Last Friday, January 19, was the 51st annual March for Life in Washington D.C. Over 100,000 pro-life Americans rallied and marched to the U.S. Capitol to advance the cause of life for every preborn baby.

One day later, tens of thousands more pro-life supporters gathered in San Francisco at the 20th annual Walk for Life West Coast.

The day began with a Walk for Life Mass celebrated by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco.

The 67-year-old archbishop has served as the leader of the Archdiocese of San Francisco since 2012 and has been an articulate and stalwart supporter of pro-family causes.

At the opening mass, Archbishop Cordileone gave an inspirational homily, positing marriage as the solution to many of our societal ills — including abortion.

“We cannot say we are pro-life unless we embrace the entire plan of God, which means embracing His plan for marriage,” the archbishop said in his homily, adding,

“If common sense were not enough, we have more than fifty years of consistent social science research that shows us that so many of the social ills we are experiencing — rampant poverty, homelessness, gun violence, incarceration, you name it — is because of family fragmentation, and, in particular, fatherlessness. That is the root of the problem. Which means that marriage, as God designed it, is the root of the solution.”

As Christians, we talk regularly of Jesus as Lord and Savior. What we don’t talk about as much is what that actually means. We must ask ourselves, “What is Jesus actually Lord of? To what is His lordship and salvation directed?”

Many Christians would answer “He is Lord of my life and He has saved my soul.” The rest of us shout a hearty “amen!” and don’t think too much beyond this. Is there anything wrong with this?

Well, such an assertion is certainly not wrong. But is it right?

It is not right because it is too limited.

Limiting Christ’s lordship and salvific interests are never good. Such a limited view is not biblical and it doesn’t align with what some of the greatest teachers of the Church taught throughout history.

Let us first look at Scripture.

Many Christians consider the powerful verse of John 3:16 when considering what God is doing through His salvation work and stop there. They do not consider Revelation 21:5 which states,

“And He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” (ESV).

Scripture tells us it is trustworthy and true that Jesus is certainly not just saving individual souls but is making all things new.

What does that mean? It means exactly what it says.

Thousands of adolescents have suffered psychotic episodes after consuming high-potency marijuana, The Wall Street Journal warned last week, blaming strong, accessible cannabis for the alarming trend.

Studies and experts cited by the Journal suggest people’s risk for developing psychosis after ingesting marijuana increases if they’re young, use it often, or use products with high amounts of tetrohydrocannibinol-9 (THC) — the chemical that makes people high.

While cannabis can’t be identified as the sole cause in any one case, “large studies show a clear link between frequent and more potent cannabis use and higher rates of psychosis, particularly in young users,” Yale psychiatry professor Dr. Deepak D’Souza summed up to the Journal.

Other important studies found:

• People who smoked high-THC marijuana daily were five-times as likely to develop a psychotic disorder than people who didn’t smoke. (The Lancet; 2019)
• Going through just one cannabis induced psychotic episode increases a person’s chance of developing bipolar disorder or schizophrenia by an average of 47% — significantly higher than a psychotic episode induced by amphetamines, hallucinogens, opioids or alcohol. (American Journal of Psychiatry, 2017)
• Teens reported having hallucinations or paranoia more often if they smoked marijuana at least once a month, as opposed to those who smoked only once or twice a year. (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2018)

The Maine legislature is considering radical legislation that threatens parental rights by giving courts “temporary emergency jurisdiction” of minors who seek “transgender” medical interventions — against their parents’ wishes.

These medical interventions include puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries that permanently damage the minds and bodies of children and teens.

At least 12 states have such “shield” or “refugee” laws, as the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBT activist group, euphemistically calls them. In reality, these states are unlawfully undermining the right of parents to provide for the care, upbringing and education of their children.

Maine’s proposed legislation, “An Act to Safeguard Gender-affirming Health Care,” L.D. 1735, states:

“A court of this State has temporary emergency jurisdiction if the child is present in this State and the child has been abandoned or it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child or a sibling or parent of the child is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse or because the child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care.”

The provision is identical to a California law, the first state to assault parents’ rights in this way in 2022, as reported by the Daily Citizen. L.D. 1735 equates child abandonment with parents who don’t want their children to undergo destructive transgender procedures.