OPINION:

Welcome to Higher Ground, the faith-centric newsletter focused on the intersection of culture and politics from experienced journalists at The Washington Times.

Let’s start with some noteworthy religious liberty news: Arizona’s largest elementary school district has settled with an evangelical Christian university over a lawsuit charging religious discrimination. The Washington Elementary School District in Glendale suspended a partnership with Arizona Christian University over the college’s religious beliefs on LGBTQ issues. The district has since agreed to again start accepting student teachers from the school. “The settlement renews the agreement placing ACU students in WESD schools for a one-year term beginning July 1,” The Washington Times’ Mark A. Kellner writes. “The district will also pay $25,000 in legal fees to ACU and its attorneys, the Alliance Defending Freedom.”

Southern Baptist slump

In other news, Mr. Kellner reported that the Southern Baptist Convention saw its membership dwindle by 457,371 last year, erasing decades of growth.  “Statistics reveal the 13.2 million-member denomination is still America’s largest Protestant group, although it’s seen declines of 3% in the past three years,” Mr. Kellner writes. “The new figure is equal to the 13,196,979 reported in 1978, the denomination said.” Find out more about what could be driving these trends.

Horrific fentanyl finding

And a recently released study found a thirty-fold increase between 2013 and 2021 of fentanyl poisoning deaths among young people aged 19 or younger. Julie R. Gaither, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, announced these stunning findings.  “Her research found that fentanyl grew from accounting for 5% of 175 pediatric opioid deaths in 1999 to 94% of 1,657 deaths by 2021,” The Times’ Sean Salai reports. “From 2013 to 2021, the mortality rate increased by 3,740%, from 0.05 to 1.92 deaths for every 100,000 young people, as fentanyl became the leading cause of all pediatric opioid deaths.”

Fox News’ Shannon Bream shares faith

“Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream opens up about her faith, new book and overcoming life difficulties in an interview with The Times’ Higher Ground. “I think God can teach us through good and difficult seasons,” Ms. Bream tells columnist Billy Hallowell. “And even when I’ve been unfaithful or walked away, or … gotten into sin, or done things that I deeply regret, [God] never moved. He’s always waiting there with that unconditional love for us to come back.”

Millennials’ biblical crisis

Meanwhile, a new study is shedding light on how millennials’ faith fared during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the survey finding a 6% decrease in Bible study and reading and a 7% dip in the belief that God is the basis of truth. “The millennial generation — those born between 1981 and 1996 — was the ‘least closely connected to biblical Christianity before the pandemic, and that connection was made even weaker’ by the end of the pandemic,” Mr. Kellner writes, detailing survey findings from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. Read more about millennials’ faith trajectory here.

Anheuser-Busch’s ’misinformation’ move

In other news, the debate over Bud Light’s interactions with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney continues to rage. In the latest development, Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch parent company AB InBev, credited the negativity to “misinformation.”  “We never intended to make it for general production and sale for the public,” Mr. Doukeris told the Financial Times. As The Times’ Victor Morton notes, chaos kicked off after Bud Light sent the influencer a custom can featuring the TikTok star’s face.

In our opinion

And over on the opinion pages, Mr. Hallowell warns that America’s worship of creation over the Creator is sending the nation over a cultural cliff, and he turns to the Apostle Paul to lay out his case. “While the Almighty was once an intrinsic cultural mainstay, today he is simply an afterthought, footnote or ghost for many — a distant figure unworthy of attention, let alone praise or adoration,” Mr. Hallowell writes. “After decades of pulling prayer and God out of everything, we’ve left a massive vacuum and a dearth of spiritual connectedness leaving people desperate for something — or someone — to revere.” On the abortion front, Nicole Hunt believes the pro-choice lobby is actively working to take away women’s true choices when it comes to abortion pill reversal, a treatment Colorado tried to ban last month before a U.S. District Court ordered a temporary restraining order allowing it. “If the abortion lobby gets its way and the law is ultimately upheld, Colorado women will no longer be allowed to choose life for their preborn babies if they change their minds after starting a chemical abortion — sentencing their preborn babies to death,” Ms. Hunt writes.

REMINDER: Higher Ground is there for you if you’re seeking guidance in today’s changing world. Everett Piper, a PhD and a former university president and radio host, is writing an advice column for The Times, and he wants to hear from you. If you have any moral or ethical questions for which you’d like an answer, please email askeverett@washingtontimes.com, and he may include it in the column.