AGENDA Weekly Brief Week of April 17-23 – By Curtis Bowers

Dear Friends,

We’re grateful for each one of you who have joined us in seeking to better understand and push back against today’s agenda. We continue to pray for you and hope that our news and perspective can help equip you to make a difference.

Today’s 24-hour news cycle seems designed to rob individuals of the clarity and focus need to engage in the fight. We pray you would take one day at a time and ask God to show you how to practically implement the things you’re learning. It can be helpful to look back one year, or even six months, to see how the steps you’re taking are adding up!

May the Lord continue to bless your efforts, multiply your influence, and make His will and plan for you and your family abundantly clear.

1. UNITED NATIONS ATTACKS HOMESCHOOLERS: The United Nations’ latest education report is entitled, “Global Education Monitoring Report: Non-State Actors In Education: Who Chooses? Who Loses?” Life Site News summarizes, “According to the U.N. report, the presence of ‘non-state actors’ in education, which refers primarily to educators in the private schooling sector but also mentions parents involved in homeschooling, promotes ‘inequity’ and ‘privilege,’ and therefore the solution is for governments to consolidate ‘all’ education into a ‘single system.’”

Ed. Note: Plank #10 of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto begins, “Free Education for All Children in Public Schools…” Marxists want all children (including those in private schools and especially homeschoolers) to receive “free” government indoctrination and to be dutifully trained to serve Big Government and Big Business.

2. THE LGBTQ AGENDA ACCELERATES IN LIBRARIES, SCHOOLS, SOCIETY: The Texas Library Association (TLA) is America’s largest state library association. On April 25, the TLA will host a conference attended by librarians from across the state that will include drag queens as “featured speakers,” with one drag queen leading the “Drag Queen Storytime” to “explain how you can promote literacy and community collaboration through dynamic storytelling and music.” Earlier this month, Oklahoma State University hosted a “Drag Queen Story Hour” targeted at children as young as two years old, as part of its Pride Week 2022.

New sex-education standards set to be implemented in New Jersey this fall will groom little children. The new standards say that by the end of second grade, children should be able to “discuss the range of ways people express their gender and how gender-role stereotypes may limit behavior.” One lesson plan called “Pink Blue Purple” says, “Gender identity is that feeling of knowing your gender. You might feel like you are a boy, you might feel like you are a girl.” One mother explains how her daughter was perverted by the trans agenda at school: “My teenage daughter has decided that she is ‘trans.’ So have all her friends. Not some of them. Not most of them. Every. Single. One.”

“Playing with Pronouns” is a new game that has been released for kids ages 4-9. The seller’s website describes the game as “Simple card games to breakdown stereotypes, practice inclusive pronouns & expand everyday understanding beyond the binary for ages 4-9.”

An article in The Federalist explains today’s radical gender ideology: “In 1994, Joe Biden voted for an amendment that was far more draconian than he now claims Florida’s child protection law to be.” 

Ed. Note: It’s long past time for parents to stop complaining about teachers and curriculum and to pull their children out of these godless, defiling indoctrination camps. Parents also need to be increasingly discerning about their local libraries. 

3. THE ENGINEERED IMMIGRATION CRISIS: Official DHS numbers from March reached a two-decade high, with a total of 221,303 encounters at the border for the month. DHS reported 123,304 expulsions under Title 42, the rule the Biden Administration is seeking to end. In March, the DHS released 80,116 people into the United States, a number greater than the population of Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Former border chief Mark Morgan said, “They know, because of this administration, our borders are wide open. We literally handed over operational control to the cartels. It’s way beyond the millions that have been smuggled in this country.”

Germany has reached an inflection point, with over one in four people in Germany having a “migrant background.”

Ed. Note: In 2021, border patrols agents arrested at least 23 people at the Southern Border who were on the terror watchlist. There is no way to know how many slipped through who were not caught.

4. ISLAMIC STATE DECLARES NEW “GLOBAL OFFENSIVE”: ISIS has called for a new “global offensive” against Europe and Israel to avenge the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi earlier this year. ISIS spokesman Abu-Omar al-Muhajir called for Islamic jihadists to take advantage of the war in Ukraine and strike while “the crusaders are fighting each other.”

Muhajir quoted the Quran in his address entitled, “Fight them, and God will chastise them at your hands.”

5. FOOD CRISIS WORSENS: The International Rice Research Institute warns that rice harvests could drop by as much as 10% (or 36 million tons of rice, enough to feed half a billion people). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that in Ukraine, “one‑third of the crops and agricultural land may not be harvested or cultivated in 2022.”

World Food Bank Director David Beasley said, “If you think we’ve got Hell on earth now, you just get ready. If we neglect northern Africa, northern Africa’s coming to Europe. If we neglect the Middle East, [the] Middle East is coming to Europe.” The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned, “Increases in food and fuel prices may also significantly increase the prospect of social unrest in poorer countries.”

As the food crisis worsens, fertilizer giant C.F. Industries announced that Union Pacific is reducing fertilizer shipments, warning that “railroad-mandated shipping reductions [will] result in nitrogen fertilizer shipment delays during the spring application season and that it [will] be unable to accept new rail sales involving Union Pacific for the foreseeable future.”

6. ITALY LAUNCHES “OPERATION THERMOSTAT,” BIDEN HAMPERS U.S. ENERGY: The Guardian reports, “Schools and other public buildings in Italy will be forbidden from setting their air conditioning to any setting lower than 25C [77 degrees Fahrenheit] from next month, under a scheme intended to help the country dodge an energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.” The initiative is called “Operation Thermostat.”

The Biden Administration plans to reopen oil and gas drilling on federal lands, but with a catch. First, only 144,000 acres will be made available, 80% less than the originally proposed 733,000 acres. Second, an 18.75% royalty will be extracted from companies, up from the standard 12.5%.

7. GLOBALISTS PREPARE FOR FUTURE PANDEMICS (OR PLANDEMICS?): Gates ally and World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Bill Gates’ new book, “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.” Tedros tweeted, “Thank you @BillGates for sending a copy of your new book. I fully agree that we must act on #COVID19’s lessons and innovate so that we can deliver swift, equitable health solutions to prevent the next pandemic.” Reuters reports, “A second Global COVID-19 Summit will be held virtually next month for countries to discuss efforts to end the pandemic and prepare for future health threats.”

8. OVER 4,000 WOMEN HAVE LOST BABIES AFTER COVID-19 JAB: According to The Exposé, “The number of women who have lost their unborn or new-born child in the USA following Covid-19 vaccinations has now surpassed 4,000 just sixteen months after the first emergency use authorization. By comparison, just 565 women have lost their unborn or new-born child following Flu vaccinations since the year 1990, a period of thirty years.”

9. TRUMP-APPOINTED SUPREME COURT JUSTICES BETRAY AMERICANS AGAIN: Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined the Supreme Court’s three most liberal judges in rejecting an emergency appeal from Air Force Reserve officer Lt. Col. Jonathan Dunn, who was fired after his religious exemption request was rejected by the Air Force.

In related news, Air Force Master Sergeant Vincent White will be tried by court-martial after his religious exemption was rejected. Another Air force officer, Lt. Mark Bashaw, faces a court-martial for non-compliance and has received a packing list for Leavenworth prison from his commander.

10. DEMOCRATS PROPOSE DOUBLING STATE INCOME TAX FOR UNVACCINATED: Rhode Island Democrats proposed (and then backed away from) an extreme vaccine mandate that would have doubled state income taxes for all unvaccinated individuals. Read the full text to the proposed bill here.

11. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNOUNCES NEW CLASS OF YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS: The World Economic Forum has released its new list of current “Young Global Leaders” who they say are “building a sustainable and inclusive future.” The WEF says, “We are excited to welcome 109 Young Global Leaders to the Class of 2022. From scientists leading on efforts to address COVID, to activists tackling gender-based violence, artists keeping history and culture alive through music and leaders from business, civil society, academia, and government, meet the new class of YGLs.”

12. DNC PREPARING FOR 2024 ELECTION: WND reports, “A Democratic group has launched a three-year program to recruit and train 5,000 candidates for local offices in charge of administering elections.” According to Politico, “The program would recruit candidates in 35 states for everything from county probate judges in Alabama to county clerks in Kansas and county election board members in Pennsylvania — all offices that handle elections and will be on voters’ ballots between now and 2024.” The group, Run for Something, plans to raise $80 million to fund its efforts.

Ed. Note: We know that leftist groups have been working for years to infiltrate and subvert elections. Covid-19 only gave them a guise under which to massively accelerate their efforts. Albert Einstein once said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” One of the best ways to combat leftists election fraud efforts is to become a poll worker or poll watcher in your area. Learn more about what you can do here.

13. LEFTISTS WANT TO DESTROY GOD AND REDEFINE GOD AT THE SAME TIME: The leftist New York Times published an op-ed on Good Friday entitled, “In This Time of War, I Propose We Give Up God.” Speaking at New York City’s Christian Cultural Center church on Resurrection Sunday, pro-abortion Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer said of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, “The stone has been rolled away from the tomb.”

Students at the United Methodist-affiliated Duke Divinity School blasphemously prayed to God as “the Great Queer One” in a March 22 Pride worship service.

14. LEFTISTS CALL OUT “WHITE SUPREMACY” BUT IGNORE BLACK SUPREMACY: Daniel Greenfield comments on the recent subway shooting in New York City:

Mayor Eric Adams, who had called white people “crackers,” claimed that he needed his brother to head his security because of an “increase in white supremacy” in New York City. The New York City Board of Health falsely claimed that racism was a “public health crisis,” and a public school told parents to abolish their “whiteness.”

After all that time battling white supremacy, which is as easy to find in the city as good manners and parking spaces, the black supremacist subway terror attack came out of the blue. 29 people were wounded, including a pregnant woman and a 12-year-old, when Frank James, a racist gunman, opened fire on a Brooklyn subway train. James was a racial supremacist, but not the one that New York City’s political establishment had spent so much time searching for.

James was just “abolishing whiteness” by putting critical race theory into practice.

15. NOTEWORTHY STORIES:

• President Joe Biden told former President Barack Obama that he plans to run again in 2024.
• The globalist Vanguard Group increased its stake in Twitter to 10.3%, passing up Elon Musk.
• Commenting on the Hunter Biden laptop and Biden corruption, The Federalist notes, “No government has conducted such influence campaigns more effectively than Communist China.”
• Amazon will soon charge sellers a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge.
• Twelve states still have Covid-19 emergency orders in place.
• A long-overdue DHS investigation found that no border patrol agents were guilty of whipping illegal immigrants. But the White House has declined to comment.
• The Epoch Times reports, “A left-wing group is trying to disqualify outspoken Trump supporter Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano from the state governor’s race because he allegedly participated in an ‘insurrection’ against the U.S. government by supporting the former President’s reelection bid.”
• The New American reports, “The Biden administration is poised to rescind a Trump-era rule allowing healthcare workers to opt out of providing services to which they object on religious or moral grounds without fear of losing their jobs.”
• Speaking of Covid-19, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty says, “This welding of public health with digital technologies of surveillance and control and the police powers of the state allows for intrusions on our privacy, on our bodily autonomy, that are unprecedented in history.”

THE FREEDOM AGENDA

1. KENTUCKY IS NOW ABORTION FREE: Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature overturned Democrat Governor Andy Beshear’s veto of the most pro-life bill in the nation. Shortly thereafter, Kentucky’s last two remaining abortion clinics ceased operating.

2. PRO-LIFE GAINS: The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reports that 536 abortion restrictions have been introduced in 42 states, while nine states have implemented 33 pro-life measures. The leftist Huffington Post opines, “The year is shaping up to be the most devastating on record for abortion.”

3. TEXAS CITY BECOMES 48TH SANCTUARY FOR THE UNBORN: In Texas, the city of Marquez has become America’s 48th sanctuary city for the unborn. Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative founder Mark Dickson said, “I hope more mayors across the United States step up, just like Mayor Clary did, and make sure that their city is safe from the expansion of the abortion industry. Now is not the time to sit around and wait for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. Now is the time for our local leaders to join our state leaders in stepping out and passing aggressive pro-life laws restricting abortion.”

4. FLORIDA TO STRIP DISNEY OF SPECIAL STATUS: After Governor Ron DeSantis called for a special session, both the Florida House and Senate voted to repeal Disney’s special status that has been in effect since 1967.

The Family Research Council notes, “For once, a state is hitting Big Business where it hurts for its LGBT extremism — not just crossing their fingers and hoping grassroots shoppers make a dent in the bottom line.”

5. HOMESCHOOLING ON THE RISE: The Associated Press reports, “The coronavirus pandemic ushered in what may be the most rapid rise in homeschooling the U.S. has ever seen. Two years later, even after schools reopened and vaccines became widely available, many parents have chosen to continue directing their children’s educations themselves.”

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the percentage of homeschooling households doubled from 5.4% to 11.1% from May through September 2020. The A.P. notes, “The proportion of Black families homeschooling their children increased by five times, from 3.3% to 16.1%…while the proportion about doubled across other groups.”

6. BIDEN MASK MANDATE STRUCK DOWN: Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge, struck down the CDC’s mask mandate for airlines and public transportation. The Biden Administration will no longer enforce the mandate.

7. CONGRESSMEN CALL FOR END OF NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: Just the News reports, “Republican Reps. Scott Fitzgerald and Jim Banks introduced a measure Thursday to repeal the century-old federal charter granted to the National Education Association, arguing the group has shifted too far to the left.” Banks and Fitzgerald argued that the NEA has abandoned its original mission to “advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of education in the United States.”

8. GOVERNORS AND ATTORNEYS GENERAL STAND AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: Over 20 states are seeking a restraining order to block Biden’s lifting of Title 42. Nineteen Attorneys General are asking the Supreme Court to uphold Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the head of the coalition, said, “No one is above the law in America, and we are simply insisting that the Biden administration follow the law…The situation at our southern border provides the perfect example of how going soft on the rule of law gives rise to anarchy, chaos, and ultimately the erosion of our freedom and safety.”

Twenty-six Republican Governors have announced a Border Strike Force to “disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.”

Ed. Note: While conservative governors should band together to resist the unlawful actions of the Biden Administration, voters must exercise careful discernment to verify the difference between press releases and concrete action.

9. ELON MUSK SECURES FUNDING FOR TWITTER: Musk has secured $46.5 billion in financing to buy out Twitter and take the company private. Attorney Dale Saran said, “What we’re witnessing is a bit of a chess game in public.” Forbes Media chairman and CEO Steve Forbes predicts that if Elon Musk withdraws his bid, Twitter’s stock “would collapse.”

10. NETFLIX TANKS, HALLMARK RIVAL GAINS TRACTION: For the first time in over ten years, Netflix reported a subscriber loss, a drop of 200,000 subscribers for the first three months of 2022. Following the news, the company’s stock dropped 23%, or $30 billion.

Hallmark Channel rival GAC Media wants to become the “leader in family television.” CEO Bill Abbott said, “We want to be relentlessly family-friendly.” Christian Headlines reports, “Hallmark Channel veteran Candace Cameron Bure has signed a major deal with rival GAC Media to develop, produce and star in movies and television shows, becoming at least the 11th Hallmark star in recent months to agree to appear in projects for the new family-friendly company.”

11. THE CASE FOR HEAVEN DEBUTS: Christian Headlines reports, “The new faith-based film The Case for Heaven has been extended to a two-week at-home release thanks to impressive box-office ticket sales that turned it into a hit. Featuring Lee Strobel in his quest to learn more about heaven, the film was released in theaters April 4-6 by Fathom Events and became Fathom’s top-grossing faith film for 2022 and its 15th top-grossing faith film of all time.” You can watch the film trailer here.

HYMN OF THE WEEK

Trust and Obey by Daniel B. Towner

When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away.
Not a doubt or a fear,
Not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay!
Not a grief or a loss,
Not a frown or a cross,
But is blest if we trust and obey.

But we never can prove
The delights of His love,
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows,
And the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do;
Where He sends, we will go,
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.