If you’re going to claim that God supports transgender ideology, you might want to think twice before rejecting his preferred pronoun. The latest star of the “Religious Left” has claimed not only that Christianity is compatible with the idea that men can become women and vice versa, but that God himself is “nonbinary.” Back in 2021, then-Texas state legislator James Talarico condemned HB25, a law preventing boys and men from competing in girls’ sports. “The first two lines of the Bible, the first two lines in Genesis, use two different Hebrew words to describe God: one is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity; the second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit,” Talarico, who won the Democrat primary for Texas’ U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, stated that year. “God is both masculine and feminine, and everything in between. God is nonbinary.” He noted that when God decides to make human beings, he uses the plural, saying, “let us make man in our image.” “That’s the infinite multitude of God, the masculine, the feminine, and everything in between,” Talarico said. “Trans children are God’s children, made in God’s own image. There’s nothing wrong with them, nothing at all. They are perfect, they are beautiful, and they are sacred.” He goes on to say that “bullying children is immoral, it’s a sin.” God Is Not ‘Nonbinary’ A “nonbinary” gender identity is neither male nor female, but rather a rejection of the notion that humans are male or female. In other words, it’s a direct rejection of the clear biblical teaching that human beings are male and female. As with so many attempts to shoehorn history into the categories of transgender ideology, Talarico’s argument here is embarrassingly thin. The Hebrew Old Testament contains approximately 23,000 verses with more than 300,000 words, and it refers to God around 7,000 times. Talarico chose one instance where Moses uses a feminine word form—which has nothing to do with the modern concept of “gender identity”—to refer to God the Holy Spirit. Notably, the Bible never uses feminine pronouns to refer to the Holy Spirit, though Jesus uses masculine pronouns to refer to him in John 14-16. The Hebrew Old Testament uses the feminine word “ruach” to refer to the Spirit, while the Greek New Testament uses the neuter “pneuma.” The Bible has no masculine alternative word for the concept of “spirit,” “wind,” or “breath,” so the use of these words does not imply the Holy Spirit is female. The Bible also consistently uses male pronouns to refer to God the Father and to Jesus, God the Son. Orthodox Christianity, as defined by the Nicene Creed, views God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as three persons of the Trinity—one God in three persons. God is invisible and outside of creation, so he is not bound to the confines of our understanding of sex. That said, when God the Son became a human being, he became male, and spoke of God the Father as his father, not his mother. As Talarico noted, God used the plural when he said “let us make man in our image,” and he made them male and female. While the Bible exclusively uses male pronouns for God, women are also made in his image and share equal dignity with men. When it comes to using pronouns, however, it’s safe to say that God’s preferred pronouns are masculine, and it dishonors him to suggest he’d “identify” somewhere else on the gender spectrum. Trans Children Are ‘Perfect’ I sympathize with Talarico’s desire to protect the vulnerable, but he couldn’t be more wrong about who’s bullying children when it comes to transgender ideology. I can think of no worse way to bully a little boy than to tell him he is really a little girl, to encourage him to take experimental drugs to stunt his growth and make him appear feminine, and then to suggest that the sane people in his life who still call him a little boy are evil bullies. If a child is “perfect,” the last thing you should be doing to that child is convincing him or her to pretend to be something he or she is not. As a matter of theology, all human beings are not “God’s children.” While we are made in God’s image, we are sinners by our nature. Only the mercy of Jesus Christ allows us to become adopted children of God by accepting the gospel (John 1). Declaring God nonbinary and suggesting that people don’t need to accept the gospel to become “children of God” merely represent two examples of Talarico twisting scripture to push a leftist agenda. Talarico has twisted Galatians 3 to suggest Paul was referring to transgender identity in the First Century. He has falsely claimed that “the Bible doesn’t mention abortion at all.” (In fact, it arguably forbids the use of abortion drugs.) He has claimed that Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam are “circling the same truth” as Christianity. Make no mistake: Talarico is twisting Bible passages to suggest God approves of things that scripture actually warns against. Christians should see through the charade. The post Democrat Who Claims the Bible Supports Transgenderism Won’t Even Honor God’s Preferred Pronouns appeared first on The Daily Signal.

With two major victories in a single week, Indiana conservatives are proving that the heartland is setting the pace for 2026. In a sweeping session dominated by conservative priorities, the Republican-controlled Indiana legislature has passed legislation, strongly backed by Heritage Action, aimed at reshaping education policy, elections, and civic instruction. These bills include a ban on ranked-choice voting and the promotion of education measures. Republican Gov. Mike Braun has already signed the election law, Senate Bill 12, and lawmakers are now poised to deliver Senate Bill 88, containing education policies, to his desk for final approval.  ‘Success Sequence’ One of the session’s most closely watched education proposals, Senate Bill 88 cleared both chambers of the General Assembly after weeks of debate. The bill’s key provisions include mandating that state universities accept the Classic Learning Test and enforcing the success sequence in K-12 schools. The success sequence involves finishing high school, securing full-time employment, and waiting until marriage to have children, a combination that has proven to help reduce poverty.  The bill will require public schools to incorporate success sequence instruction into their curriculum—a set of concepts which closely align with the goals of The Heritage Foundation. In a recent Daily Signal interview, Paul Lagemann, Heritage Action’s state advocacy manager, praised lawmakers for taking action. “You graduate high school; you go on to either a career, into the military, for a certificate or into college. Then you get married and then you have kids, in that order,” Lagemann said of the sequence. He explained, “Nobody’s telling this commonsense stuff to these kids. There is that cultural repetition, and that generational repetition, that inadvertently green-lights kids to have kids before they graduate from high school or to have them focusing on what may not be a proven direction for their life. I think it’s really important for kids to hear the principles of the success sequence.” Classic Learning Test The second element of the bill mandates public colleges and universities to accept the Classic Learning Test as an option for college admissions, alongside existing standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT. Supporters say the Classic Learning Test better reflects Western and classical thought traditions and provides an alternative pathway for students from classical and religious schooling backgrounds.  “And what this does,” Lagemann explained, “is it requires that the state university system accept the CLT as if it were the ACT or the SAT.” The ACT and SAT have lobbyists in every state and typically have the support of university systems. “When we go head-to-head with this very well-funded system, it’s a fight,” Lagemann said. “Fortunately, as we stepped in and got involved with this issue, along with some other coalition members, the fact that we were able to be there to testify and engage with both the House and the Senate was a game changer.”  Ranked-Choice Voting Ban The education bill is the second recent win for conservatives in Indiana. Last month, the legislature passed an election reform bill that prohibits the use of ranked-choice voting in all elections statewide. The bill passed on a 34-14 vote, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed. Braun signed that measure into law, which will take effect later this year as part of a broader Republican effort to solidify Indiana’s traditional election framework. The law bars any election from being “determined by ranked-choice voting” or candidates from being nominated through such a system.  Broader Conservative Agenda The passage of SB 88 and SB 12 caps a legislative session marked by conservative lawmaking on issues ranging from classroom policies to state election procedures. As the legislature adjourns, attention now turns to the governor’s office, where Braun’s final decisions on pending bills will shape Indiana’s policies heading into the 2026 election cycle. Indiana becomes the third state to implement the success sequence, and the Classic Learning Test is becoming more widely accepted in a variety of schools.  Lagemann said the recent success in Indiana demonstrates Heritage Action’s advocacy work, which the organization is planning to bring to other target states in the future. The post Indiana Conservatives Rack Up Major Wins appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. We had the State of the Union, as we all know, on Tuesday. I think all of us were a little apprehensive when we were told it would be the longest State of the Union. I happen to have watched Bill Clinton’s 2000 State of the Union address. I think it was an hour and 28 minutes. Trump was, depending where you start the actual measurement of the speech, I think it was about an hour and 48, 50 minutes. Twenty to 25 minutes longer. Bill Clinton’s was considered kind of a disaster. It was too long, and it was just what the Emperor Augustus called res gestae. Just a recap of all the good things he’s done. So when I heard that, I was a little upset, but when you looked at the actual speech, he got what he had to cover, the bullet points on the economy. And there are many. I mean, inflation the last three months is way below 2%. And he inherited, remember, a five point, I think it’s a 5.4 average inflation rate under Biden. It was 21 aggregate inflation over four years divided by four, and GDP was very strong. It was much stronger than people had anticipated. Job growth is not only strong, but it’s U.S. citizens for the vast majority of the new jobs that are created. Interest rates are down. All of that … gasoline, as he pointed out. In a place in Iowa, it’s under $2. It doesn’t apply to here to us in California. We’re going to be seeing six, seven, and eight this summer because we drove out two large refineries that will be leaving California. Nevertheless, he got what he needed to say at the very beginning, and then it wasn’t really a State of the Union address. It was more of a variety show. It was an interview when he brought all of these tragic cases of these people. And they all had one thing in common: whether it was the family that was impacted by the illegal alien truck driver, or it was to show how so many people had been patriotic, or the sudden entry of the hockey team, or the tragic killing of the Ukrainian immigrant on a train. It was all to show you two things: that we’re a wonderful patriotic country, and the policies of the Democratic opposition had caused, in some cases, these tragedies. And then the Democrats thought they were going to be very, very cute by boycotting. I don’t know. They said 73 or 74, but maybe only 60 actually boycotted. They wouldn’t stand for any applause, no matter what the topic was, or no matter whether they agreed with it, and they were going to have alternate realities in reply to Donald Trump’s speech. And they were all a disaster, to be quite frank. Gov. [Abigail] Spanberger of Virginia, she’s added all these taxes. She’s taxing anything that moves or breathes, and she’s talking about her affordability record. I think it was mostly about her. She thinks, I think, that [Gavin] Newsom, [Kamala] Harris, [Pete] Buttigieg, they’re not viable candidates, and somebody like herself, a dark horse, might emerge in 2028. I don’t think she is. It wasn’t a very inspiring speech. Alex Padilla, his reply was incoherent. It was basically that ICE has no business enforcing the law. I don’t know Spanish all that well, but when I can understand a lot of what he was saying, then he must not be speaking the Spanish that most people do, because I could understand a lot of it, and it seemed incoherent to me. Then there was at the National Press Corp some weird alternate venue where people dressed up in costumes, and they were screaming and yelling and frogs and giraffes, and … Joy Reid. It didn’t make any sense at all. And then, the final thing is they didn’t understand Donald Trump. The longest speech in history would mean what? That they were going to come on Eastern time at 11 o’clock or even 11:30 by the time they got going? So nobody really heard what they were doing. And when they did have a chance to see and hear them during the actual address, they wouldn’t even stand up for the poor girl who was maimed and tragically disabled by the illegal alien truck driver. They wouldn’t stand up for the Ukrainian mom who was there, who was lamenting the horrific murder of her child. They wouldn’t stand up for anything. Nancy Pelosi, when they talked about outlawing stock, insider stock trading, she looked like she was mummified. It just wasn’t a good look for any of them. And the polls reflected that. More people thought it was good, very good or moderately good than bad. About two-thirds of the people liked it. Even some of Trump’s favorability ratings, the Trafalgar poll had him coming up over 50%. So what shouldn’t have worked at that length worked actually quite brilliantly. And there’s something about the Democratic Party, whether it’s Al Green with a sign that he had and disrupting the speech or Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib that are screaming “KKK” and “liar.” We used to think that when anybody disrupted a State of the Union, it was terrible. And the last time we really saw a disruption was Al Green tried to break the cadence of Trump. Then, of course, we had Nancy Pelosi in the first term, who tore up the State of the Union address on national TV. Nobody quite ever would ever do that again. So my point is that the Democrats really look like they are. It’s not that they look bad, it’s just that when you look at their field, Gavin Newsom, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], Pete Buttigieg, there’s no one there. There’s no there there. And so, Trump really did pull off something that no one anticipated, that he was going to speak for nearly two hours. And yet, it was a lively variety show with points of triumphalism and happiness and abject sadness. But, to finish, the Democrats thought they were so smug, but they had no idea what was coming. When he asked everybody to stand if they thought that they would prioritize American citizens over illegal aliens, they thought, “I’m not going to give this person the benefit of ever agreeing with it.” True, they didn’t. But to the American people, the 50 or 60 million who watched, it wasn’t about Trump. It was just to reiterate that the policies under Biden were something that they didn’t approve of anymore because they were very unpopular. And what did they do? They sat down. They wouldn’t even rise. They couldn’t even make that statement that their priorities are American citizens, and that just channels into what we’re going to see in 2026 in November, this next midterm. There were so many soundbites. There were so many great opportunities in that speech for ads, campaign ads, and you’re going to see a lot of them in November. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Victor Davis Hanson: Trump Laid Out America’s Comeback While Democrats Sat Silent appeared first on The Daily Signal.

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters)—Spain has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump threatened to cut trade with Madrid over its stance against the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. “I think they heard the president’s message yesterday loud and clear. It is my understanding over the past several hours they’ve agreed to cooperate with the US military,” Leavitt told a news briefing. Trump floated imposing a trade embargo on Madrid over its refusal to allow U.S. aircraft to use jointly operated naval and air bases in southern Spain for the offensive against Tehran. Spain has denounced the U.S. and Israeli bombings of Iran as reckless and illegal. Spain “will not be vassals” to another country, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero said on Wednesday. In a televised address earlier, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reiterated Spain’s anti-war stance, warning that the conflict risked triggering a major global disaster. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Humeyra Pamuk;Editing by David Ljunggren) The post White House: Spain Has Agreed to Cooperate With US Military appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz previously said a court required the state to continue paying one of the charities at the center of a massive fraud scandal. But the state court denies making such an order. Asked on Capitol Hill Wednesday who is lying, Walz said, “I can’t tell you.” He blamed it on a misinterpretation by lawyers. Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison testified Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the fraud scandal in the state. The Justice Department, which has indicted almost 100 people for fraud schemes in Minnesota, has estimated the scale of fraud to have potentially exceeded $9 billion since 2018.  About $250 million reportedly went to the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, primarily during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal law enforcement alleges the money did not go to feed hungry children but instead funded lavish lifestyles.  In 2021, the state’s Education Department stopped, then restarted payments to Feeding Our Future.  The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the court found the state’s Education Department “didn’t have the authority to stop payments and ordered the department to resume payments.” Walz later made that claim as well. However, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, noted the state court took the unusual step of issuing a news release to fact-check the governor and the media. In its September 2022 news release, the court had said it never ordered the education department to resume food reimbursement payments to Feeding Our Future, and that the agency “voluntarily resumed payments.” Jordan read from the release, stating, “On September 22, 2022, Governor Tim Walz told the media that the Minnesota Department of Education attempted to end payments to FOF [Feeding Our Future] because of fraud, but that Judge Guthmann ordered payments to continue in April 2021. That is also false.’”  The release was referring to Ramsey County Senior Judge John H. Guthmann. Walz said in response, “The attorneys for the Department of Education interpreted that differently.” Jordan argued there was little ambiguity in the release to misinterpret.  “This is not some anonymous source talking to the New York Times,” Jordan said, adding, “This is the court speaking.” “That’s pretty straightforward,” Jordan said. “So, the court is lying or you’re lying?” “I can’t tell you, congressman,” Walz said. “I just simply know what the attorneys at the department believe, which is that it was a misinterpretation.” Jordan asked, “Could it be you were trying to hide behind the court, governor, and that’s why the court did something they’ve never done before and issued a press statement?”  “You know how courts work congressman,” Walz said. “You can appeal those decisions.” The post Jim Jordan Stumps Tim Walz With a Simple Question: ‘Court Is Lying or You’re Lying?’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.