Tuesday, June 02, 2026
Same Sex and the Seminary: Building a Joyful Life Together that God Sees
Alexander Carpenter
How did you first meet, and what drew you to each other in the beginning?
Kendra and Roxan
Well, surprisingly, and ironically we met at seminary.
But our love story wasn’t a clean simple journey that people often imagine when they think of two people falling in love. Maybe it’s just us, but I suspect a lot of queer couples, especially those raised in more conservative religious spaces, understand that reality. Seminary was the last place anyone would expect queer love to happen.
Our lives hold a lot of beauty now, but that’s not necessarily how it started.
I sometimes wish our journey began the way love stories are “supposed” to start, the ways we see in movies or portrayed in social media. You like each other, you go on dates, your friends are excited for you, your families are supportive, everyone celebrates it. But when you are living inside a tight-knit religious community, people often feel deeply invested in your life choices, especially if they feel you are “walking in sin,” and partaking in actions that will lead to your eternal destruction. Believing our budding relationship was something we needed to “repent” of, doesn’t exactly create the cinematic portrayal of romance.
For me, the beginning of our romantic relationship meant the collapse of my relationship with Adventism.
When we met, we were both in seminary trying to understand ourselves, God, and what we were meant to do with our lives. Seminary was a spiritual journey for me, completely existential. For women to go to an Adventist seminary at all, means something else is driving her than the hope to one day be an ordained pastor. We enter school knowing that ordination is not possible for us, but we go anyway hoping that some church will recognize our intelligence and ability to lead, and invite us alongside them in “the work.”
We met in a class where a professor described having excommunicated a woman from his church some years ago because 10 years after she divorced her physically abusive husband, she wanted to remarry. She had been single for 10 years, but this professor believed scripture meant she no longer had the right to marry again. I remember another student, a young man, actually, getting so upset that he walked out of class entirely.
And I remember thinking: Something is very wrong here. Where is the common sense? The compassion, the humanity, the shame. I looked around seeing so many heads nodding in agreement or in silent acquiescence. Roxan did not nod along or fear confrontation. Much like me she had a righteous stubbornness.
It was sad to see the scarcity of those willing to openly challenge what felt so obviously oppressive. For some it was ignorance. For others, cowardice. For Roxan, it was neither.
That was our first real connection.
We would spend hours at the coffee shop after class debriefing on the absurdity and hurtfulness of the myriad of beliefs that continued to deny the validity of our experience and value as women. We admitted to each other and ourselves, all the ways we could no longer force ourselves to carry a yoke of beliefs that were crushing us.
The beginning of our love story felt biblical. Like the Exodus. “You have broken the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders,” (Isaiah 9:4, author paraphrased).
How did you first meet, and what drew you to each other in the beginning?
Kendra and Roxan
Well, surprisingly, and ironically we met at seminary.
But our love story wasn’t a clean simple journey that people often imagine when they think of two people falling in love. Maybe it’s just us, but I suspect a lot of queer couples, especially those raised in more conservative religious spaces, understand that reality. Seminary was the last place anyone would expect queer love to happen.
Our lives hold a lot of beauty now, but that’s not necessarily how it started.
I sometimes wish our journey began the way love stories are “supposed” to start, the ways we see in movies or portrayed in social media. You like each other, you go on dates, your friends are excited for you, your families are supportive, everyone celebrates it. But when you are living inside a tight-knit religious community, people often feel deeply invested in your life choices, especially if they feel you are “walking in sin,” and partaking in actions that will lead to your eternal destruction. Believing our budding relationship was something we needed to “repent” of, doesn’t exactly create the cinematic portrayal of romance.
For me, the beginning of our romantic relationship meant the collapse of my relationship with Adventism.
When we met, we were both in seminary trying to understand ourselves, God, and what we were meant to do with our lives. Seminary was a spiritual journey for me, completely existential. For women to go to an Adventist seminary at all, means something else is driving her than the hope to one day be an ordained pastor. We enter school knowing that ordination is not possible for us, but we go anyway hoping that some church will recognize our intelligence and ability to lead, and invite us alongside them in “the work.”
We met in a class where a professor described having excommunicated a woman from his church some years ago because 10 years after she divorced her physically abusive husband, she wanted to remarry. She had been single for 10 years, but this professor believed scripture meant she no longer had the right to marry again. I remember another student, a young man, actually, getting so upset that he walked out of class entirely.
And I remember thinking: Something is very wrong here. Where is the common sense? The compassion, the humanity, the shame. I looked around seeing so many heads nodding in agreement or in silent acquiescence. Roxan did not nod along or fear confrontation. Much like me she had a righteous stubbornness.
It was sad to see the scarcity of those willing to openly challenge what felt so obviously oppressive. For some it was ignorance. For others, cowardice. For Roxan, it was neither.
That was our first real connection.
We would spend hours at the coffee shop after class debriefing on the absurdity and hurtfulness of the myriad of beliefs that continued to deny the validity of our experience and value as women. We admitted to each other and ourselves, all the ways we could no longer force ourselves to carry a yoke of beliefs that were crushing us.
The beginning of our love story felt biblical. Like the Exodus. “You have broken the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders,” (Isaiah 9:4, author paraphrased).
Monday, June 01, 2026
Recent chronology of New Jersey State Police at Delaney Hall Detention Center
New Jersey State Police officially took over public safety operations outside Newark's Delaney Hall immigration detention center on Friday afternoon, May 29, 2026. [1, 2]
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill and Attorney General Jennifer Davenport ordered the state police deployment to de-escalate tensions and replace federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Prior to this, ICE agents had been involved in volatile, multi-day standoffs with demonstrators protesting a mass hunger strike inside the facility. [1, 2, 3]
Timeline of State Police Involvement
●Thursday Night, May 28, 2026: Initial state police presence began minimally with a few vehicles directing traffic near the facility. [1]
●Friday, May 29, 2026: State police officially relieved federal ICE agents. Troopers constructed a designated, barricaded "protest zone" to separate demonstrators from the facility's main gates. [1, 2, 3]
●Friday Night, May 29, 2026: The New Jersey State Police Public Safety Response Team clashed with protesters while attempting to clear a path for vehicles. Troopers in full riot gear issued dispersal orders and deployed tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and rubber bullets to push crowds back. Six demonstrators were arrested. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
●Saturday Night, May 30, 2026: Clashes escalated further. State police used horses, riot shields, and physical barriers to repel protesters who reportedly charged police lines, threw projectiles, and lit tires on fire. Three additional arrests were made. [1, 2, 3, 4]
●Sunday Night, May 31, 2026: Following a mandatory 9:00 PM curfew enacted by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, state police and local authorities moved in to clear the area. Troopers utilized a crowd-control tactic known as "kettling" to surround and arrest remaining curfew violators, sweeping up several credentialed journalists in the process. [1, 2]
●Monday, June 1, 2026: State police handed primary command over to the Newark Police Department. Officers set up a strict perimeter blocking activists and media at the intersection of Doremus Avenue and Wilson Avenue, roughly half a mile from the facility. [1, 2]
Source: AI (Google Artificial Intelligence)
●Friday, May 29, 2026: State police officially relieved federal ICE agents. Troopers constructed a designated, barricaded "protest zone" to separate demonstrators from the facility's main gates. [1, 2, 3]
●Friday Night, May 29, 2026: The New Jersey State Police Public Safety Response Team clashed with protesters while attempting to clear a path for vehicles. Troopers in full riot gear issued dispersal orders and deployed tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and rubber bullets to push crowds back. Six demonstrators were arrested. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
●Saturday Night, May 30, 2026: Clashes escalated further. State police used horses, riot shields, and physical barriers to repel protesters who reportedly charged police lines, threw projectiles, and lit tires on fire. Three additional arrests were made. [1, 2, 3, 4]
●Sunday Night, May 31, 2026: Following a mandatory 9:00 PM curfew enacted by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, state police and local authorities moved in to clear the area. Troopers utilized a crowd-control tactic known as "kettling" to surround and arrest remaining curfew violators, sweeping up several credentialed journalists in the process. [1, 2]
●Monday, June 1, 2026: State police handed primary command over to the Newark Police Department. Officers set up a strict perimeter blocking activists and media at the intersection of Doremus Avenue and Wilson Avenue, roughly half a mile from the facility. [1, 2]
Source: AI (Google Artificial Intelligence)
Mass Arrests protesters KETTLED outside Delaney Hall with Massive Police Response 5.31.26
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ARREST At Delaney Hall Curfew, Massive ammount of Police, Horse Mounted PD and Riot Shields
FREEDOMNEWS TV - NATIONAL / SCOOTERCASTER
May 31, 2026
BREAKING: "Everybody get back!" Massive ammount of police RUSH towards Anti-ICE protesters outside Delaney Hall after 9pm Curfew..
5.31.26
Sunday, May 31, 2026
Pope Leo warning on AI is just Catholic Church socialism | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Pope Leo warning on AI is just Catholic Church socialism | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Pope Leo’s warning on AI is just more Catholic Church socialism | Opinion
By our readers May 31, 2026 5:07 AM
The dignity of labor is overrated. We can all get a hobby. Getty Images
Catholic socialism
Ayn Rand, an advocate for rationality and capitalism, referred to the pope as the “highest authority of the opposite side.” She saw mysticism as more dangerous than communism. In his recent encyclical, Pope Leo demonstrates this. He essentially calls for the economy to be kept inefficient so everyone can have a job to stay active and feel useful.
Won’t people see through the ruse of unnecessary make-work whose only purpose is to reassure the workers? It’s been said we could cure unemployment by requiring that excavation be done only with teaspoons, but that’s no way to run an economy.
I have misgivings about artificial intelligence, but the pope’s warnings about “forced inactivity” and “anthropological regression” (whatever that is) are not among them. The dignity of labor is overrated. We can all get a hobby. The Catholic Church is a socialist institution.
- George Michael Sherry, Fort Worth
Ras Baraka and Mikie Sherrill are both alumni of Jesuit Universities
Ras Baraka and Mikie Sherrill are both alumni of Jesuit higher education institutions. [1, 2]
The two New Jersey Democrats—who competed in the 2025 gubernatorial primary before Baraka endorsed Sherrill, who is now the Governor of New Jersey—completed different graduate degrees at distinct Jesuit universities. [1, 2, 4, 5]
Educational Breakdown
Ras Baraka: Earned his Master of Arts in Education Supervision from Saint Peter's University (located in Jersey City, NJ). Saint Peter's is a private Jesuit university founded by the Society of Jesus in 1872. [1]
Mikie Sherrill: Earned her Juris Doctor (JD) from the Georgetown University Law Center (located in Washington, D.C.). Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1789. [1]
How Jesuit Education Influenced Their Careers
Ras Baraka's Path: His degree in educational leadership directly fed into his career within public school systems. Before serving as Mayor of Newark, Baraka spent years as a school administrator, notably serving as the principal of Newark's Central High School. [1, 2]
Mikie Sherrill's Path: Raised Catholic, Sherrill has explicitly stated that Georgetown Law was a natural fit because the Jesuits epitomize the philosophy of service and giving back to communities. She used her law degree to transition from her career as a Navy pilot into legal public service, first as a federal prosecutor and later as a public servant. [1, 2, 3]
Source: Google Artificial Intelligence
Anti-ICE protesters pooling cash for riot gear, military-grade goggles to fuel Newark mayhem
N.Y. Post cover Sunday, May 31, 2026
Published May 30, 2026
Updated May 30, 2026, 5:23 p.m. ET
Anti-ICE protesters are pooling cash to deliver riot gear to the front lines of the ongoing chaos in Newark outside the Delaney Hall detention center — fueling criticism that the mayhem is a well-funded, coordinated effort by outside “extremists.”
Donations are pouring in to help the protesters buy “helmets” and “knee/wrist/shin/arm guards” along with military-grade goggles to stay outside Delaney Hall, according to one list blasted out on social media by lefty political activist group the 50501 Movement, which was behind the No Kings anti-President Trump rallies.
The protesters specifically listed MIL-PRF-32432 shatterproof goggles — which are considered “U.S. military specification” that ensures protection from “battlefield-level projectile threats” — on their wish list.
Protesters asked for a wish list of supplies amid the ongoing demonstrations in Newark.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post
The armor was listed as a high-priority need to be dropped at the chaotic protest site, while organizers from further away were supporting the purchases by sending cash to the personal Venmo of organizer Jenny Garcia.
The armor was listed as a high-priority need to be dropped at the chaotic protest site, while organizers from further away were supporting the purchases by sending cash to the personal Venmo of organizer Jenny Garcia.
The tools are allegedly necessary for their battle against the “ICE Gestapo,” according to Virginia-based 50501, which formed last year and was behind an eponymous nationwide protest. Its name stands for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 day.”
“This is professionalizing an attack on federal officials, and it makes it dangerous for everyone, makes it dangerous for themselves, for elected officials, for the obviously for the men and women who work there, and it’s totally unacceptable,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) told The Post.
“It makes you think that they obviously want to get involved in bruising altercations that they’re going to be aggressive, and if they are, they should be arrested. That is not what a peaceful protest is. That is not what First Amendment rights are,” he continued, calling the demonstrations “virtue signaling.”
The untold amount of pooled money was also being spent on wheelchairs, P100 respirators — which are considered “oil-proof” — Sudecon, a decontamination wipe used to remove irritants such as pepper spray, and “welding gloves for incoming tear gas cannisters.”
“This is professionalizing an attack on federal officials, and it makes it dangerous for everyone, makes it dangerous for themselves, for elected officials, for the obviously for the men and women who work there, and it’s totally unacceptable,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) told The Post.
“It makes you think that they obviously want to get involved in bruising altercations that they’re going to be aggressive, and if they are, they should be arrested. That is not what a peaceful protest is. That is not what First Amendment rights are,” he continued, calling the demonstrations “virtue signaling.”
The untold amount of pooled money was also being spent on wheelchairs, P100 respirators — which are considered “oil-proof” — Sudecon, a decontamination wipe used to remove irritants such as pepper spray, and “welding gloves for incoming tear gas cannisters.”
The Beast from the Sea Chapter 27
Unraveling Revelation
May 27, 2026
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy” (Rev. 13:1).
Introduction
After introducing us to the war in heaven and its extension to war on earth, the Book of Revelation introduces us to the two main proxy powers that Satan works through. The beast from the sea, and the beast from the earth. These two powers conspire together against Christ and His people. They manage to deceive the world into trusting and worshipping the beast from the sea. And continuing the war against God’s people,.They eventually build a one-world government, exercising world-wide power over religion, politics and economics and finance. This one-world government is described in Revelation chapters 17 & 18.
Identifying the Sea Beast
Identifying the Sea Beast must begin with where the sea Beast first enters the prophetic picture, which is in Daniel’s Book.
The prophetic picture begins with a figure made of gold, silver, brass and iron, The metals correspond to a succession of empires; Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. There is a fifth empire composed of iron mingled with clay. -it is this fifth and last empire that the stone (representing the second coming of Christ strikes on the feet and destroys.
This kingdom of iron and clay represents the amalgamation of Rome with the people Of God. This amalgamation occurred when the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, merged Paganism with Christianity and in this manner created the Roman Catholic Church – Even the Catholics themselves acknowledge that their church is ’baptized paganism’ such as Cardinal Newman:
Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon-worship to an evangelical use…The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East… …are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church. Cardinal, john Henry Newman, Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine,1878, p. 372-374.
Biblical prophecy endorses what Newman has revealed. Revelationn17 is a repeat and enlargment of the Sea Beast. and chapter 17 reveals that there is a woman riding the beast. In other words, there is a woman in charge of the church. We are already introduced To this woman in Revelation chpter 2. “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols” (Rev: 2:20): Jezebel is intoduced into the prophetic picture, becuse she serves as the type, and the woman riding the beast serves —-as the anti-type. In other words, what the original Jzebel did would happen again. So what did the original Jezebel do? She married Ahab. king of Israel, and she virtually converted the whole nation Of israelto paganism -and she killed the prophets and people of God by using Jezebel as a type the the prophecies ate accusing the Cathoic Church of doing, the same things as Jezebel - and a cursory study of history, confirms that the prophetic picure has been fulfilled accurately.
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Trump’s EEOC goes after another company that required vaccines
NewsJeff Brumley | May 28, 2026
(Shutterstock)
An Oklahoma company has agreed to settle a federal religious and disability discrimination lawsuit stemming from its firing of unvaccinated employees during the pandemic, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced.
AG Equipment Co. in Broken Arrow will pay $4.2 million to more than 40 workers terminated due to its 2021 mandate that all employees, without exception, had to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, EEOC said May 18.
The situation dates back to 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic was sowing divisions in the U.S. over issues such as sheltering in place and vaccines. Many white evangelical churches were openly defiant in resisting government-led public health measures.
EEOC has redoubled its focus on “religious liberty” cases since President Donald Trump returned to office, resulting in at least 16 religious discrimination cases — many of them COVID related — and the recovery of $67 million.
In fall 2021, AG Equipment Co. required all employees to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. In response, several workers requested exemptions based on religious reasons and one provided a doctor’s note asking for an accommodation because of a medical condition, EEOC said.
However, the company refused to consider the requests and on Oct. 21 that year fired all those who had requested the exemptions in addition to anyone else who didn’t show proof of vaccination.
“When these workers asked for a simple religious accommodation, the company didn’t pause to listen or even consider the impact,” said Patrick J. Holman, trial attorney for EEOC’s Oklahoma City area office. “It fired every one of them outright — without a conversation and without any real inquiry into whether granting an accommodation would have caused the business any hardship at all. This is unlawful as well as unfair.”
The lawsuit said the company’s conduct violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on faith and disability. In addition to the financial compensation in consent decree ending the litigation, the company must train managers in Title VII compliance and inform employees of their right to religious and disability accommodations.
“Where an accommodation can be provided without undue hardship, the law requires it — the pandemic did not exempt employers from their legal obligations under Title VII and the ADA,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said. “The EEOC under my leadership will continue to hold employers accountable, deliver meaningful results, and restore dignity to American workers harmed by widespread COVID-19 vaccine-related civil rights violations.”
In March, the agency announced a $15 million conciliation agreement with an unnamed global technology company. “In its investigation, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that the company discriminated against a class of employees on the basis of religion and disability by denying their COVID-19 vaccine exemption requests and terminating employees who declined to receive vaccines.”
And Northwestern Medicine, a health care system in Chicago, agreed to pay $325,000 to employees who were denied vaccine exemptions based on religious beliefs dating back to November 2023, EEOC said May 26.
Friday, May 29, 2026
DHS Tells Agents to Ignore State Mask Bans During Operations
By Solange Reyner | Friday, 29 May 2026 12:32 PM EDT
The Department of Homeland Security has instructed federal immigration officers that they are not required to comply with state and local laws restricting the use of face masks while carrying out their official duties, according to an internal agency memo reviewed by The New York Times.
The May 15 memo from the department's general counsel was issued amid growing disputes between federal immigration authorities and Democrat-led states over enforcement operations and the conduct of federal agents.
According to the memo, federal officers are "not legally required to comply with state and local mask prohibitions while carrying out their official duties."
It further advised agents to "freely perform their authorized duties without concern for state interference or fear of prosecution."
The guidance comes more than a week after New York state lawmakers approved a wide-ranging public protection and government operations bill that includes immigration-related measures limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and expanding protections for immigrants and undocumented students.
The legislation, passed as part of the state budget process for the 2026-27 fiscal year, would restrict actions that state and municipal employees can take in connection with federal immigration enforcement, create new protections for schools and sensitive locations and establish a new immigrant trust office within the state attorney general's office.
DHS has argued that federal law generally preempts state and local regulations that interfere with the execution of federal duties.
The memo reinforces that position by assuring officers that they can continue wearing masks during enforcement operations regardless of state or local requirements.
The issue has drawn heightened attention as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have conducted enforcement actions in major cities, often while wearing tactical gear and face coverings.
Immigration advocates and some elected officials have criticized the practice, saying it makes it difficult for the public to identify officers and distinguish them from private individuals.
Federal officials have defended the use of masks, citing safety concerns and a rise in threats directed at immigration officers.
Jen Goodman, a spokeswoman for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, told the Times that any "ICE agent who comes to New York and violates our laws will be held accountable."
Federal agents in New Jersey beat back anti-ICE agitators in chaos outside Delaney Hall detention facility
Confrontation follows days of protests over alleged hunger strike and conditions at the privately run facility
By Stephen Sorace Fox News
Published May 27, 2026 10:23am EDT
Federal agents in New Jersey beat back anti-ICE agitators in chaos outside Delaney Hall detention facility
Federal agents and anti-ICE agitators clashed outside the Delaney Hall detention facility in New Jersey. (Credit: FNTV)
Federal agents deployed pepper spray and beat back anti-ICE agitators outside the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey on Tuesday night, following days of chaos outside the privately run facility.
The confrontation, captured on video shared by FreedomNewsTV, shows the agitators trying to stop vehicles from leaving Delaney Hall in Newark. Authorities are seen attempting to stop agitators from obstructing vehicles and clearing them from the road.
The video shows the encounter turned physical as federal agents forcibly pushed back agitators who made contact with the hood of a vehicle trying to leave the facility. Some agents were also seen deploying pepper spray while others used batons against the agitators.
BLUE STATE ICE FACILITY RAMPS UP SECURITY WITH NEW BARRICADES AMID CLASHES WITH PROTESTERS
Federal agents pushed back anti-ICE agitators who were blocking vehicles from leaving Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention facility, in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (FNTV)
On Tuesday night, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin addressed the latest confrontation in a post on X.
"ICE law enforcement officers were assaulted by anti-ICE rioters who sprayed law enforcement with an unknown chemical substance," Mullin wrote, adding that two individuals were arrested for allegedly assaulting, resisting and impeding federal officers.
Federal agents were seen hitting some agitators with batons during the encounter outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (FNTV)
The clashes extended a weekend protest over conditions for detainees in the facility, prompted by a reported hunger strike undertaken by the detainees themselves.
Mullin on Monday denied the claims, writing, "There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are no subprime conditions."
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