Parents Win Battle Over LGBT Propaganda

Good morning!

A win for parental rights—and a loss for lgbtq indoctrination: Maryland’s largest school district, after losing a case at the Supreme Court last June, just agreed to pay $1.5 million to families for refusing to let parents opt their kids out of “lgbt Story Time.” Schools across the country are facing similar bills.

[BRIEF]

It’s welcome news in a culture that routinely assaults and erodes parents’ rights. But it shows you how hard you have to fight in today’s world to protect your kids.

In Mahmoud v. Taylor, three religious families sued Montgomery County Public Schools after the district eliminated advance notice and opt-out options for classroom lessons and storybooks involving sexually deviant themes, even for children as young as age 4. The parents argued this violated their First Amendment rights to direct their children’s religious upbringing.

The school board called opt-outs “unworkable” and compared these parents to “white supremacists” and “xenophobes” in public meetings. The district fought aggressively, forcing full litigation through three levels of federal courts. Parents lost at both the federal district court and the 4th Circuit. It took tremendous courage and determination to stand up publicly against the district and take the case all the way to the nation’s highest court.

In the end, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 for the parents. Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion said that parents’ rights would be meaningless if they didn’t extend into public school classrooms. Amen to that.

The Montgomery County Board of Education just agreed to the settlement: $1.5 million to the plaintiff families and a permanent injunction requiring the district to give parents advance notice when lessons involve gender, sexuality or related topics, and to let parents opt their children out of that instruction.

Think about this: These families endured nearly three years of legal wrangling just to earn the right to opt out their kids from being force-fed perverse sexual propaganda. This is but one example of how aggressive the government is in pushing parents aside and asserting authority over children that God never gave it.

The reality is, families need to battle to opt out of all kinds of toxic influences in education, media, entertainment and elsewhere. Parents, if you’re not fighting, you’re losing your children.

I teach a class at Herbert W. Armstrong College called “Marriage and Family,” and we happen to be in the midst of a series of lectures about what parents need to teach their children. One crucial point, repeatedly emphasized in the Bible, is that parents—not the state, not the schools, not the media, not the churches—must be their children’s primary educators. The Bible teaches near-absolute parental authority (under God) and parental responsibility. Efforts by this world to undermine that truly are satanic and must be aggressively confronted. Even if it takes you to the Supreme Court.

Ukraine War Enters Year Five—No End in Sight

Four years ago today, war returned to Europe. In the early hours of Feb. 24, 2022, missiles streaked across the sky and artillery fire shattered the silence as Russian forces struck cities across Ukraine. Tens of thousands of troops poured over the borders in a sweeping, four-pronged advance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin believed this “special military operation” would be swift and decisive, a lightning strike that would seize Kyiv, collapse the Ukrainian command structure, topple its leadership, and force a political settlement before the world could react. He imagined it would happen much in the way that he had seized Crimea from Ukraine nine years earlier. It could all be over in as little as three days.

But Ukraine refused to follow the script.

Four years later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still in Kyiv. Ukrainian forces continue to contest every kilometer of the battlefield with relentless ferocity. And the will of the people has hardened like iron. What began as a lightning assault has slowed into a brutal war of endurance.

Many in the West insist the strain on Russia cannot last—that the nation will falter, its system fracture, and Putin himself will be swept aside. But biblical prophecy reveals something far different: He is only just getting started.

Germany Increases Speech Policing

Police in Heilbronn, Germany, are investigating a man for calling Chancellor Friedrich Merz “Pinocchio” on Facebook, local newspaper Heilbronner Stimme reported Friday. The police cited a clause added to Germany’s criminal code in 2021 that imposes up to five years in prison for those convicted of “insult, malicious gossip and defamation directed at persons in political life.”

• Last year, a retired man had his house raided by police for essentially calling Germany’s former finance minister a “moron.” Dozens of German citizens had police search their homes in predawn raids last February.

The German government continues to tighten its grip on online speech, with its largest party, the Christian Democratic Union, recently endorsing a ban on social media for children under 14.

• Banning social media for children may sound like a good idea, but critics warn that the much more consequential result will be to force all users to upload their identifications, removing any remaining anonymity that Internet users have.

No more hiding: A removal of anonymity is exactly what cdu leader Friedrich Merz wants. Last week, he stated, “I want real names on the Internet. I want to know who is speaking. Those who hide behind anonymity demand the greatest transparency from others.”

• Removing anonymity will help with some of the many problems that currently exist online, but drastically increasing government control over such a powerful tool will have its own major consequences.

If Germany is already raiding citizens’ homes for making critical statements about government officials, what will it do when it can track everyone and everywhere they go online? The counterbalance of public opinion will be largely removed. (Many Europeans are already fed up with democracy anyway.)

• What would an information-controlling, criticism-immune, unrestrained, 21st-century German government look like? We are about to find out.

Germany is growing more authoritarian. When a regime successfully outlaws, blocks and punishes free speech, it always uses that power to do dangerous things both inside and outside its borders. This has been true on every continent throughout every generation of human history.

And remember, Germany was an advanced, sophisticated, lauded nation the last time it began censoring free speech—in the 1930s.

Europe’s Push for Africa

As powers including Iran, Russia and China race for influence in Africa, several recent stories show how Europe is pushing back.

• Last Tuesday, France and Algeria agreed to resume security cooperation.
• On February 13, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Ethiopia for the second Italy-Africa Summit.
• In January, German companies launched five new partnerships with East African companies with the goal of boosting cooperation in multiple sectors.
• Also in January, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul made his first trip to Africa.

The region’s natural resources and proximity to the Mediterranean and Red seas make it a prime target for imperialistic powers.

• Wadephul, before visiting, noted that “sea routes off the coasts of East Africa are one of the main arteries of world trade. The region around the Horn of Africa is of particular strategic importance. My first trip as foreign minister on the African continent, therefore, takes me to Kenya and Ethiopia.” He said Kenya was Germany’s “closest partner in the region and a true pillar of stability.”

Because of Africa’s importance, Germany is concerned about rising tensions in Ethiopia. Wadephul stressed the need for a peaceful solution. Unchecked violence in the region could give an opposing power, such as Iran, an opportunity to assert influence.

Italy is also working to grow its influence in Africa. Since her election in 2022, Meloni has pushed her Mattei Plan, designed to increase Italian cooperation with Africa. Ethiopia is a launching pad for this plan.

• Meloni’s visit was one day before the 39th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government, also hosted in Ethiopia.
• In July, Italy and Ethiopia cohosted the second United Nations Food Systems Summit Stocktake in Addis Ababa.
• Meloni has repeatedly met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in recent months to pursue increased cooperation.

Ethiopia’s role in this push makes sense. The nation’s Christian government and large population make it a great candidate for outside players looking to combat Iran’s growing influence in the region.

Prophesied clash: The Bible prophesies of a coming military clash between Europe and Iran—and shows that Africa will be a major factor in this war. Based on this prophecy, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned we would soon see a scramble for African dominance from these two blocs.

Iran’s part in this scramble is well documented by its actions in Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere. But Europe will not merely spectate. To learn more, read Mr. Flurry’s 2013 article “Watch Algeria!”

IN OTHER NEWS

Slovakia halted its emergency power supply to Ukraine yesterday. This is the culmination of recent rising tensions between the two and exacerbates Russia’s weaponization of winter. Bible prophecy shows that Russia will soon become extremely powerful, so expect it to succeed in its attempts to regain control over several former Soviet states.

The Netherlands inaugurates homosexual prime minister: Yesterday, Dutch King Willem-Alexander swore in a new minority coalition government led by Rob Jetten, who is not only the youngest prime minister in the Netherlands’ centuries-long history but also the first to be openly homosexual. In 2000, the Netherlands became the first nation in the world to legalize same-sex “marriage,” and Jetten is “engaged” to another man. Our booklet Redefining Family explains in detail that sexual rebellion against the laws of the Bible is destructive not only to individuals and families but also to nations.

Peter Mandelson arrested: Former British Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday and two of his houses were searched on suspicion of misconduct in public office. His arrest follows newly released documents from the U.S. Department of Justice that suggest he supplied convicted criminal Jeffrey Epstein with sensitive government information, such as tax plans and planned bailouts. In September, after Mandelson’s ties with Epstein were initially exposed, Prime Minister Keir Starmer removed him as ambassador. But evidence of his Epstein relationship kept growing, and earlier this month, a Starmer spokesman called for his title of “lord” to be stripped in a likely effort to distance himself from Mandelson. The arrest, along with that of former Prince Andrew last week, highlights the decline of Britain’s rulers.

Moon launch delayed until April: nasa’s new moon mission will not be taking off next month as we reported yesterday. The Artemis 2 rocket wet dress rehearsal was completed on February 19-20, but the flow of helium that is used to pressurize the liquid hydrogen fuel and the liquid oxygen oxidizer was interrupted overnight on February 21. The launch date for this mission to orbit the moon, a chance for mankind to again look to the stars, will be delayed until at least April.