Focus on the Family joined with dozens of pro-family individuals and organizations in signing a letter calling on Congress to further strengthen the Child Tax Credit (CTC).

The CTC helps families with qualifying children under age 17 get a tax break.

The credit can be claimed annually if a set of eight criteria (based on age, relationship, support, dependent status, citizenship, length of residency, family income, and work-eligible Social Security numbers) are met.

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), passed by Congress earlier this year and signed into law by President Trump on July 4, increased the CTC from $2,000 to $2,200 per child for qualified taxpayers. The bill made the CTC permanent and took effect immediately, so the provision applies to the 2025 tax year.

Addressed to President Donald J. Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, the letter, dated September 19, acknowledges the positive impact the OBBB’s tax reductions will have on families.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill implemented many new supports for families; making the Child Tax Credit permanent, indexing it to inflation so it won’t lose its value and increasing the amount,” the letter details.

“Thanks to your leadership, Republicans continue to have an opportunity before the midterms to put American families first and deliver the next step on the trail you are blazing to American greatness.”

In a striking turn of events at one of America’s most elite universities, Lila Rose decisively won a formal debate on abortion at Yale University.

On September 16, Yale Political Union, a student-run debate society hosted a debate on abortion. The topic was “Abortion and Human Rights.” The specific resolution, “Choice over Life,” urged students to consider whether abortion should be defended as a right.

After over two hours of debate and discussion, the audience rejected the resolution by a vote of 60-31, giving Rose and the pro-life community a resounding victory.

Rose posted this on X immediately following the event.

The debate pitted Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action and Frances Kissling, an abortion rights activist and former head of Catholics for Choice, against each other.

Each side was given time for opening remarks, cross-examination and rebuttals.

As reported by Rose’s organization, Live Action, Kissling “focused her argument on the false claim that preborn children are not as valuable as other human beings.” While Rose contended that preborn children are being “denied their humanity” and drew connections to slavery and the Holocaust to demonstrate what happens when groups of people are stripped of their humanity.

Rose built her argument for life on the principles of science and morality. She emphasized that life begins at conception and that the baby in the womb is fully human with equal value to people who have been born.

Saturday’s Wall Street Journal highlighted the “Capstone Model of Marriage,” the belief that you only tie the knot after the big milestones and personal goals of life are met — namely getting your education, buying a house, or landing the lucrative job.

The article quoted Krista Westrick-Payne, assistant director of the National Center for Marriage and Family Research.

“People don’t want to get married until they have an education, have that job that can support them and they can afford a house, and they are also looking for a partner that ticks all those boxes,” she observed.

Delaying marriage to achieve all those things may avoid some of the financial strain that might otherwise be present, but it also invites a litany of other problems.

Waiting to get married often results in marrying someone else down the line — or not getting married at all. It also leads to an increased risk of cohabitation, which then leads to an increased risk of divorce. Cohabitation is also outside of God’s will. Writing to early believers in Greece, the apostle Paul warned,

“It’s God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality, that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God” (1 Thess. 4:3).

Well meaning Christians may feel getting all your “ducks in a row” is the responsible course to take — but it’s not a zero-sum game.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk by an accused shooter with numerous ties to transgenderism has placed a spotlight on violence from transgender-identified individuals and their allies.

But transgenderism’s harms don’t just come from individuals. Transgender ideology, in and of itself, is inherently damaging and it has led to great destruction.

Ideas have consequences and transgender dogma, rooted as it is in falsehood and the destruction of the body, has wreaked incredible damage on all of society. It has reaped a dark, dismal harvest across the west.

To be clear, most transgender-identified individuals are not violent. Many wrestle with deep emotional, spiritual and psychological issues, but they still choose not to commit crimes. Many simply want to live in peace — without political engagement or even imposing their beliefs on others.

Scripture calls us to love those caught in the transgender web of deceit.

At the same time, as Paul said, we pull down strongholds, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

That’s why we must understand and courageously speak the truth: Gender ideology is innately harmful, and it has fostered and led to great destruction.

The harms from gender ideology stem, first of all, from its originators, men with twisted thinking and actions who founded the transgender movement, creating and fostering a false dogma.