Magnolia Network’s new series prompts criticism from leaders and commentators who say the couple has abandoned Christian values.

Reality TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines have made headlines this week after a new television production from their network showcased a same-sex couple and their children.

Produced by the Magnolia Network, the series, entitled Back to the Frontier, made its debut on HBO Max on July 10. The show follows three couples tending to life as 19th-century homesteaders, with no internet or television. The couples include two men, Jason and Joe Hanna-Riggs, a same-sex couple raising two boys.

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Can you please pray for my friend Connie who is very ill? Thank you

God bless

I’m a bit of a luddite when it comes to technology. My husband and I didn’t have home internet for the first five years of marriage, I ditched my smartphonealmost two years ago, and I’ve convinced my oldest child that his Kindle paperwhite is a legitimate tablet. I don’t want to pretend that I don’t use technology, but I’m often skeptical that new technology will actually make my life better.

I like the approach of the Amish: They don’t inherently dislike innovation, but they are critical about new technology, especially if it has the possibility to replace meaningful community (i.e. cars, phones, etc.). They observe the rest of us “English” people, and, if a new tool somehow makes our lives better, they incorporate it into their lifestyle. (For instance, some Amish use telephones, but they don’t keep them in private homes.) Essentially, they dissect the tool and then use it for its specific intention, all the while giving themselves plenty of boundaries so they don’t become a slave to the tool. They embody the mantra “love people, use things.”

I greatly respect their spirit of curiosity, so I took a similar approach a few months ago to explore ChatGPT. As a writer myself, I was intrigued by this new form of AI and its implications for my freelance work. So, I typed in a prompt, a suggested tone and a word count for an article I had already written (but had not yet published). And wouldn’t you know, AI made a shockingly similar article to the one I was about to submit. Obviously, this doesn’t bode well for the future of my work as a freelancer, but it’s incredible to think that a computer program can replicate (in seconds) something that took me weeks of thoughtful prayer to write. I left the experience knowing a little bit more about AI but more or less unperturbed by a future I can’t predict, let alone control. I don’t know exactly what the future of my writing career will look like, but it doesn’t seem like a productive use of my time to worry about something that hasn’t even happened yet.

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Please pray that I don't have that horrible pain. God was so merciful yesterday answering so many prayers. Please ask God for my son to have a happy night, My doctor to be healed and well and for the health of my husband. Please pray I don't have pain if it is God's will. I ask in the name of Jesus. Thank you and God bless you. Carmen

Christian reality TV star Chip Gaines has defended his newest television series, which features a same-sex couple, saying it is consistent with the Christian commandment to "love one another."

"Back to the Frontier," a new series from executive producers Chip and Joanna Gaines, which premiered on Thursday on the couple's Magnolia Network, features a gay couple as one of three couples living as homesteaders did in the 1800s, without access to running water or electricity.

Jason and Joe Hanna-Riggs appeared on the series along with their two children, Realtor.com reports. Chip and Joanna Gaines, best known for hosting the home improvement reality TV show "Fixer Upper," have been outspoken about their Christian faith over the years.

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Who is “the world”? It isn’t just all people who never profess faith in Jesus Christ. It is all people who have not believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives, who have not died with Christ to sin, who are not walking in obedience to the Lord and to his commands, and whose lives are not surrendered to God to doing his will, but who are still being led and controlled by the flesh. It is all people whose minds are focused on the world and on living worldly, and not on God and on living to please the Lord Jesus.

And who were Jesus’ greatest opponents and persecutors? They were not the people of the world who did not profess to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they were those who professed to believe in God, and to follow his commands, and who performed religious ceremonies, and who taught the Scriptures in the temple of God. They were the religious rulers and people of authority and influence within the temple, and in the synagogues, who professed to know and to worship the one true God.

So, if you are following Jesus Christ with your life, with full sincerity and commitment to God and to his service, and so you have died to sin, and thus you are now walking (in conduct) in obedience to the Lord (although not necessarily in absolute perfection), and so you are following God’s leading and direction in your life, don’t be surprised if some of your greatest opposition is within the gatherings of “the church” and in “Christian” organizations, and even coming from some pastors of “churches.”

For we live in a day and age when the message of the Gospel has been so severely diluted by the majority that it is barely recognizable at all as the same gospel as taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles. And, well, that’s because it isn’t the same gospel. For what they promote is a faith in Jesus that requires no death to sin and no walks of obedience to the Lord as required by God as necessary components of faith which saves. For they have altered the truth to be non-offensive to the world and to the ungodly.

If you are teaching the truth of the gospel, as Jesus and his New Testament apostles taught it, then you may find yourself the object of much hate, rejection, false accusations, and personal attacks against your character, just like Jesus experienced. And you may have opponents, as he had, who are “pulling out all the stops” (making every possible effort or using all available resources) to find a way to accuse you and to silence you so that you stop confronting them with the Holy One of Israel (see Isaiah 30:8-11 NIV).

But no matter what opposition we face, or how much we are attacked or rejected because of our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, we must not give up! We must stay the course and stand on the Word of God, and keep speaking the truth of the gospel to the people for their salvation from sin. We must obey God and his calling upon our lives, out of love for God and for our fellow humans, no matter how we are treated in return. Satan wants to destroy us. But we must not lose faith! We must keep speaking the truth!

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

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Keep Speaking The Truth
An Original Work / July 14, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

It is claimed George Whitefield stopped and stayed for several days at the house of a general in Rhode Island- what a blessed stay for the General!

George Whitefield really liked the General and his family and didn't want to tell him that he believed he and his family had a false proffesion.

One night George Whitefield heard the audible voice of the Holy Spirit say to him "O man of God! If these people perish, their blood be on thy head!"

He still didn't have the guts to tell the General and his family so he did the unthinkable and used his diamond ring to scratch "One thing thou lackest" onto the window.

When he was gone the General immediately realised but he had a great respect for Whitefield so rather than get furious, the General and his family actually believed on Christ because of the etching!

'The Christian treasury' apparently in 1860 claimed the granddaughter of the family had it in her possession (New York location) but today in 2025 its whereabouts is unknown. The problem is this source is not digitised and was lost with other 1800s issues. Lost media of it's day.

If it exists, that blessed glass panel with the etching could be anywhere- in the flat of a 21st century couple who are clueless about it's origin? In the basement of a house lost with the other discarded objects? We may never know in this life!

This is a highly disputed story, so Christians, let me know your thoughts and if you think it exists!

Oh- and I would not reccomend recreating this etching incident unless you want to lose friends!

They are arresting farm workers, the gardeners, the day laborers, the people who go to their citizenship appointments but just haven't finished that long process, while seeking entrance in elementary schools and little league practices. Which leads to this:

Trump Loves ICE. Its Workforce Has Never Been So Miserable.​

A “mission impossible” deportation campaign has left many employees burned out and morally conflicted.

James 5:11
As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Does suffering ever end, like what God brought about for Job, in the land of the living, emotionally as well as in life, or do we just suffer all our lives until we get to heaven? Does anyone have experience?

FIFA President tries to get Trump to leave the stage with him but Trump, after being heavily booed when he entered the stadium, just stays. Eventually the FIFA president gets him behind the players who were the focus of the moment.

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I honestly have no idea how long its been since she's been to the bathroom, but it's been a long time and I know she took laxatives yesterday and nothing happened. We're getting suppositories today, so hopefully that might help, but this is really serious because it has been a long time. Please pray for her to get better and pass this before she ends up in the hospital.

L"My parents prayed the rosary together their whole lives. Every day." - Pope Leo XIV​

How often do you pray the Rosary?

Pope Leo XIV revealed to newlyweds Cole and Anna Stevens that his parents, Louis and Mildred Prevost, prayed the rosary together “their whole lives.” The pope explained this to the couple following their papal marriage blessing on June 11, 2025.

He advised them to pray together and “find the style” that works for them.

“First of all, it’s very important to go slowly and to find the style of prayer that works for you, we’re all different, many spiritualities,” Pope Leo explains in the video. “For myself, especially praying together with someone, from my own parents, praying the rosary together. My parents prayed the rosary together their whole lives. Every day."

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Pope Leo said he believes that his parents’ praying the daily rosary together blessed him.

“I’m sure, because of it, their love for one another, they put their faith in God, and in the intercession through Mary. It’s a wonderful thing.”

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You may know the story, but these lesser-known miracles and mysteries surrounding Our Lady of Guadalupe are sure to renew your wonder.
The original tilma of St. Juan Diego is displayed behind the main altar at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. (photo: Cezary Wojtkowski / Shutterstock)

Most Catholics are well-versed in the details of the Marian apparitions that took place in Europe at Lourdes in 1858 and at Fatima in 1917. While many have knowledge of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the 1500s, there are a number of amazing details related to this event that some may find surprising.

Our Lady made four appearances in 1531 near what is today Mexico City. According to the documented account, the shrine that currently rests on Tepeyac hill was built at the request of Our Lady, at a time when only a few of the local inhabitants had converted to the faith. One of the great miracles that resulted from the apparition was that, within a relatively short period (by 1539), more than 8 million Aztecs became Christians as a result of the Virgin Mary’s appearance.

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Your brain is hardwired to look for threats. That’s great if you’re in a jungle being chased by a bear. Not so great when you’re trying to live in the peace Jesus died to give you. In Week 2 of our Living Peace summer series, I delve into the real reason why so many of us are stuck in fear, outrage, and constant conflict, and how Jesus flips the script in one of His most famous parables: the Good Samaritan...

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24:56

This brought me to tears.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Young Girl in the Presence of the Eucharist. . . Beautiful

And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. (Douay-Rheims Matthew 25:40)

By now the appalling story of two teenage lads in Mountain View, California, is well known. They were classmates at a local Catholic High School, St Francis, and when younger applied an acne remedy to their faces, causing them to turn black (dark green, really)

Regrettably, and no doubt foolishly, the two boys took selfies of themselves at the time, and eventually those photos got around, causing a furor.

Fox TV

That act resulted in their lives becoming a living hell for several years. Every single leftie in a vast radius, whose mission is to keep a constant vigil on all those whose personal activities are suspect, no matter how innocent, took notice and the screaming fest began. For when a white man is caught in blackface, no exculpatory explanation is sought nor needed, they are guilty, quod erat demonstrandum.

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And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. (Douay-Rheims Matthew 25:40)

By now the appalling story of two teenage lads in Mountain View, California, is well known. They were classmates at a local Catholic High School, St Francis, and when younger applied an acne remedy to their faces, causing them to turn black (dark green, really)

Regrettably, and no doubt foolishly, the two boys took selfies of themselves at the time, and eventually those photos got around, causing a furor.

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When it comes to his loyal base Trump is usually sure footed. His attempt to make his Epstein problem go away by using his usual bluster and bloviation is a mistake. Suspicion of the Deep State is an article of faith for MAGA. Trump said that everything about Epstein would be revealed and now his Attorney General and his FBI are saying“Never mind! Nothing to see here! Go about your business!

To quote Talleyrand, it is worse than a crime, it is a mistake. He had his enemies on the run and now he has disheartened his friends and handed a sword to his foes.

American bishops should not be excusing crime.

In the early half of the 20th century, beginning in 1917, Mexico’s government began persecuting Catholics. A new constitution outlawed Catholic teaching, banned religious orders, and claimed all Church property for the government. Violent persecution within less than a decade. The priest Luis Bátiz Sainz was arrested for teaching catechism and celebrating Mass and was executed by firing squad. Miguel de la Mora, another priest, was executed while praying the rosary. Rodrigo Aguilar Alemán was arrested while celebrating Mass in secret and hanged. While distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Pedro de Jesús Maldonado was attacked by soldiers and tortured and killed in his own church.

Jesuit priest Miguel Pro was captured by federal police and executed by firing squad. When asked his final words, Pro cried out, “Viva Cristo Rey!” In an attempt to stamp out Catholicism and spread fear, the Mexican government photographed the well-known priest’s execution and had it published on the front page of newspapers. Far from driving Catholics away from the sacraments, however, the stunt actually sparked an increased fervor among Mexican Catholics, who refused to stay away from Mass. One young Catholic, 15-year-old José Luis Sánchez del Río, was captured by government soldiers and told to renounce his faith. When he refused, the soles of his feet were cut off and he was made to march to his own grave. All he had to do to avoid death was reject Christ. Instead, he followed in Miguel Pro’s footsteps and cried out, “Viva Cristo Rey!”

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I’m sure you all remember Avery Jackson, the “trans girl” who, at 9, was on the cover of National Geographic. Avery was given the gold standard in gender affirming care: he was chemically castrated and sterilized with “blockers” to hold off male puberty. Nevertheless, he does not pass, and never will.

Now, at age 17, Avery has come out as “nonbinary” — but that’s not the worst part. He also identifies as asexual, meaning that he doesn’t experience sexual attraction.

This is undoubtedly the result of the medication used to delay male puberty; the president of WPATH, Dr, “Marci” Bowers, has said on camera that so-called puberty blockers, which are used to chemically castrate sex offenders, chemically castrate the young boys who take them as well, leaving them incapable of…

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What Happened to the National Geographic Trans “Girl”

Why Catholics Can Never Scatter Someone’s Ashes When They Die

Fr. Mike Schmitz via X explains.

When I was ordained a priest in 1985, my first pastor was about to turn 50 years old; he was a member of the Ordination Class of 1962. He saw himself and others saw him too as a “Vatican II” priest. There were meetings galore, a lot of “co-ministry” with women Religious, and, in discussions, frequent references to the marginalized and minorities of various kinds. But I don’t recall that we had a single Holy Hour in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament in my five-year assignment there, nor do I remember hearing a word against co-habitation in the parish Pre-Cana program. Moreover, I have no memory of any notices in the weekly bulletin announcing seminars on the topic of natural family planning.

There are always going to be different pastoral emphases, even in what might be regarded as not particularly ideological parishes. What developed, however, in many post-conciliar parishes are what we now call “safe spaces,” meaning places you could go and not be reminded of words and ideas you don’t like. When the “safe space” is breached after decades in some cases, you can well imagine the displeasure in certain quarters. But it was bound to happen at some point.

Over the last few years, men ordained priests in the 1970s have been marking their fiftieth anniversaries and are retiring from the active ministry. They are being replaced by men who weren’t even alive in the 1970s! Indeed, the men in the cohort of younger priests now were only ordained in the last two decades. These younger priests are doctrinally more conservative than the priests they are replacing. This is not just anecdotal; the survey research bears this out too.

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“Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar,” April Roberts said, as she oversaw lunch at the Curtis Area Senior Center.

The retirees trickling in for fried chicken and soft-serve ice cream will be hit hardest when the clinic closes this fall, Roberts fears. Seniors who sometimes go in multiple times a month to have blood drawn will have to drive 40 miles to the next nearest health center

Arriving for lunch, retired Navy veteran Jim Christensen said he’d read an op-ed that “tried to blame everything on Trump.”

“Horse feathers,” he said, dismissing the idea.
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“They’re huge [fans of Trump] … and so it doesn’t matter what he does - there’s an excuse for it,” [registered Republican but non-Trump voter] Jorgensen said. The retired corn and cattle farmer was used to being the odd one out in Frontier County, where 86 percent of the vote went to Trump last fall.

Many people in Curtis have directed their frustration at their hospital system instead of their representatives in Washington.

Community Hospital, the nonprofit that runs the clinic known as the Curtis Medical Center and a couple of other facilities in the region, plunged into the center of that national story when it announced on July 2 - one day before the bill’s passage - that a confluence of factors had made its Curtis outpost unsustainable. It cited years-long financial challenges, inflation and “anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid,” the public health insurance program for lower-income and disabled Americans.

Rural health care facilities run on thin margins to serve small communities in far-flung locations. And they tend to have more patients on Medicaid, many of them self-employed farmers, small business owners and seasonal workers more likely to need public insurance. Hospital groups and executives have warned that some rural hospitals that long operated at a loss won’t be able to stay open much longer, now that the Medicaid cuts have been voted in.

Community Hospital officials said they had tried to find another group to take over the clinic, without luck.

In a resurfaced viral video, a priest is attacked during the consecration at Mass.

A young woman approaches the altar as he says the consecration prayers and hits him. In the background, one can hear an audible shriek.

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Priest Attacked by Shrieking Woman at Mass, Then Casts Out Demons with Deliverance Prayer

In a resurfaced video, a priest is attacked during the consecration at Mass. After she is removed, he says a deliverance prayer over her!

hollywoodcatholic.com

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Seminarian Josh Brooks. | Credit: Courtesy of Catholic Philly, official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Josh Brooks, a native of Delaware County in metro Philadelphia, dreamed of following in the footsteps of his idol LeBron James and becoming a professional basketball player. However, God had other plans for him.

Today, Brooks is in his third year of university studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and is preparing for the priesthood.

“I don't want to just live for myself, but I want to bring the joy God gave me to other people,” Brooks said in a recent interview with Catholic Philly, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Raised in the Baptist faith, Brooks had his first contact with Catholicism when his parents enrolled him at St. Ignatius Loyola Elementary School in West Philadelphia. Later, at Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast High School, his interest in the Catholic faith grew.

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