This week, the Daily Citizen spotlighted Target Corporation offering a “transgender” line of clothing, including items from Abprallen, a UK company whose founder creates and sells violence-fomenting, blasphemous, satanic-themed LGBT clothing and merchandise.

Since then, Target suffered an immediate backlash in stores and on social media. Due to public opposition, the company has removed some items — but without apologizing for working with a designer who shows contempt and hatred for many of its customers.

Nor did the retailer apologize for offering “Pride Kids’ & Baby Clothing” and potentially damaging items. Instead, the retailer cited threats against Target employees and stated its continued support for “Pride Month” and “the LGBTQIA+ community”:

“For more than a decade, Target has offered an assortment of products aimed at celebrating Pride Month. Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work. Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior. Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.”

Speaking at The Colson Center’s annual national conference in Indianapolis, Indiana last week, abortion survivor Gianna Jessen gave profound and moving remarks by conveying her story and sharing God’s love. Gianna, now an international speaker and author of the book Gianna: Aborted, and Lived to Tell About It, suffers from Cerebral palsy. Throughout her talk, she relied and physically leaned upon John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center, and Detroit-area Pastor Chris Brooks, who were standing on either side of her due to balance issues caused by the disorder.

Addressing why she didn’t just sit down, Gianna, paraphrasing Ephesians 6:13, said she has “done everything to stand.” Noting that she believes Satan has tried to take her out via abortion, Gianna said that every second she spends standing is a rebuke of the Evil One by the grace of God. “The only way he can win is if I quit,” Gianna said. Sharing her story, Gianna told the audience that she was conceived when her biological parents were 17. Her mother went to Planned Parenthood and was directed to get a late-term, saline-infusion abortion when Gianna was 29 weeks old in the womb.

“It’s a salt solution that is injected into the mother’s womb; the baby then gulps that solution. It burns, blinds and suffocates the child,” Gianna shared. She noted that when she was born alive in the abortion clinic, she required no resuscitation.

“It doesn’t make any sense … but that is how powerful my God is,” she proclaimed.

Last week, 193 churches disaffiliated from the South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church “over matters related to human sexuality,” announced Bishop David Graves, overseer of the Conference.

They are part of a growing exodus from the UMC, with more than 3,500 congregations leaving the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States in 2022 and 2023.

The separations come after years of contention in the UMC over foundational issues of Christian truth on the authority of Scripture, sanctity of life, and God’s design for marriage and sexuality.

Doctrinal disputes within Methodism date back to the turn of the last century, with some active ministers and bishops denying core church doctrines — and not being disciplined.

In recent years, bishops and ministers blessed homosexual relationships. UMC conferences approved lesbian- and gay-identified ministers and bishops, defying Scripture and official Methodist policy. Church leaders also showed support for abortion, denouncing the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

At its 2019 General Conference, the UMC added a rule to its Book of Discipline which “offers a limited way for congregations to leave the denomination and take full ownership of their buildings and other assets by releasing them from The United Methodist Church’s centuries-old trust clause,” Bishop Graves’ statement explained.