By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor GREENVILLE, N.C. (LBM) -- During a July 17 campaign rally in Greeville, North Carolina, President Trump cursed twice, invoking God’s name both times, while speaking to supporters in Minges Coliseum on the campus of East Carolina University. Afterward, most mainstream media outlets took issue with a “send her back” chant by the crowd, directed at U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), after Trump criticized anti-Semitic comments she has made and other statements in which she minimized the 911 terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists. However, at least a few attentive viewers took issue with the president’s use of foul language that demeaned God. Trump used the offensive phrase, first, while telling an anecdote about a businessman who reluctantly conceded he was prospering because of the president’s economic policies, and a second time while describing the outcome of a hypothetical military strike against Iran. Criticism lit up social media, but died down just as quickly. But a West Virginia lawmaker took the matter to heart and wrote a formal letter to respectfully express being appalled that the president “chose to use the Lord’s name in vain.” Paul Hardesty, a state senator, is … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor BERKLEY, Calif. (LBM) – In the 1960s, Berkley, California, was known as the epicenter of the countercultural revolution. In 2019, the city has become the center of a movement to ban gender-specific language, including the word “manhole” which must now be referred to as a “maintenance hole” because of an ordinance passed July 23. The move will replace all gendered language from the municipal code, according to the measure’s sponsor Rigel Robinson, a 23-year- old councilman and recent graduate of U.C. Berkley, in an effort to avoid bias against non-binary persons (those who do not identify as either male or female). City manager Dee Williams-Ridley concurred with the measure, explaining in a memorandum to the council that the “broadening societal awareness of transgender and gender-nonconforming identities has brought to light the importance of non-binary, gender inclusivity.” “Firemen” will be referred to instead as “firefighters,” and, “policemen” will be addressed as “police officers.” References to women will be abolished as well: “Pregnant woman” will become “pregnant employee.” Likewise, all pronouns which identify the sex of a person will be changed: “He” and “she” will … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor WASHINGTON (LBM) – U.S. Rep. Al Green (D- Houston) lost in his July 16 attempt to impeach President Trump by a vote of 332-95 to table the issue. It was Green’s third such attempt. He previously introduced articles of impeachment in December 2017, when Republicans controlled the House, and again in March of this year with House Democrats in control. Both times he was soundly defeated. On Wednesday, 137 Democrats voted to kill Green’s resolution and 95 supported it. He is listed as the lone Southern Baptist Democrat serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, previously reported Green is a member of Cullen Missionary Baptist Church in Houston. Green’s complaints against the president cited Trump’s tweets (which were condemned as “racist” in a separate House resolution vote largely along political party lines) against four congresswomen, and accused the president of bringing “the high office of the president of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute” causing “discord among the people of the United States.” His two other attempts accused the president of causing racial … [Read more...]