Coming off the Thanksgiving holiday, we’ll start this week’s newsletter with an uplifting story. The Washington Times’ Sean Salai covers a Vietnam veteran who volunteers six hours each week to coddle sick and preterm babies at a Texas hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

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“[Lyn] Harris started volunteering 15 years ago at the front desk of St. David’s Medical Center, an Austin hospital founded by Episcopalians,” Mr. Salai writes. “But he says he found his true calling a few years ago when he moved into the hospital’s NICU Cuddler Program.”

Read more about the impact Mr. Harris is having on these babies’ and families’ lives.

Stunning transgender statistic

As the White House last week commemorated the Transgender Day of Remembrance and reflected on lives lost, The Times’ Valerie Richardson notes officials neglected to mention an important detail: “transgender Americans are less likely to be victims of homicide than the average U.S. citizen.”

“The Human Rights Campaign reported that 26 transgender people have been killed so far in 2023. About 2.6 million people identify as transgender, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, placing the homicide rate at one death per every 100,000,” Ms. Richardson writes. “That’s well below the overall U.S. homicide rate of 7.8 deaths per 100,000, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021, the latest full year for which figures are available.”

Muslim leader suspended over anti-Israel posts

Meanwhile, a Maryland Muslim leader was temporarily suspended from a hate crimes commission after a social media post claiming the “40 Israeli infants killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel were ‘fake’ and other posts comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany,” The Times’ Mark Kellner writes.

“I will never be able to understand how the world summoned up rage for 40 fake Israeli babies while completely turning a blind eye to 3,000 real Palestinian babies,” Zainab Chaudry wrote in an Oct. 26 Facebook post. 

Ms. Chaudry, executive director of the Maryland branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was named this year to the Maryland Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention, Mr. Kellner notes.

Video: Rock star slams ‘wimpy, weak’ culture

John Cooper, frontman of “Skillet” and author of “Wimpy, Weak, & Woke,” doesn’t shy away from calling out the ills of our current culture, including a weak church that is allowing the “de-evolution of society.” 

In a wide-ranging conversation with Higher Ground’s Billy Hallowell, Mr. Cooper explains how Christians have lost their way in a secular culture – and how Bible-believers can turn the tide and return to Gospel truth.

Target furor reignites

On the protest front, retail giant Target is once again in critics’ crosshairs after the company unveiled “Pride nutcrackers, Santa figurines waving rainbow flags, [and] ‘Love is Love’ tree ornaments.” As Ms. Richardson notes, conservative boycotts are reigniting. 

“Calls to ring in the season with another consumer embargo broke out following reports about Target’s Christmas Pride line, which includes at least two nutcrackers dressed in rainbow garb, one holding the Progress Pride flag, the other sporting a ‘love is love’ staff,” she writes. “Most of the merchandise is available online only.”

Podcast: Hamas hostage’s mom speaks out

The mother of a Hamas hostage is speaking out about her family’s pain, what unfolded on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, and what she’s been feeling and experiencing. 

Doris Liber has spoken with politicians and the public since her son, 26-year-old Guy Illouzm, was taken hostage. She and her family have no idea about his whereabouts or health status. Here is her story on the “Higher Ground With Billy Hallowell” podcast.

Oscar-winning actress sparks controversy

In other Israel-related news, The Times’ Victor Morton reports Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon has been officially canceled, with her talent agency dropping her after remarks she made at an anti-Jewish rally.

“There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country,” Ms. Sarandon said. Agency UTA dropped her as a client soon afterward. Read more about the story here.

Joni Eareckson Tada tackles heaven

Mr. Kellner sat down with evangelical author Joni Eareckson Tada, who shared her faith and testimony of being a quadriplegic for more than five decades. Ms. Tada also detailed her views on heaven and the afterlife.

“Sometimes I think when I get to heaven, I imagine a celestial sandy shore, and like a marathoner, [I’m] running through the tape,” she said. “I get on the other side, I fall to the sand, heaving, gasping, ‘I made it, I made it.’”

Ms. Tada’s full interview and comments are here.

In our opinion

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving legacy. Mr. Hallowell tackles the horrific situation President Abraham Lincoln faced in the heat of the Civil War — and the gratitude Mr. Lincoln chose to express even amid the unthinkable.

“Just months after the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg — a scourge that left 50,000 Americans slaughtered in the heat of the Civil War — Lincoln issued a historic Thanksgiving Proclamation,” Mr. Hallowell writes. “That reflective call to gratitude has widely been seen as the baseline for the modern Thanksgiving holiday.” 

Here’s how this proclamation should inspire us to navigate our own contemporary divisions.

Teaching Judeo-Christian values. And the Rev. Samuel Rodriquez explores the issue of worldview in his opinion piece, noting the essential nature of parents teaching their kids about what really matters.

“In a rapidly changing world where values and worldviews seem to shift like quicksand, it is becoming increasingly important for parents to teach their children and their future grandchildren the fundamental values of the Judeo-Christian worldview,” he writes. 

Faith and government. And, finally, Everett Piper recounts what unfolded when he recently took to Facebook to share some of the Founding Fathers’ quotes on faith and government — proclamations that riled one of his followers. 

See what the Founders had to say and how Mr. Piper responded to an online troll who invoked the “separation of church and state” argument.