White County Quorum Court Quietly Passes Resolution Declaring County is Pro-Life

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Over the weekend Family Council learned that the White County Quorum Court recently passed a resolution declaring the county is Pro-Life.

County officials passed the resolution in September, but it received relatively little news media attention at the time.

This year Arkansas enacted Act 392 of 2021 by Rep. Kendon Underwood (R – Cave Springs) and Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R – Branch). This excellent law affirms that cities, towns, and counties in Arkansas can designate themselves as Pro-Life.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that municipalities can adopt pro-life policy positions. That means any city, town, or county can pass a pro-life resolution like White County’s.

This year Arkansas has added several Pro-Life Communities — including Washington, Benton, Crawford, Cleburne, Pope, Jackson, Saline, Faulkner, Perry, Sebastian and Lee counties.

The City of Mariana, the City of Russellville, and the City of Springdale have passed resolutions affirming that they are Pro-Life as well.

We know from public opinion polling that the vast majority of Arkansans believe abortion ought to be either completely illegal or legal only under certain circumstances. With that in mind, it makes sense that communities in Arkansas would vote to affirm that they are Pro-Life.

We look forward to future communities passing their own resolutions declaring that they are Pro-Life — just like White County and these other municipalities have done.

If you would like to learn more about how you can pass a pro-life resolution in your community, give us a call at (501) 375-7000 or click here.

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Dads on Duty

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Security guards and local police were at a loss about how to deal with the rampant violence plaguing a Shreveport school. Detention and even arrests weren’t enough to curb fights on campus. So, a group of dads stepped up, and have committed to being present at the school every day. There hasn’t been a fight in over a month, and now kids say they love going to school. 

They call themselves “Dads on Duty,” replete with sweatpants, gas station coffee, and dad jokes worthy of eye rolls. They fist bump students in hallways, providing a fathering gauntlet that is deterring fights and decreasing gang activity. “Not everybody has a father figure at home – or a male, period, in their life,” one of the dads told CBS News.

The crisis in Shreveport required more than good intentions. It required fathers. After all, God created dads for just this kind of thing. I love how these dads stepped up and stepped in. Their actions offer a real-life example of the difference it makes when we find ways to answer four simple questions: What good can we celebrate? What’s missing that we can offer? What’s broken that we can fix? What evil must we oppose?

Copyright 2021 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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“WitchTok” and the Popularity of the Occult Online

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As Halloween approaches, a few news outlets have published stories about a social media trend among teens and young adults: WitchTok.

The name comes from TikTok — a social media platform where users share videos of themselves.

Videos labeled “WitchTok” on the platform primarily seem to be focused on the practice of witchcraft and the occult. As University of Cambridge professor Rebekah King recently noted in an article at The Conversation, videos labeled “WitchTok” have garnered an astounding 18.7 billion views.

WitchTok is just the latest example of young adults warming to the occult.

In October of 2017 the news outlet MarketWatch ran a story titled “Why millennials are ditching religion for witchcraft and astrology.” The article highlighted growing interest in the occult among young adults.

Psychic services — which include everything from palm reading to horoscopes — are now a multi-billion dollar industry.

Popular phone apps offer advice based on the zodiac.

Something once relegated to tabloids and the back pages of newspapers is now mainstream.

The growing interest in the occult arguably is a symptom of spiritual restlessness. The phrase “spiritual but not religious” is popular among young adults who are reluctant to commit to a faith. As St. Augustine said long ago, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. The growing fascination with the occult may be a result of that restlessness.

Christians need to remember three things.

First, that the Bible soundly condemns witchcraft. There is no question about that.

Second, Christianity was birthed in a time when paganism and witchcraft were commonplace. The early apostles encountered the occult on several occasions. — such as Acts chapters 17 and 19. If Christianity could overcome those cultures, Christianity can overcome the present one as well.

And third, only the gospel can give people the spiritual rest they seek. Amid bondage and uncertainty, scripture promises believers freedom and hope.

“WitchTok” can’t give people what they are looking for, but Christ can.

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