%2Fbring-jesus-up-sean-duffy-hangs-portrait-of-jesus-in-office-calls-for-original-to-be-rehung-after-being-sidelined-during-biden-admin%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">placed</a> a replica of the painting behind his desk at the Department of Transportation. 
“While we work on getting the piece out of the academy’s basement and back in a place of prominence, I figured there was no better place to hang a copy than right here @USDOT,” he wrote.

MixCollage-12-May-2025-10-35-AM-7052

Ted Cruz Backs Trump Official’s Attempt To ‘Bring Jesus Up From The Basement’ — Literally

Biden Administration

Sean Duffy

Ted Cruz

On Friday, the day after he was elected as the first pope from the United States, Pope Leo XIV told cardinals that he intended to correct the notion that Jesus Christ was simply a “charismatic leader or superman.”
As he celebrated his first Mass in the Sistine Chapel, Leo also opined that many people across the world consider the Christian faith “absurd,” the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-prevost-leo-cardinals-1c1752bacc935c02af5f839a05de9a39" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism,” he stated. “Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.”
Leo, who helped Pope Francis implement a change whereby women were added to the voting committee that decided which nominations for bishops should be sent to the pope, also saw that two women delivered the Scripture readings at the start of the Mass on Friday.
Leo is scheduled to deliver a noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s on Sunday and speak with the media on Monday, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
His first foreign trip could be at the end of the month as Pope Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, the Associated Press reported. That Council largely revolved around the debate over Arianism, the Christological position that Jesus was created by God. At the time, Arianism was popular in much of the Roman Empire. The Council, convened by the Roman emperor Constantine, declared Arianism as heresy.
“Arius’s basic premise was the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything else) and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot therefore be the self-existent and immutable God. Because the Godhead is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated. Because the Godhead is immutable, the Son, who is mutable, must, therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence out of nothing and has had a beginning,” Britannica <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arianism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explains</a>.

First Day Of Pope Leo XIV

New Pope Leo Celebrates First Mass: Jesus Was Not Just A ‘Charismatic Leader Or Superman’

Pope Leo

Superman

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