OPINION:

One of the week’s most peculiar faith and culture stories came from the set of “The View,”where co-host Sunny Hostin uttered an eyebrow-raising proclamation about Jesus.  “I don’t know that they hide behind religion because I said this on this show once before — Jesus would be the grand marshal at the pride parade,” Ms. Hostin said. The TV host made the shocking comment while talking about the deadly mass shooting over the weekend at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado.

On the abortion front

Seventy percent of the FBI’s abortion-related cases since the leak of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson involve attacks and threats against pro-life facilities, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said. Mr. Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the FBI has treated violence against pro-life and pro-choice organizations equally while disclosing that anti-abortion groups have been the primary targets of post-Dobbs violence. “We have quite a number of investigations as we speak into attacks or threats against pregnancy resource centers, faith-based organizations, and other pro-life organizations,” he said, TWT’s Valerie Richardson reported. Meanwhile, Indianapolis doctor Dr. Caitlin Bernard testified this week in a case surrounding the records of a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio to whom Dr. Bernard provided abortion drugs.  The hearing centered on an attempt to block Indiana’s Republican attorney general from accessing patient records. Dr. Bernard, who said she is defending the girl, is under investigation over whether she properly reported child abuse, among other elements in the case. “There is no evidence of any crime being committed,” she said. “So there should be no investigation necessary.”

TikTok fears mount

Worries about TikTok are kicking back up into high gear, with Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat, saying former President Trump was right to be concerned about the social media platform. Mr. Warner even urged parents during a recent Fox News appearance to be wary, TWT’s Tom Howell Jr. reports.  “I think Donald Trump was right. I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat,” he said. “If you’re a parent, and you’ve got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned. All of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing.”

Around the world

On the international front, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has purportedly incubated and created a negative environment for non-Hindu religious minorities — one that is “increasingly hostile — the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says. The country’s policies have “enabled intolerance of religious minorities and exacerbated communal divides, resulting in violence, deaths, injuries, sexual assault [and the] destruction of property,” a report by the commission found. The newfound report could have an impact in the U.S. as well, reports TWT’s Mark Kellner: “The findings could deepen a political dilemma for the Biden administration, which has cultivated India as a key ally in the bid to restrain a rising China, even as the Modi government‘s domestic record on rights and civil liberties comes under scrutiny.” And Pope Francis recently ventured out for a rare public outing during a visit to the Italian province of Asti. He rode the famous popemobile around town and spoke at a Mass to encourage young people to help the impoverished.

In our opinion…

Now for the opinion pieces you won’t want to miss: Billy Hallowell covers a 78-year-old grandmother who is suing Bullhead City, Arizona, over an ordinance precluding her from feeding the homeless in a local park — an activity she engaged in almost daily before being arrested in March. And Robert Knight penned a piece lamenting “a very serious setback this past week in the cause of freedom, courtesy of a dozen ‘woke’ Republican senators.” He discussed how these senators helped bring the Respect for Marriage Act one step closer to fruition. Finally, Don Feder reminds us of the power of gratitude — and the perils of an ever-secular culture. “We’re losing Thanksgiving because we’ve lost a sense of the Divine,” he writes. “As more and more Americans become secular, we’re becoming a people who’ve forgotten how to say thank you — not just to God, but to each other.”

That wraps up this week’s Higher Ground. Read The Washington Times for more daily headlines.

Click here to sign up and continue to receive Higher Ground from Billy Hallowell and Mark Kellner every Sunday afternoon.