An American Red Cross official confirmed to an undercover journalist that they do not separate donated blood based on COVID-19 vaccination status. The only way to get blood “that is not vaccinated” is to donate [...] The post Red Cross Official Confirms They MIX Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Blood Donations appeared first on The People's Voice.

What do I do when unkind feelings arise within me toward my spouse? Where do I take these critical feelings?

I’m not sure what it looks like out your window right now or if the neutral colors of a cold‚ dim winter even darken your soul and spirit like they tend to with mine. But‚ we most certainly all walk through and weather seasons where the life surrounding us feels less than bright‚ our purpose tank is falling toward empty‚ or our contentment with the same ole‚ same ole is next to non-existent.

Some places in God’s creation get under your skin: the Faroe Islands can haunt you‚ with the world-class beauty of fjords knifing up from the sea and a sense of the extreme solitude that the Faroese live under. “The first thing the stranger feels struck by when he approaches the harbor‚ Faroe’s capital‚ on the ship‚” wrote award-winning novelist William Heinesen‚ “is the inconsequence of this city and the immense isolation by which it is surrounded on all sides.” On our flight from Copenhagen for the recent TGC Norden regional event‚ I sat next to one of the Danish parliamentary representatives from the Faroes‚ Sjúrður Skaale. He told me his grandmother was committed to a Brethren church‚ which represents a large portion of the Christians we’d be meeting with. As our plane began to land‚ it appeared we were going to try a water landing‚ since the tiny islands were still not in sight. Suddenly‚ the wind became turbulent‚ and the captain told us we’d have to abandon our descent. We circled in the skies for another 15 minutes‚ and in our second attempt were able to pierce the clouds and land. We’d arrived in the Faroes. We’d done our research‚ so we were expecting the physical beauty. What we didn’t anticipate were the people of the Faroes‚ especially God’s people. Christianity in Isolation If you Google the Faroes‚ you’ll see pictures of waterfalls‚ mountain lakes‚ and fjords that have been shaved clean of all natural-growing trees. This gives them the feel of a mountain desert that God flicked into the vast ocean. It’s a harsh beauty unparalleled anywhere in Europe‚ and as part of our Danish kingdom‚ it’s surprisingly seldom heralded as a destination. These remote islands are home to only about 55‚000 people‚ largely supported by the fishing industry. As a part of the Nordic region‚ the Faroes share many of the Nordic character traits of contentment and minimalism‚ while lacking one significant feature—atheism. The Faroes share many of the Nordic character traits of contentment and minimalism‚ while lacking one significant feature—atheism. The testimony to the Lord’s glory in nature‚ an early presence of Celtic monks‚ and a history of Brethren missions to the islands have made them one of the most Christian nations in all of Europe. The Danish Lutheran church has always been a stronger presence in the Faroes than it was in other parts of the Danish kingdom fellowship. And in the 1860s‚ Plymouth Brethren evangelist William Sloan came to the Faroe Islands. He preached for 13 years before seeing his first convert‚ but he eventually saw a significant groundswell of faith. Christianity Continued From the moment we arrived‚ we sensed the love and faithfulness of Christ pouring through the words and works of the Christians there. The Faroes have some of the nicest church buildings in the Nordics. They were recently built and often sit with the best views on the islands. The Brethren Church‚ whose tradition lies in the neighborhood of the Baptists‚ doesn’t have professional clergy. This has kept the laypeople engaged in the ministry and given them a sense of shared ownership in the buildings. When I preached at the fjord-side church of Saloa in Fuglafjørður‚ the service included long periods of quiet‚ followed by attendees calling out spontaneous requests from the hymnbook‚ along with other prayers and Scriptures. The Brethren Church has been pietist and Anabaptist in its soteriological emphasis‚ but in recent years‚ through the internet and connections to preachers like Billy Graham and John MacArthur‚ there has been openness to an evangelical and even broadly Reformed theology. In an area with few evangelicals‚ we focus on what we have in common in Christ and in the Word. Despite the small population‚ there’s a surprising amount of creativity on the islands. Many of the Faroese are highly skilled musicians in addition to working their regular jobs. In an age where we see reading and art being replaced by screens‚ the Faroese still spend much of their free time reading or doing handicrafts like knitting and painting. The Faroe people seemed a hidden treasure. Never Hidden from God When we’re isolated from the highways and big cities of the world‚ it’s easy to feel hidden even from the eye of God. But it’s often in our solitude that God forms us into the greatest tools for his glory. Like diamonds buried under the mountains‚ we’re hardened and refined there. Exodus 3:1–2 says‚ Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law‚ Jethro‚ the priest of Midian‚ and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb‚ the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked‚ and behold‚ the bush was burning‚ yet it was not consumed. The Lord had humbled and isolated Moses as a shepherd in the deserts of Midian. It was only after this time that the Lord revealed himself to Moses and used him to deliver the Israelites. It’s often in our solitude that God forms us into the greatest tools for his glory. This period of seclusion and obscurity was exactly what Moses needed to strengthen his character‚ to help him forget himself‚ and to look to God’s power that can shine through weakness. The people of the Faroe Islands have only just begun to be a blessing to us at TGC Norden. We believe they can be a blessing to God’s people throughout the world because they show us we’re never isolated from our omnipresent God.

The Story: Alabama’s Supreme Court invoked Christian faith and the state’s constitution in ruling that frozen embryos created and stored in IVF clinics can be considered children under state law. The Background: The court’s ruling involves a case in which embryos stored at a fertility clinic were accidentally destroyed. In December 2020‚ a patient at an Alabama hospital managed to wander into the fertility clinic through an unsecured doorway. The patient then entered the cryogenic nursery and removed several embryos. As the court notes‚ “The subzero temperatures at which the embryos had been stored freeze-burned the patient’s hand‚ causing the patient to drop the embryos on the floor‚ killing them.” Several parents of these embryos sued the clinic under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act‚ a statute that allows parents of a deceased child to recover punitive damages for their child’s death. A trial court originally ruled that because cryopreserved embryos (i.e.‚ children in the embryonic stage put in suspended animation) don’t fit within the definition of a “person” or “child‚” the loss couldn’t be considered a wrongful-death claim. The Alabama Supreme Court disagreed‚ stating that “the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies on its face to all unborn children‚ without limitation.” The Court noted that Article I of the state’s constitution of 2022 “acknowledges‚ declares‚ and affirms that it is the public policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child in all manners and measures lawful and appropriate.” That section‚ titled “Sanctity of Unborn Life‚” operates in this context as a constitutionally imposed canon of construction‚ directing courts to construe ambiguous statutes in a way that “protect[s] . . . the rights of the unborn child” equally with the rights of born children‚ whenever such construction is “lawful and appropriate.” In a concurring opinion‚ one justice wrote that this ruling provided an “opportunity to examine the meaning of the term ‘sanctity of unborn life’ within state law. In explaining the meaning of the term‚ the justice cites Genesis 1:27‚ John Calvin‚ Petrus van Mastricht’s Theoretical-Practical Theology‚ and the Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience (a statement signed by TGC cofounder Tim Keller as well as Council members Danny Akin‚ Robert C. Cannada Jr.‚ Bryan Chapell‚ David Dockery‚ Tom Nelson‚ and David Platt). He concludes‚ In summary‚ the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God‚ who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself. Section 36.06 recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life—that even before birth‚ all human beings bear the image of God‚ and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory. The defendants in the case asserted that treating extrauterine children (i.e.‚ unborn children who exist outside the womb) as “children” for purposes of wrongful-death liability will “substantially increase the cost of IVF in Alabama” and could make cryogenic preservation onerous. Why It Matters: The Alabama Supreme Court decision is one of the morally clearest rulings of the decade. As it rightly asserts‚ unborn children are “children” and deserve appropriate legal and ethical protections. Unfortunately‚ many Christians—including those who consider themselves “pro-life”—are lacking in similar moral clarity. Whether in the womb of a woman or in a fertility clinic’s storage locker‚ all human embryos have the same moral status and deserve the same level of protection from harm. The pain of infertility doesn’t provide an exemption from this obligation. Yet numerous Christians have participated in IVF in a clearly immoral way. The problem is that children who are conceived through the process of IVF‚ who are in the embryonic stage of development‚ and who aren’t implanted in a mother’s womb are cryogenically frozen and put into storage. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated in 2020 that “at least 600‚000 frozen embryos were in storage nationwide.” According to the National Embryo Donation Center‚ that number could be as high as 1 million. The cost of storage usually runs from $500 to $1‚000 a year per IVF patient‚ leading many parents to abandon their created but unimplanted children. This means hundreds of thousands of children have been abandoned‚ often left until they die. Many are left behind by Christian parents. Why is this reality not considered scandalous? Many Christians simply haven’t thought biblically about the issue of IVF. Even those who’ve considered the procedure don’t always agree on whether it can be done in a God-honoring way. With no explicit biblical directives‚ divergent views are inevitable (I tend to oppose IVF while respecting those who disagree). Yet certain practices within the realm of IVF are unequivocally unethical and should never be done. Creating more embryos than will be implanted is the most glaring example. A single IVF treatment can cost between $15‚000 and $30‚000. The likelihood of success is low‚ with the best technique offering less than a 50 percent chance a live birth will occur. To lower the cost and increase the chances of pregnancy‚ it has become a common practice for more embryos to be created than will be implanted. This has led to a grim reality where U.S. fertility clinics often function like dystopian orphanages‚ generating children only to leave them in a state of indefinite limbo‚ ultimately leading to their deaths. While the additional costs incurred to avoid ethical transgressions might be significant or even insurmountable‚ the ethical price of embryo destruction is far greater. It contravenes God’s will to forsake or terminate one’s child for the sake of cost or convenience. Our duty as Christians and parents is evident: we must never intentionally bring a child into existence if we anticipate his or her abandonment and subsequent death. If IVF cannot be pursued in a biblically moral manner‚ it shouldn’t be pursued at all. The Alabama Supreme Court has correctly applied the concept of “sanctity of life” to children outside the womb. It’s time for the church to do the same. Related: Breaking Evangelicalism’s Silence on IVF by Matthew Lee Anderson and Andrew T. Walker / How IVF Can Be Morally Right by Wayne Grudem

I was cool with 12 ... but I'm fine with two more

What the hell‚ Mohamed