Recently, the governor of Louisiana signed a bill that requires every public classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments. Headlines quickly reported panic and filed lawsuits, but is the idea that far-fetched?
No. Historically, the Mosaic Law was one of the first recorded legal codes, dating only a few hundred years after Hammurabi’s Code of Babylon. As State Representative Dodie Horton explained, this is reason enough for the bill. “It doesn’t preach a certain religion,” she said, “but it definitely shows what a moral code we all should live by is.” And, America cannot be understood separate from the idea of a moral law, this one in particular. In fact, both the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence appeal to it.
It would be ironic if a legal challenge goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. After all, on the east side of the building is Moses holding the Ten Commandments.
Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.
Last week Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued Chinese e-commerce platform Temu for
The A.G.’s legal team brought the lawsuit under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which carries a penalty of $10,000 per violation.
Temu is marketed as an online shopping platform launched in 2022, and it is widely regarded as similar to Amazon or Walmart.com. In 2023, the Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multibillion dollar marketing campaign — which included an advertisement during the 2024 Super Bowl — has contributed to its success.
But as a Chinese-based tech company, the Arkansas Attorney General’s office has pointed out that security and privacy experts are concerned about Temu.
The A.G.’s lawsuit asserts that Temu “collects a shocking amount of sensitive user data” beyond what is necessary for an online shopping app — including users’ GPS locations and fingerprint data. The lawsuit alleges that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, which potentially grants Temu access to a user’s private messages.
The A.G. says these security concerns are compounded by the fact that Temu is owned by a Chinese company subject to Chinese laws — including “laws that mandate secret cooperation with China’s intelligence apparatus regardless of any data protection guarantees existing in the United States.”
The A.G.’s allegations against Temu are very similar to points the A.G.’s office has made in its lawsuits against TikTok — a widely popular social media platform that is also owned by a Chinese company.
Below is a statement from Attorney General Tim Griffin regarding the lawsuit against Temu.
Griffin: ‘Temu is not an online marketplace like Amazon or Walmart. It is a data-theft business that sells goods online as a means to an end’
LITTLE ROCK – After announcing he is suing Chinese e-commerce company Temu for violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (ADTPA) and the Arkansas Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:
“Temu is not an online marketplace like Amazon or Walmart. It is a data-theft business that sells goods online as a means to an end. Today I have filed a first-of-its-kind state lawsuit against the parent companies of Temu—PDD Holdings Inc. and WhaleCo Inc.—for violating the ADTPA and PIPA. Though it is known as an e-commerce platform, Temu is functionally malware and spyware. It is purposefully designed to gain unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system. It can override data privacy settings on users’ devices, and it monetizes this unauthorized collection of data.
“While this is the first state lawsuit against Temu over its deceptive trade practices, it is not the first time Temu’s tactics have been called into question. Apple suspended Temu from its digital app store in 2023, prompting multiple investigations into the company’s dealings, including an ongoing investigation being conducted by the U.S. Congress.
“Temu is led by a cadre of former Chinese Communist Party officials, which raises significant security risks to our country and our citizens. For my part, I will aggressively fight Temu’s efforts to profit at the expense of Arkansans’ privacy rights.”
The lawsuit, filed in Cleburne County Circuit Court, seeks an order enjoining Temu’s deceptive trade practices and violations of users’ privacy, imposing civil penalties, and providing all other monetary and equitable relief to which the State is entitled.
Last weekend Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Harrison Butker received a standing ovation for his commencement address at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas — even though some pundits have oddly criticized his remarks as “controversial.”
Butker, 28, arguably is responsible for the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII victory over the San Francisco 49ers in February. He is a devout Catholic, and he and his wife have two children.
During his commencement address, Butker discussed the many challenges that the Class of 2024 had overcome — such as graduating from high school and enrolling in college during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and “missing out on so many milestones the rest of us older people have taken for granted.”
What grabbed some people’s attention, however, was Butker’s willingness to criticize abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, dangerous gender ideologies, and “a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media.”
Butker noted how President Biden often professes his Catholic faith, and yet strangely made the Sign of the Cross during a pro-abortion rally in April.
But Butker also pointedly criticized Catholic bishops who fail to take their calling seriously, and he urged ministers to lead in a Christlike manner.
Critics have seized on Butker saying women “have had the most diabolical lies” told to them, and observing, “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.”
But Butker also challenged the men in the graduating class to pursue God’s calling on their lives, and he spoke bluntly about the damage that absentee fathers cause.
Most of his address focused on encouraging the graduates to stand strong in living out their faith. “A life without God is not a life at all,” Butker said, “and the cost of salvation is worth more than any career.”
Throughout the speech, Butker was interrupted multiple times by applause from the graduates and their families, and he received a standing ovation at the end.
But pundits have criticized his statements. The radical, pro-LGBT group GLAAD, for example, issued a lengthy press release calling Butker’s remarks “inaccurate, ill-informed, and woefully out of step with Americans.” The Today Show encouraged viewers to watch a rebuttal to Butker’s comments, and the anchors on Good Morning America seemed genuinely puzzled that Butker would receive a standing ovation from the crowd.
The fact is Butker’s speech didn’t appear remotely controversial with his audience. It was very well received, and there are literally millions of Americans who would strongly agree with what he told the graduates. Plenty of people have expressed opinions about what he said, but it seems odd that so many would try to mischaracterize his remarks as “controversial.”
It shouldn’t be shocking when Christians publicly share their convictions. All of this reminds me of something John Stonestreet said in 2022: “Culture is most powerful in what it normalizes, and when lies are normalized, the truth becomes shocking. Thank God for Christian ministers willing to ‘shock’ and speak truth.”
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
