The Department of Health and Human Services will hand out over $20 million in “diversity” grants this year aimed at increasing the number of minority nurses, even as the Trump administration has sought to crack down on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The purpose of the initiative, known as the Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWP) Program, is to “increase nursing education opportunities for individuals who are from disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial and ethnic minorities underrepresented among registered nurses).” It is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of HHS, and has distributed nearly $200 million in grants since 2008. Applications for the 2025 iteration closed last month, and the Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that it will shell out over $22 million on the program in July when the funds are set to be awarded. The program’s Notice of Funding lays out the purposes of the program, which include increasing racial minorities enrolled in nursing programs and increasing the number of minorities who receive “support” to stay in nursing programs. The notice refers to a glossary from the Bureau of Health Workforce to define “underrepresented” racial and ethnic minorities. This definition excludes both whites and Asians, and only includes American Indians or Alaska Natives, black or African Americans, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, 76% of the 2,033 students who were trained under the program from the 2022-2024 school year “identified” as an underrepresented minority, meaning that they were neither white nor Asian. Do No Harm, an organization that seeks to rid the medical field of politics, told The Daily Wire that the program incentivizes nursing schools to engage in racial discrimination and is based on faulty medical assumptions. “The nursing workforce diversity program, unfortunately, is really looking at people based on immutable characteristics,” Do No Harm’s Medical Director, Dr. Kurt Miceli, told The Daily Wire. “I think that when you have grants that incentivize a discriminatory program to look at things other than merit, you create a system that’s not only discriminatory, but also promotes a lower level of care that’s provided, a lower quality of care.” Miceli said he was encouraged by many of the steps already taken by the Trump administration to crack down on DEI, and asked them to end the nursing program. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to eliminate DEI from the government and calling for “equity” related grants to be eliminated. Notice of Funding HRSA. The justification for such programs includes the questionable claim that minorities have better health outcomes when they are treated by minority health workers. “The American Nurses Association (ANA) reported that a lack of diversity in healthcare significantly increases health disparities and contributes to poorer health outcomes and high mortality at disproportionate rates among socially and economically marginalized groups,” the notice of funding says. “Patients are more likely to adhere to health recommendations and have better outcomes when providers are culturally competent or have shared cultural characteristics.” But Do No Harm says that “the weight of the evidence indicates that diversity has no bearing on health outcomes,” pointing to analysis conducted by the organization that found that four out of five existing systemic reviews of racial concordance in medicine showed no improvement in health outcomes. “The point really is that we as a society, when we’re on the gurney, when we’re in the ER, when were in the outpatient office, we want the very best in the provider, and no matter who that is, no matter their race, color is,” Miceli said. “We want the very best provider taking care of us, and that’s absolutely essential for medicine.” Applicants are required to present “evidenced-based strategies used to recruit and retain students from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds” and “include the implementation of holistic admissions, provision of scholarships and stipends to address socioeconomic barriers, and peer and mentor support to provide wraparound services to assist in student success.” They also must submit “a plan for implementing an actionable framework that targets learning disparities and expands opportunities to support students from disadvantaged Backgrounds.” According to Do No Harm, so-called holistic admissions means downplaying objective standards of qualifications. “Holistic admissions refers to the practice of deemphasizing objective metrics used to determine an applicant’s merit, such as GPA and MCAT scores, and placing greater focus on other academic qualifications, personality traits, or professional accolades,” Do No Harm wrote in its report. “As one might imagine, in practice this often ends up being a roundabout way of still employing race-conscious admissions despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that such strategies are unconstitutional.” Funding for the program has ramped up in recent years. In 2014, funding hovered just below $14 million. But from 2022-2024, total funding for the Nursing Workforce Diversity program has been over $20 million every year. HRSA funding for the Nursing Workforce Diversity Program. Recipients of Nursing Workforce Diversity grants for 2024 include Frontier Nursing University, the University of Cincinnati, Marquette University, Western Carolina University, Saint Louis University, the University of Arizona, and many others. Frontier Nursing University in Kentucky, which received $555,000 for 2024, openly boasts about its DEI accomplishments, noting that it seeks to increase the number of Hispanic nurse-midwives and that 30% of its student body are “students of color.” Screenshot: Frontier Nursing University. The university notes that it has several race-focused scholarship opportunities, including the Lin Bolle Scholarship, for students “whose race or ethnicity has been historically underrepresented.” The university also boasts the Noel Smith Fernandez Scholarship and the Dr. Torica Fuller Excellence in Diversity Scholarship, both of which are for “students of color.” Other recipients of Health Resources and Services Administration dollars have similar racially-based programs. For example, the University of Cincinnati received $491,943 for 2024. The university offers the CURE program, which gives students up to $12,000 per year and extra tutoring help, and appears to exclude both whites and Asians from eligibility. A now-deleted page from the website detailed that the university held a “Black Student Nurses Day.” The Health Resources and Services Administration also funds racially-focused scholarship opportunities at the University of Memphis’ Loewenberg College of Nursing, including the RNs Lead scholarship and the STRONG RNs program. Do No Harm report. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing, which helps set education standards for nursing, is intimately connected with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s diversity program, and helps facilitate the application process for nursing schools to get grants. “Since 2016, AACN has provided technical assistance program to nursing schools receiving funding through the Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) program offered by the Health Resources and Services Administration,” the group notes on its website. “AACN’s assistance includes an assessment of admissions practices, an on-site Holistic Admissions Review workshop, student recruitment and retention strategies, and models for building a successful mentoring program.” In January, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing released a press release noting it could offer “expert consulting” for nursing schools interested in applying for Health Resources and Services Administration grants. Do No Harm told The Daily Wire that the Department of Health and Human Services must end the Nursing Workforce Diversity program “immediately.” The program “is a clear example of the federal government using its vast funding capabilities to encourage and incentivize racial discrimination,” Do No Harm wrote in its report. “The nursing workforce is best served when nursing education programs select the best and the brightest, when excellence and merit are prioritized rather than race.”

When you walk down Main Street in Chelsea, Michigan, you may feel as though you’ve been transported back in time to a simpler era. It is the quintessential picture of a small town in the USA. The citizens have that small-town attitude. When it was time for Serendipity Books to relocate, 300 people showed up to move the bookstore around the corner and up the street. @serendipitybooktok POV: your community shows up 300 strong to help move your ENTIRE BOOKSTORE around the corner to your new location. Today was so beautiful thank you Chelsea!!! #fyp #bookbrigade #michiganbookstore #indiebookstore #booktok #shoplocal #community #serendipitybooks ♬ original sound – Serendipity Books The bookstore added an event to its calendar for April 13, 2025, at 1:00 PM and extended invitations to everyone. The bookstore didn’t move far, but without help, it would have been a tedious task. Folks showed up and lined the sidewalk in two human chains. They passed books from hand to hand along the line. This allowed bookstore personnel to place the books directly onto the shelves, ready for display and sale. Image from Google Maps. The Book Brigade was a roaring success. The crowd of book lovers successfully moved 9,100 books and numerous boxes in under two hours. After completing the move, participants got a sneak peek inside the new bookstore. Cookies and lemonade were available, and everyone was smiling. The bookstore will host an evening event on April 24, 2025. The official opening is on April 26, coinciding with Independent Bookstore Day. Image from TikTok. Chelsea is a quaint, small town with a population of under 6,000 people. Notable for being the home of Jiffy Mix and actor Jeff Daniels, this small city is also the “gateway to the Waterloo Recreation Area,” the largest park in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The area features 17 interconnected lakes, hiking trails, and family-friendly activities. The entire area is vacation-ready, with multiple camping spots in state parks, as well as Airbnb options. Please share. You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Community Strong: Over 300 People Show Up To Help Book Store Owner Move appeared first on InspireMore.

On a crisp Virginia morning in September 1831, Joseph W. Parker sat across from Nicholas Sterling Edmunds, the owner of the nearly 2,000-acre Homewood plantation. Parker had spent the past two years as a schoolteacher for Edmunds’s children while simultaneously ministering to and evangelizing Edmunds’s slaves. He had seen remarkable spiritual fruit—both within Edmunds’s family and among the enslaved people. The faith of one of these newly converted slaves shone so brightly that his owner was forced to admit, “If my hope of heaven were half as bright as my confidence that John is fit for it, I should be a much happier man than I am.” Now everything was about to change. A month earlier, Nat Turner’s rebellion had erupted in Southampton County, barely a hundred miles away. The brutal uprising sent shockwaves through Virginia’s white planter class, stoking fears of insurrection and revenge. In response, state legislators passed new draconian laws to suppress education and religious instruction among the enslaved population. As these anxieties gripped Homewood, Edmunds quietly but firmly informed Parker across the breakfast table that morning, “You must stop religiously instructing my slaves.” Parker was taken aback. “Do you believe that John is a true Christian?” he pressed. “Is he a worse slave than before?” “He is entirely faithful,” Edmunds admitted. “But he feels himself . . .” Edmunds paused, searching for the right words. “He feels himself a man accountable to God. When Isaac was buried the other day,” Edmunds continued, gaining momentum as he spoke, “I heard John exhorting his fellow servants to prepare to meet their God. You see, John understands that what God requires of a man and what a master requires of a slave are two very different things. So you must stop instructing my slaves.” Undeterred, Parker continued to press Edmunds. “Do you believe that Jesus Christ has given us a system of religion which has bidden us to preach to every creature which is dangerous for all to be instructed in?” “We can’t philosophize on that subject,” snapped Edmunds, “but suppose you go down to the slave quarter tonight and read that part of the sermon on the mount which says, ‘Therefore, whatsoever ye would have men do to you, do ye even so to them,’ and you explain it and talk to them of all the excellence of this precept, and so on. Have I a single man on the plantation so dull that he will not stop and say, ‘If you please, sir, does Master Nicholas treat us as he would have us treat him?’ You must answer them. Now if you say ‘Yes,’ they know you lie and you can do them no good. But if you say, ‘No,’ you damage my character among them. I tell you sir, we can do nothing toward giving Christian light and instruction. We are bound to keep them as dark as possible. You must desist from teaching them at all.” At this, Parker’s heart stirred. “Can you stand the full blaze of the light of salvation through Jesus Christ and rejoice for yourself and your family, while you shut it entirely from those absolutely dependent on you?” he asked Edmunds, his voice thick with emotion. Edmunds turned pale. “For God’s sake, Mr. Parker,” he whispered, “don’t name the day of judgment in connection with slavery. But you must desist from teaching my slaves.” That night, Parker wrestled with what he had seen and heard. He could no longer ignore the obvious truth. “Slavery seemed to me,” he later wrote, “an outrage upon the rights of man.” Not long after that fateful exchange with Edmunds, Parker was abruptly informed that he must immediately leave the Homewood plantation and return to New England. Without a chance to say goodbye to the slaves and children he had grown to love, he packed his bags and headed north, grieving but determined to do what was within his power to oppose the system of race-based slavery. Parker’s Transformation I first read this exchange—recounted here nearly verbatim—in an unpublished memoir of Joseph Parker collecting dust in the University of Virginia Library’s special collections while I was writing a history of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, which would eventually call Parker as its first pastor. What emerged was a previously unknown portrait of Parker’s journey from fairly moderate views (slavery was an unfortunate but necessary institution) to a more biblical conviction that race-based slavery was evil and opposed to Scripture. Parker moved from fairly moderate views to a more biblical conviction that race-based slavery was evil and opposed to Scripture. Returning north with his heart increasingly drawn to ministry, Parker enrolled at Newton Theological Institution. Every Saturday, he walked eight miles to Boston to teach a Sunday school for African Americans, going door-to-door to minister among their families. Parker later reflected on the effect of these visits: “My views on race gradually changed. I saw that it was wrong to hold them in bondage, to regard and treat them as chattels, or to buy and sell them as brute beasts. I found myself, most unexpectedly, an antislavery man.” In May 1837, Parker served as a delegate for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. “For several years, my mind had been settled on the conclusion that we were within the marginal whirl of the maelstrom of a fearful revolution brought on by slavery,” he later wrote. “I knew slavery or the nation must perish, and the struggle for the life of either would be terrible. I saw this as clearly as an event already past.” By this time, Parker’s antislavery stance was well known. Proslavery advocates vilified him as a “rabid abolitionist,” while radical antislavery voices criticized him for being “not radical enough.” Such was the precarious position of a minister in those turbulent days. Education for Former Slaves Parker had built a thriving ministry at First Baptist Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he was confronted with the suffering of newly freed African Americans—men, women, and children who had escaped slavery and now sought refuge behind Union lines. These displaced individuals, known as “contrabands,” urgently needed shelter, food, and, above all, education. Parker’s pivotal experience in the South as a young man and influence within the Baptist denomination made him an ideal leader for a new mission: to provide schools, resources, and pastoral care to freedmen across the war-torn South. For the next five years, Parker gave himself tirelessly to this work, crisscrossing the Atlantic states, recruiting teachers and preachers, and establishing schools in cities like Alexandria, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Beaufort, and Richmond. Moving with the Union army, he took charge of vacant and abandoned churches, transforming them into classrooms and places of worship for black congregations. Whenever possible, he worked to reclaim church buildings from military occupation. On one occasion, Parker approached a military surgeon who had converted a church into a makeshift hospital and ordered him to vacate. The surgeon, frustrated at the request, sneered, “Why, you are a sort of pope, aren’t you?” Without missing a beat, Parker responded, “Yes, a Christian minister and military pope. Go!” The church was returned to its original purpose—to proclaim Christ’s name and serve his people. Joseph W. Parker in the 1870s. Parker (1805–87) pastored two of Boston’s most prominent churches before resigning to coordinate the work of the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society among former slaves during the Civil War. He also served as the first pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist. Parker’s work frequently brought him to Washington, DC, where he founded the school that would later become Wayland Seminary—a key institution in the education of African American ministers and leaders. He also became a familiar figure in the city’s Baptist circles, including among the future members of a church of which he would become the first pastor. After years of ministry and a brief season of recuperation on his Maryland farm, Parker had resolved never to pastor again. But when representatives from the newly formed Metropolitan Baptist Church (later Capitol Hill Baptist Church) pleaded with him to lead them, he couldn’t ignore their need. Despite the church’s meager resources—offering him only half his previous salary—Parker accepted the call as a matter of duty, believing the church’s future would be jeopardized without experienced pastoral care. His ministry at Metropolitan—his final full-time pastorate—provided the stability needed by a fledgling church, which would continue his legacy of faithfulness to the gospel. Incompatibility of Christianity and Slavery Parker lived at a moment when the battle lines over slavery were being drawn more sharply than ever. Some proslavery theologians sought to defend the institution, while abolitionists marshaled biblical arguments for its end. Parker’s journey, however, illustrates the fundamental incompatibility of Christianity and slavery. At first, he accepted the common assumption that slavery was an unfortunate but entrenched institution. But his firsthand encounters with slavery’s pernicious effects forced him to question that assumption. Parker was convinced that Christianity required that the gospel be preached to all people—none excluded (Matt. 28:18–20). But that very proclamation was forbidden under slavery because Christianity also demands that those who embrace the gospel be treated as brothers and sisters in Christ (Gal. 3:28). Parker was convinced that Christianity required that the gospel be preached to all people—none excluded. This was precisely what Edmunds and other slavery proponents feared. They understood that a Christianized enslaved person would become something more than property—he would come to realize both his accountability to God and the equal worth of his soul before God. To teach the enslaved to read the Bible was to invite them to see their true dignity. To preach the gospel was to plant the seeds of freedom. The earliest known photograph of Metropolitan Baptist Church’s first building, completed in 1876 and demolished in 1911 to construct the present building. This is the only building that Joseph Parker, on arriving in 1879, would have known. Photo from the Capitol Hill Baptist Church Archives, Washington, DC. Used with permission. This is why race-based slavery and Christianity cannot coexist—at least not for long. Slavery existed long before Christianity, but Christianity provided the moral and theological resources to secure slavery’s demise. As historian Rodney Stark has observed, “Of all the world’s religions, including the three great monotheisms, only in Christianity did the idea develop that slavery was sinful and must be abolished . . . only in the West did significant moral opposition ever arise and lead to abolition.” Parker’s life exemplified this slow but unstoppable transformation. He didn’t set out to be an abolitionist. Yet through his commitment to Scripture, his zeal for gospel advance, and his love for those made in God’s image, he found the courage to stand for the truth. In doing so, he left an example that continues to inspire today.

In this lecture, Don Carson examines Jesus as the “Bread of Life” in John 6 who offers eternal fulfillment through his death and resurrection. Carson emphasizes that true belief in Jesus is the work of God and the way to eternal life. Jesus’s sacrifice is portrayed as the ultimate sign of his authority and the source of salvation for the world. He teaches the following: The contextual significance of bread in first-century Palestine Jesus’s role as the true manna and its parallel to the Old Testament account of manna in the wilderness Jesus’s miracles are meant to demonstrate his ability to provide for our needs Jesus is the ultimate source of eternal life, not just physical sustenance God the Father’s role in drawing people to Jesus and ensuring their salvation Why Jesus’s death and resurrection are central to the metaphor of Jesus as the living bread Why Jesus’s role as the Bread of Life is central to understanding his mission

Thirsty? You just might want to double-check what’s in your glass before taking that first sip. Around the world, people apparently have a way of turning the bizarre into a beverage. I mean, hey, why not? From bug-based protein smoothies to alcohol infused with things that might make you scream rather than cheer, humans have […] The post 10 Unusual Beverages Made with Strange Ingredients appeared first on Listverse.

Christian Bible inerrantists and literalists look to archaeology to back up scriptural narratives. Many discoveries have indeed proven that many things the Bible says are accurate. However, disturbing evidence, or in some cases, non-evidence, has also come to light. For instance, archaeology can find no proof that patriarchs like Abraham existed, no indication that a […] The post 10 Hoaxes That Purported to Prove the Bible appeared first on Listverse.

An artist’s rendering of the James Webb Space Telescope. (Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/A. M. Gutierrez)The exoplanet K2-18b is generating headlines because researchers announced what could be evidence of life on the planet. The JWST detected a pair of atmospheric chemicals that on Earth are produced by living organisms, reports universetoday.com. The astronomers responsible for the results are quick to remind everyone that they have not found life, only chemicals that could indicate the presence of life. The results beg a larger question, though: Will the JWST really ever detect life? The JWST was developed with four overarching science themes, and one of them is Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life. Early design documents and science papers developed this theme, though they were cautious in predicting what the telescope would find. Much of the writing acknowledged that the JWST would struggle to identify definitive biosignatures. Instead, the telescope was characterized as an intermediate step between the Hubble and the Spitzer, and future telescopes that could reliably detect biosignatures. In a new paper, well-known planetary scientist Sara Seager from MIT and her co-authors from the USA, the UK, and Europe remind us how difficult it is for the JWST to provide definitive proof of life on distant exoplanets. The paper is titled “Prospects for Detecting Signs of Life on Exoplanets in the JWST Era,” and will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The search for signs of life in the Universe has entered a new phase with the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST),” the authors write. “Detecting biosignature gases via exoplanet atmosphere transmission spectroscopy is in principle within JWST’s reach.” The question is, how reliable are those detections? Are public expectations out of line with the telescope’s actual capabilities? This image illustrates the recent strong detection of potential biosignatures DMS and DMDS in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b. Image Credit: A. Smith, N. Madhusudhan (University of Cambridge) Definitive evidence for life on a distant exoplanet like K2-18b was never going to jump up and announce itself. That planet is about 125 light-years away. Planetary atmospheres are complex, and the great distance makes understanding them more difficult. Transmission spectroscopy is a powerful tool, but it faces great challenges. The light from the star can pollute spectroscopic results, and data retrieval is tricky. For these reasons and others, Seager and her colleagues suggest we abandon the idea of detecting an atmospheric “silver bullet” that reveals the presence of life. Instead, the JWST’s main contribution is to build a more comprehensive understanding of exoplanets and their atmospheres. “Characterizing rocky or sub-Neptune-size exoplanets with JWST is an intricate task, and moves us away from the notion of finding a definitive ‘silver bullet’ biosignature gas,” the authors write. One of the difficulties the JWST faces in transmission spectroscopy of rocky and sub-Neptune size planets is that it’s really only suitable for planets orbiting M dwarfs (red dwarfs). Since these stars are smaller, the signal from transiting exoplanets is more easily detected, whereas larger, brighter stars can introduce a lot of noise into planetary transit signals. “Since M dwarf stars are half to one-tenth the size of our Sun, the TS (transmission spectroscopy signal) will have signals 4 to 100 times larger than Sun-sized star hosts,” the authors explain. However, M dwarfs present their own challenges. The problem is that M dwarfs tend to be more active than Sun-sized stars. “Their stellar magnetic activity, higher than for Solar-type stars, manifests as star spots, faculae, and flares that contaminate the spectra,” the authors write. They mention that in the well-known TRAPPIST-1 system, the M dwarf star contaminates and overwhelms the transmission spectra. It’s worth noting that K2-18b also orbits an M dwarf. The authors are reminding us how difficult it is to take a transmission spectroscopy signal and reach concrete conclusions about its meaning. “It may seem a stretch to use spectra to ascertain planetary properties (atmosphere abundances, surface and interior bulk composition, habitability and presence of life, and more). After all, observed exoplanet spectra represent a highly averaged signal of complex 3D physical and chemical atmospheric processes, reduced to relative changes in the observed wavelength-dependence of the combined star and planet light as a point source,” they explain. Interpreting transmission spectroscopy signals is not simple. We’re still in the early stages of this type of science, and researchers will only get better at it. Seager and her co-authors explain that there are three criteria for determining if a biosignature detection is reliable: 1. Detection: Is the signal robust? 2. Attribution: Are the spectral features correctly attributed to the appropriate gas(es)? 3. Interpretation: How reliable are the derived planetary properties? According to the authors, the tentative detection of DMS and/or DMDS fails to meet all three of these criteria. “The example of the tentative detection of DMS in K2-18 b’s atmosphere is the exoplanet community’s first encounter with a biosignature gas prospect—a claim that fails all three Key Criteria above,” they write. The authors don’t mince words in their conclusion: “We conclude with the sobering realization that with JWST, we may never be able to definitively claim the discovery of a biosignature gas in an exoplanet atmosphere.” However, scientists are making progress, and the JWST is a key tool in the effort. By acquiring more observations and data, it is contributing to a better understanding of exoplanets and their atmospheres. Astronomers will continue to find biosignature candidates in exoplanet atmospheres, and each detection will add to their body of knowledge. “In the years to come, JWST will remain the flagship of this era of discovery and will be remembered as the first telescope that set the first concrete steps toward answering the question: Are we alone?” The post Why Webb May Never Be Able to Find Evidence of Life on Another World appeared first on Anomalien.com.