Remembering
James Robison

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The Brew: Trump Returns to World Stage as al-Assad Departs

Ashley Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attend the ceremony to mark the reopening of Notre-Dame of Paris Cathedral on December 07, 2024 in Paris, France.

By Al Perrotta Published on December 9, 2024

Happy Monday!

Today’s Brew has worldly flavor, with a touch of the heavenly.

Syrian Dictator Bashar al-Assad Overthrown, Flees Country; Islamist Rebels Take Control

Be careful what you wish for. The long campaign, fostered in large measure by the Obama and Biden administrations, to rid Syria of its secular strongman Bashar al-Assad has come to an end. This weekend, Assad fled the country into exile to parts unknown. The bad news? He was overthrown by Islamist radicals with a proven thirst for Christian blood.

In recent days, both Jason Scott Jones and Jules Gomes have spelled out for The Stream just how dire this situation is for Syria’s ancient Christian community. “It looks like we are now heading for another major crisis for Syrian Christians,” Dr. Martin Parsons, director of The Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution, told Gomes. “Christian aid agencies need to prepare for a massive relief operation.”

We pray for the safety and security of our brothers and sisters in Syria, and containment of the chaos this overthrow will undoubtable bring. (Just ask Libya.)

In a Truth Social post Sunday morning, President-Elect Donald Trump tied the end of Assad’s reign to the ongoing war in Russia.

 

Notre Dame Reopens as Trump Retakes the World Stage

Even Trump was not going to overshadow the grand reopening of the magnificently restored Notre Dame Cathedral. But he came close. The newly reelected Trump returned to the world stage Saturday, where French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders greeted him like an old friend arriving for Christmas dinner.

Even Jill Biden seemed pleased to have Trump around.

https://twitter.com/saras76/status/1865498487707648277

2024 has been sooo strange.

The ceremony at Notre Dame began with Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich knocking at the doors of the cathedral with a large staff. (If I were spending that much on a restoration, I might have sprung for a doorbell, but that’s just me.) That ceremonial act kicked off hours of splendor, awe, and beauty.

https://twitter.com/EWTNVatican/status/1865677552842400123

After all of Saturday’s pomp and ceremony, Sunday morning saw the real business of Notre Dame back underway: the first public Mass in five years.

Bitter Obama Not Happy with Democratic Election

Former President Barack Obama is a lot of things, but we never took him for someone who flat-out denies reality before. In his first speech since the American people overwhelmingly rejected what, in effect, would have been his fourth term, Obama actually declared, “The election proved that democracy is pretty far down on people’s priority list,” adding that “core democratic principles are under attack.”

This pastor has some thoughts on that. Although preaching shortly after the election, his words do serve as a better response to Obama than anything I could come up with.

He touts the populism of the election results across racial lines before concluding, “Have God’s promises changed? Has God’s love changed? Did anything catch God off guard? So what are you crying for?”

It occurs to me that if microphones had been around in the Apostle Paul’s day, he would have had many mic-drop moments when he preached.

Former Patient Sues Infamous Surgeon Noted for Pushing Sex Changes on Kids

Transgender-rights activist Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy has been sued by a former patient who is now detransitioning. Clementine Breen, 20, claims in her lawsuit that Olson-Kennedy pushed her into transitioning at age 12 and lied about her being suicidal to pump her with testosterone. The doctor told Breen’s parents that “if they did not agree to cross-sex hormone therapy, Clementine would commit suicide,” even though the girl never had any suicidal thoughts.

Breen was never evaluated by a psychologist before being pushed into the puberty blocker and hormone treatments, despite having faced mental health issues and suffering from sexual trauma as a child.

When Breen was 14, Olson-Kennedy pushed a double mastectomy on the girl. She also lied in a letter to the surgeon who performed the mutilation, saying Breen had “endorsed a male gender identity since childhood.” The doctor’s own notes show Breen only started to question her identity a few months earlier.

Breen is now detransitioning, but is left with the permanent damage from the treatments.

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Olson-Kennedy recently made in the news for another reason. In October, she refused to publish the results of a $10 million study which demonstrated that puberty blockers don’t help improve children’s mental health. The “doctor” admitted to deep-sixing the study because it contradicted a major talking point of trans activism.

Meanwhile, let’s keep another Hollywood actress who has fallen into the madness in our prayers.

Oppenheimer Star Emma Dumont Comes Out as “Trans Masculine Nonbinary”

If you thought nuclear physics was tough to figure out, try this. Actress Emma Dumont, who starred in last year’s acclaimed film Oppenheimer, has come out as “trans masculine nonbinary.” I know. It’d be easier to build a nuclear bomb out of Tinker Toys than figure that one out. According to Breitbart, “The term ‘trans masculine’ refers to people who may see themselves as their biological sex, but for some reason want to label themselves as identifying as the opposite sex via their expression.”

So the actress wants to play the role of a male, at least in her private life. Dumont is now going by the name “Nick” among family and friends. However, she will still go by the name Emma Dumont professionally.

High School Students Stand Up for Girls’ Sports

Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California made the news recently when two girls’ cross-country runners were told they could not wear T-shirts that said “Save Girls’ Sports.” School administrators likened that to wearing swastikas.

One of the girls spoke her mind at a school board meeting about being forced to share a locker room with a biological male.

The good news? Their classmates have the girls’ backs. More than 150 students wore the shirt to support them. Unfortunately, the school has struck back, using the dress code to bar all the students from class.

With activist Riley Gaines putting a national spotlight on it, will the school back down? I mean, the school’s named after Martin Luther King. You know — the guy famous for changing the world through nonviolent protest.

Along The Stream

Bunni Pounds is back with “Love Prays: Responding by Talking to God.”

Joseph Mattera debunks “Five Myths About Salvation.” 

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.