Back to the Moon!

Good morning!

Mankind is going back to the moon—hopefully today.

[BRIEF]

The countdown has started for the first manned mission toward the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Assuming the 80 percent chance for favorable weather holds, Artemis ii will launch this evening, sending four astronauts on a roughly 10-day journey.

• After reaching space on a rocket, the crew will perform a series of maneuvers in the Orion spacecraft, fly by the moon within 4,000 to 5,000 miles, and return to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific.
• This is a test mission that paves the way for Artemis iii, a crewed lunar landing, and eventual long-term presence on the moon.

This is a historic step—humanity returning to the space between Earth and the moon with new hardware after more than 50 years.

• Weather and technical status will be the final deciders today, but nasa teams gave the “go” for fueling this morning, and preparations are proceeding. Everything looks on track as of now. Exciting times!

This evening, about the same time Artemis launches, the first holy day on God’s sacred calendar will begin. The Days of Unleavened Bread memorialize ancient Israel’s release from bondage in Egypt and the start of their journey to the Promised Land.

God, Creator of mankind, has spectacular plans for human beings. He wants to free us from our bondage to sin just as He freed those Israelites, cleanse Earth entirely, then ultimately use this planet as a staging ground for mankind’s help in freeing the vast universe from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:21).

• Scripture shows that God created the universe to be inhabited! (e.g. Isaiah 45:18). After mankind, under God’s direction, makes “the desert [Earth] … blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1), we are destined to move on to the universe and make it too “blossom as the rose”! (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Artemis ii will be the fourth nasa mission to fly by the moon after Apollo 8, Apollo 10 and Apollo 13. The first men in human history to do so understood the gravity of what this meant. At lunar sunrise, they expressed it in their message “for all the people back on Earth.”

Projects like Artemis ii lift our gaze to the heavens, to our Creator, and to our incredible God-given human potential (Isaiah 40:26; 51:6). This is a subject worthy of study. Read our free booklet Our Awesome Universe Potential.

SCOTUS: ‘Conversion Therapy’ Is Protected Speech

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 8-1 that Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” for minors regulates speech and must face strict First Amendment scrutiny. The justices vacated a lower court’s decision upholding the law and sent the case back for reevaluation under that tougher standard.

• The Colorado law banned all counselors and therapists from any effort to “change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”
• Even counseling regarding “unlawful conduct or unsafe sexual practices” was forbidden from “seek[ing] to change sexual orientation or gender identity.”
• It specifically did not ban, as the Supreme Court noted, “[a]cceptance, support and understanding for the facilitation of an individual’s coping, social support and identity exploration and development,” or “assistance to a person undergoing gender transition.”

Counseling that seeks to help homosexual teenagers change their sexual desires has existed for years, but major psychological and medical organizations have attacked such practices. Colorado, 23 other states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws prohibiting such counselors from helping teenagers fight and change sexual perversions.

• These state laws generally apply only to counselors, psychiatrists and other regulated mental health providers. They do not currently restrict religious ministers, clergy or faith-based counselors from providing such guidance.
• Yet as the Supreme Court held, licensed counselors, psychiatrists and other regulated mental health providers still possess free-speech rights under the First Amendment.

This specific holding means state laws may not bar these professionals from offering talk therapy to help teenagers address unwanted same-sex attractions.

This Supreme Court ruling is a victory for free speech in America after years of drastic defeats. It is also a victory for the thousands of Americans who experience an unwanted same-sex attraction they want help with.

“Before the plague of homosexuality, there is the spirit of fornication, which tears marriages and families apart!” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in our September 2017 issue:

Many don’t even learn the concept of marriage and family. We would not have the homosexual problem if we were building God-plane families. Upside-down families are the primary cause of homosexuality.

It is no coincidence that same-sex attraction is rising in America even as the nation’s family structure is destroyed. Yet there is hope for people engaged in sexual perversions who want to repent and experience the full, wholesome life their Creator designed them to have.

Every last American—young, old, counselor, counselee, atheist, Christian and otherwise—urgently needs to learn and live the way they were created to live, revealed in the Bible, and in terms of marriage, sex and family, explained in The Missing Dimension in Sex, by Herbert W. Armstrong.

Has the EU Nailed NATO’s Coffin Shut?

United States President Donald Trump is seriously considering pulling out of nato, he told the Telegraph in a story published this morning.

• “I was never swayed by nato,” he said. “I always knew they were a paper tiger. And Putin knows that too, by the way.” When asked if he would rethink America’s participation in nato, he responded: “I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration.”
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a similar statement last night on Fox News: “I do think, unfortunately, we are going to have to reexamine whether or not this alliance that has served this country well for a while is still serving that purpose.”

This comes after America’s nato allies not only refused to help fight Iran, but also may have coordinated closing their bases to American warplanes. Josué Michels outlined the way many European countries closed their bases and airspace to American forces yesterday.

• “The trans-Atlantic alliance has already been called into question by Trump’s own actions,” EuroIntelligence stated this morning. “But it will not recover from Europe’s coordinated refusal to help the U.S. in this war.”

Donald Trump lacks the power to unilaterally withdraw from nato. Congress would have to approve such a drastic decision, and it is unlikely to do so.

• But the president can effectively cripple it, perhaps by stating that he will not honor America’s nato commitment to defend other member states if they are attacked, refuse to share intelligence with nato allies, or stop deliveries of advanced weapons.

EuroIntelligence writes that the EU cannot stand on its own apart from American nato support, “without a political and fiscal union.” They’re right: It would take the EU coming together as a superstate to wean itself off economic and military reliance on America.

“Germany also wants to eliminate nato,” Mr. Flurry wrote in 2018. In 2022, he wrote “Why Germany Just Betrayed America”:

Many elite Germans feel their nation has now gotten all it can from the U.S. and they are ready to move on. Some powerful Germans today are thinking more and more about the Holy Roman Empire, and they want modern Germany to assume more power of its own in the spirit of that empire.

Donald Trump has questioned and undermined nato. But this time it is European leaders prompting the crisis. They could have refused to send forces into the Iran war while still allowing America to use their shared bases and airspace.

• By taking such an extreme stance against the U.S. fight against a terroristic, energy-threatening, nuclear-ambitious, ideologically fanatic enemy, the Europeans, rather than Donald Trump, are the ones who have driven the final nail in nato’s coffin.

Clearly, some powerful people in Europe want out. Mr. Flurry wrote:

Jeremiah 1:13 records God showing the prophet a vision of “a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.” This symbolic language is describing modern Germany. Beneath the surface, that nation is full of simmering dissatisfaction with the current world order. Germans are angry at the U.S., and especially furious with President Trump. The imperialistic ambition that prompted Germany to start both world wars is alive and well. It is “seething”!

That anger explains Europe’s reaction to the Iran war.

IN OTHER NEWS

Europe almost unanimous regarding Russian atrocities: All European Union nations, minus Hungary, published a joint statement yesterday calling for a Russian war crimes tribunal. The statement was issued while European representatives were in Ukraine to commemorate the four-year anniversary of the Bucha massacre and reaffirm their “commitment to ensuring full accountability for war crimes.” The European Council agreed to set up the tribunal last summer. For 26 out of 27 EU member states to agree on such a serious issue is rare, and along with the ongoing war and rapid rearmament across the Continent, it shows that Europe fears Russia.

Rheinmetall to make Australian drone available to Germany: Yesterday, Rheinmetall and Boeing Australia announced a partnership for making the MQ-28 Ghost Bat available to the German military. The drone was developed for the Australian military and is designed to supplement and protect manned warplanes. This is the latest among many examples of Rheinmetall providing Germany with the weaponry necessary to become a superpower.

Report: IRGC hiding behind civilian sites: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has moved into at least 70 civilian sites during Israeli and American air strikes, Iran International reported on Monday. Sites included mosques, hospitals and 34 primary schools. If true, these widespread uses of human shields constitute war crimes and show that the regime is desperate but also willing to resort to ruthless measures. The Trumpet continues to assert that the radical Islamist regime will survive the current war.

Iran threatens American tech companies: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps added still more civilians to its list of targets yesterday, saying it will use its military-grade missiles and drones against Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other U.S. tech companies in the region if the U.S. and Israel do not stop killing top Iranian commanders and other leaders. “These companies must expect the destruction of their branches starting Wednesday, April 1, at 8 p.m. local time Tehran in retaliation for any murder in Iran. … We recommend that employees of these companies leave their jobs immediately to save their lives.” Iran has already conducted deadly strikes on civilian cargo vessels, refineries, desalination plants, airports, hotels, apartments and other nonmilitary targets. These moves foreshadow Iran’s foreign-policy “push” described in Daniel 11.

Vance publishing book on Catholic conversion: U.S. Vice President JD Vance announced the publishing of his new book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, yesterday. The book, to be published in June, follows a cultural shift in favor of not just conservatism or Christianity generally but Roman Catholicism specifically: increased emphasis of Catholic positions from many leading American conservative politicians and commentators, the Vatican’s installation of the first American pope, increased engagement on college campuses, and record numbers of people in many churches preparing to convert on the upcoming Easter holiday. The surging effect of Roman Catholicism on the leaders of a nation that has been predominantly Protestant for 250 years should be monitored closely.