Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California teacher who stormed a Secret Service checkpoint inside the Washington Hilton on Saturday in an apparent attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump and other administration officials, was in court on Monday afternoon. 

Allen was charged with two counts of using a firearm and one count of assault on a federal officer. The would-be assassin shot a Secret Service agent in the chest. Thankfully, the federal officer’s bulletproof vest saved his life.

A “manifesto” from the shooter that was released on Sunday provides evidence of a radicalized and disturbed individual claiming to be reluctantly carrying out the planned violence to address a laundry list of “crimes” allegedly perpetrated by the Trump administration.

Among the many disturbing things in the nearly 1,000-word letter, Allen invokes religious language to justify his planned murders. Early in the manifesto, Allen even attempts to address suspected objections to his plan. The radicalized Californian appears to suggest he’s a follower of Jesus. 

“Objection 1,” he wrote. “As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.”

Allen is obviously referring to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” where we read Christ’s famous words, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, ‘Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’” (Matthew 5:38-39, ESV).

A new Colorado bill would require most colleges and universities to provide access to abortion pills through student health centers. 

The measure, HB 26-1335, requires institutions of higher education to carry and dispense abortion pills on campus through a student health center or an on-site pharmacy, or submit a prescription for abortion pills to an off-site pharmacy.

The language of the bill includes an exception for religious colleges and universities, but the intent of the legislation is clear — to normalize and institutionalize abortion in taxpayer supported education systems. 

Colorado law already permits abortion throughout all 40 weeks of pregnancy for any reason whatsoever.

As reported by the Daily Citizen, in November 2024, Colorado voters passed an abortion amendment enshrining abortion access in the state constitution.

Then last April, Colorado lawmakers passed a new law forcing Colorado taxpayers to spend millions of their dollars every year to fund Medicaid abortions against their conscience.

Colorado received national attention when it considered this bill because the pro-abortion speaker of the House gave testimony in support of the measure saying it was cheaper for the state to pay for abortions than pay for a baby to be born. 

The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) is reviewing its relationship with Baylor University after the school hosted “All Are Neighbors,” an event featuring LGBT activists and anti-ICE protestors.

It’s not the first time Baylor has seen controversy over its engagement with LGBT ideology.

Speakers at the event included Kelley Robinson, the queer-identified president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT activist group in the U.S.

Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush also spoke at the event. He described himself as a Baptist minister and “a gay man who has been with my husband for 25 years and married to him for as long as that has been legal in this country.”

The Rev. Susan Hayward, who “studied Buddhism in Nepal and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ,” was also a featured guest.

The left-leaning Baptist News Global called it a “historic first,” saying:

This is believed to be the first time Baylor has allowed an openly gay Christian advocacy speaker on campus for such an event. …

This sudden turn of events answers the pleas of LGBTQ students, faculty, staff and alumni who have sought equal representation on campus for years. The university has denied a platform for LGBTQ Christians because of its Statement on Human Sexuality that labels same-sex relations sinful.

Concluding his first papal visit to the Global South, Pope Leo said some good things and some very bad things last week during an in-flight press conference.

Robert Royal of The Catholic Thing observed, “Unfortunately, on the way back to Rome on Thursday, we were treated to yet another muddled in-flight papal press conference, which grabbed headlines and has left many Catholics confused — and dismayed.”

Catholics were not the only ones confused.

Royal is referring to a specific question from a German journalist who asked the pope’s view of Germany’s Cardinal Reinhard Marx giving his priests permission to bless same-sex couples.

This is a very important question. Fidelity by every aspect of the church to Christ’s clear teaching on marriage and family is indisputable given Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 19 and Mark 10. Here some people ask our Lord some questions about marriage, and He takes them back to Genesis 1 and 2 as the authoritative foundation for all such questions. 

Pope Leo said this in response to the journalist:

“First of all, I think it’s very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters. We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual. And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue” (our emphasis.)