Friday Church News Notes
July 31, 2026 - Volume 27, Issue 31
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, though this does not imply an endorsement.
NMAH Director Anthea Hartig
WOKE, DEI NOT DEAD, JUST WAITING (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The New America that is at war with the Old America is alive and well and biding its time. Politics cannot destroy it. Strong churches, godly homes, and effectual prayer are the only hope. The following is excerpted from “The Woke Left Captured the Smithsonian,” Fox News, July 24, 2026: “Contrary to what some on the right may believe, we are not winning the war against DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion] placements and promotions, and we are not winning the war against the greater ‘Woke’ ideology. Both have been placed in faux hibernation by a far-left playing the long game. Actually, the game may not turn out to be that long at all. Many on the left are planning to double and triple-down on the ‘Woke’ gameplan should the Democrats take back part or all of Congress in November and the White House in 2028. Should you need a very recent reminder of how insidious and embedded DEI appointments combined with the ‘Woke’ theology can be, I encourage you to watch the smug and condescending testimony given by National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig in response to a number of sane and pragmatic questions asked of her by Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas. While Gill put on a masterclass on exposing merit and nation-destroying ‘wokism,’ I can assure you that the seemingly self-righteous and arrogant Hartig was mentally drumming her fingers while thinking: ‘We are just going to wait you and the Trump administration out and then reinstall Woke and DEI across the government and private sector spectrum.’” (See also “The Two Americas: The Old and the New” at www.wayoflife.org.)
UK BARS FINNISH CHRISTIAN MP OVER BIBLICAL BELIEFS ON SEXUALITY (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “UK Bars,” The Washington Stand, July 18, 2026: “In a sign of the continuing breakdown of religious freedom in Europe, Finnish parliament member Päivi Räsänen was banned by the U.K. from traveling to Heathrow Airport for a planned layover due to her Finnish Supreme Court conviction in March for authoring a pamphlet containing supposed ‘hate speech’ toward those who identify as LGBT. Räsänen’s legal saga began in 2019, when she wrote a post on social media questioning why her Finnish Lutheran Church was choosing to participate in an LGBT Pride event, citing the scriptural prohibition against same-sex conduct from Romans 1:24-27. Finnish authorities eventually charged her and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola with ‘hate speech’ for authoring a pamphlet advocating for a biblical view of sexuality and for the social media post. ... Notably, the court admitted in its ruling that Räsänen and Pohjola’s conduct was not ‘serious.’ ‘[I]t must be taken into account that the text forming the basis for the conviction did not contain incitement to violence or comparable threat-like fomenting of hatred,’ the court wrote. ‘The conduct is therefore not particularly serious in terms of the nature of the offense.’ Nevertheless, Räsänen recently revealed that because of this single ‘not particularly serious’ charge, the U.K. has rejected her Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) merely to pass through the country via Heathrow Airport ... Experts like author and columnist Rod Dreher say that the decision of a Western nation like the U.K. to bar Räsänen from stepping foot in the country because of perceived ‘hate speech’ is a sign that Europe is rapidly sliding toward totalitarianism. ... European free speech advocates like Peter McIlvenna agree, noting that the U.K. barring Räsänen from entering is just the latest in a recent string of travel bans.”
BRAZIL PARENTS FACE PRISON FOR HOMESCHOOLING (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Brazil Parents,” Fox News, July 8, 2026: “A Brazilian court has sentenced a couple to 50 days in prison for ‘intellectual neglect’ after they homeschooled their two daughters without a state-approved curriculum. A São Paulo criminal court ruled against Audato and Ieda Denardi, alleging they had failed to include programs on ‘gender and sex education’ and ‘tolerance and diversity’ in the curriculum for their daughters, aged 15 and 11, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International said. According to the legal group, the court also ruled that the parents failed to properly integrate their children into Brazilian culture, citing the girls’ preference for religious and classical music over popular trap or ‘sertanejo’ (folk) music. ... Isabel Monteiro, the defense attorney representing the family, said the judge made an ‘ideological decision to convict them’ based largely on the older daughter’s preference for sacred music over mainstream music that often features explicit lyrics. The Denardis were sentenced to 50 days in prison by a lower court in April. They remain free while appealing the ruling, which is believed to be the first criminal prosecution of its kind in Brazil. The Denardis told Fox News Digital they began homeschooling the girls in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic after realizing their schools were failing to give them a proper education. Ieda said the girls thrived in homeschooling, and so she decided to continue educating the girls at home. ... Even the state’s own prosecutors urged the court to acquit the parents, concluding after an evaluation by an independent educational psychologist that the girls showed no signs of neglect and were thriving socially and academically. ... However, the judge rejected the prosecution’s recommendation.”
WHEN ROME ESTABLISHED THE GODLESS RULE OF CELIBACY IN ENGLAND (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “The name of Anselm ... should be forever infamous to the friend of humanity, for the pitiless rigor with which he enforced this measure. In 1102, he held an ecclesiastical council at London, where no fewer than ten canons were made for this single object. All priests, even the very lowest, were commanded to put away their wives immediately, not to suffer them to live on any lands belonging to the Church, never to see or speak to them, except in cases of the greatest necessity and in the presence of two or three witnesses. ‘Those unhallowed wretches who refused, were instantly to be deposed and excommunicated, and all their goods, as well as the goods and persons of their wives, as in the case of adulteresses, were to be forfeited to the bishop of the diocese’ [Henry’s History of Great Britain, 4th ed., 1805, vol. v. p. 307]. Succeeding prelates followed the lead of Anselm, and episcopal and legantine councils urged the measure, till the long struggle ended in the final establishment of celibacy, and the secular clergy were sealed to utter and irreclaimable profligacy” (H.C. Conant, The Popular History of the Translation of the Holy Scriptures, revised edition, 1881, pp. 6-7). “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry...” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
FREE EBOOK - WHAT EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ROCK MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Nearly 50 years ago, we published Mom and Dad Sleep While the Children Rock in Satan’s Cradle (out of print) to exhort parents and pastors to educate and protect their young people from the great spiritual/moral enemy of rock & roll. Since then, churches have grown strangely quiet about this danger. It must be the “frog in the pot” phenomenon. Rock permeates society, and we have grown accustomed to it, even though the music and the culture it has helped create have grown ever more wicked. Today our warning about rock is just as fervent as it was 50 years ago, though the content is updated for a new generation. The power of rock to produce rebels and to build the one-world church has not lessened. Homes and churches that don’t give clear, effectual, and persistent warnings about rock music in all of its forms should not be surprised if their young people are worldly and tend toward evangelical and emerging church thinking. The book What Every Christian Should Know about Rock Music lays out nine things that every Christian should know about rock music. 1. It represents a moral revolution. 2. It preaches a philosophy of narcissism and licentiousness. 3. It is permeated with blasphemy. 4. It is the music of false christs. 5. It is condemned by the Bible. 6. It is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. 7. It is at the heart of the one-world church. 8. It is addictive. 9. The only sure protection is separation. 70 pages. Available from the Books section of www.wayoflife.org.
MOTHS THAT THINK THEY ARE HUMMINGBIRDS (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, June 11, 2026: “There seems to be no end to the variety and wisdom of design in the creation. Most interesting are those creatures that share important traits and yet are nothing like each other. The whale is one example, it is constructed like a fish but is really a mammal. The sphinx moth is another such creature. While definitely a moth, it behaves in every way like a hummingbird and feeds on the nectar inside tobacco blooms. As a normal moth the sphinx could never reach the nectar in these deep-throated blooms, but it has a special tongue like a hummingbird. The moth hovers over the flower while inserting its long tongue into the flower. Its tongue, which is actually longer than the rest of its body, has two grooved halves, which, when fitted together, create what amounts to a long straw to draw out nectar. If the two halves don’t fit perfectly, the moth would starve to death. Obviously, the tongue of the first sphinx moth had to be fully-formed! As it hovers, the sphinx moth actually rivals the hummingbirds’ 50 wing beats per second with its own wing beat of 25 to 45 times per second! The wonderfully varied patterns in creation do not speak of relationships forged by millions of years of evolution. Rather, they speak of creative relationships, carefully designed by one all-wise Creator! REF.: Treat Davidson, ‘Moths That Behave Like Hummingbirds,’ National Geographic.”
“You show me a preacher who doesn’t cry out against sin, and I wouldn’t give a dime for a whole cow pasture of his converts!” (Lester Roloff).
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mt. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Ro. 13:11-14).
UK BARS FINNISH CHRISTIAN MP OVER BIBLICAL BELIEFS ON SEXUALITY (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “UK Bars,” The Washington Stand, July 18, 2026: “In a sign of the continuing breakdown of religious freedom in Europe, Finnish parliament member Päivi Räsänen was banned by the U.K. from traveling to Heathrow Airport for a planned layover due to her Finnish Supreme Court conviction in March for authoring a pamphlet containing supposed ‘hate speech’ toward those who identify as LGBT. Räsänen’s legal saga began in 2019, when she wrote a post on social media questioning why her Finnish Lutheran Church was choosing to participate in an LGBT Pride event, citing the scriptural prohibition against same-sex conduct from Romans 1:24-27. Finnish authorities eventually charged her and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola with ‘hate speech’ for authoring a pamphlet advocating for a biblical view of sexuality and for the social media post. ... Notably, the court admitted in its ruling that Räsänen and Pohjola’s conduct was not ‘serious.’ ‘[I]t must be taken into account that the text forming the basis for the conviction did not contain incitement to violence or comparable threat-like fomenting of hatred,’ the court wrote. ‘The conduct is therefore not particularly serious in terms of the nature of the offense.’ Nevertheless, Räsänen recently revealed that because of this single ‘not particularly serious’ charge, the U.K. has rejected her Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) merely to pass through the country via Heathrow Airport ... Experts like author and columnist Rod Dreher say that the decision of a Western nation like the U.K. to bar Räsänen from stepping foot in the country because of perceived ‘hate speech’ is a sign that Europe is rapidly sliding toward totalitarianism. ... European free speech advocates like Peter McIlvenna agree, noting that the U.K. barring Räsänen from entering is just the latest in a recent string of travel bans.”
BRAZIL PARENTS FACE PRISON FOR HOMESCHOOLING (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Brazil Parents,” Fox News, July 8, 2026: “A Brazilian court has sentenced a couple to 50 days in prison for ‘intellectual neglect’ after they homeschooled their two daughters without a state-approved curriculum. A São Paulo criminal court ruled against Audato and Ieda Denardi, alleging they had failed to include programs on ‘gender and sex education’ and ‘tolerance and diversity’ in the curriculum for their daughters, aged 15 and 11, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International said. According to the legal group, the court also ruled that the parents failed to properly integrate their children into Brazilian culture, citing the girls’ preference for religious and classical music over popular trap or ‘sertanejo’ (folk) music. ... Isabel Monteiro, the defense attorney representing the family, said the judge made an ‘ideological decision to convict them’ based largely on the older daughter’s preference for sacred music over mainstream music that often features explicit lyrics. The Denardis were sentenced to 50 days in prison by a lower court in April. They remain free while appealing the ruling, which is believed to be the first criminal prosecution of its kind in Brazil. The Denardis told Fox News Digital they began homeschooling the girls in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic after realizing their schools were failing to give them a proper education. Ieda said the girls thrived in homeschooling, and so she decided to continue educating the girls at home. ... Even the state’s own prosecutors urged the court to acquit the parents, concluding after an evaluation by an independent educational psychologist that the girls showed no signs of neglect and were thriving socially and academically. ... However, the judge rejected the prosecution’s recommendation.”
WHEN ROME ESTABLISHED THE GODLESS RULE OF CELIBACY IN ENGLAND (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “The name of Anselm ... should be forever infamous to the friend of humanity, for the pitiless rigor with which he enforced this measure. In 1102, he held an ecclesiastical council at London, where no fewer than ten canons were made for this single object. All priests, even the very lowest, were commanded to put away their wives immediately, not to suffer them to live on any lands belonging to the Church, never to see or speak to them, except in cases of the greatest necessity and in the presence of two or three witnesses. ‘Those unhallowed wretches who refused, were instantly to be deposed and excommunicated, and all their goods, as well as the goods and persons of their wives, as in the case of adulteresses, were to be forfeited to the bishop of the diocese’ [Henry’s History of Great Britain, 4th ed., 1805, vol. v. p. 307]. Succeeding prelates followed the lead of Anselm, and episcopal and legantine councils urged the measure, till the long struggle ended in the final establishment of celibacy, and the secular clergy were sealed to utter and irreclaimable profligacy” (H.C. Conant, The Popular History of the Translation of the Holy Scriptures, revised edition, 1881, pp. 6-7). “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry...” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
FREE EBOOK - WHAT EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ROCK MUSIC (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Nearly 50 years ago, we published Mom and Dad Sleep While the Children Rock in Satan’s Cradle (out of print) to exhort parents and pastors to educate and protect their young people from the great spiritual/moral enemy of rock & roll. Since then, churches have grown strangely quiet about this danger. It must be the “frog in the pot” phenomenon. Rock permeates society, and we have grown accustomed to it, even though the music and the culture it has helped create have grown ever more wicked. Today our warning about rock is just as fervent as it was 50 years ago, though the content is updated for a new generation. The power of rock to produce rebels and to build the one-world church has not lessened. Homes and churches that don’t give clear, effectual, and persistent warnings about rock music in all of its forms should not be surprised if their young people are worldly and tend toward evangelical and emerging church thinking. The book What Every Christian Should Know about Rock Music lays out nine things that every Christian should know about rock music. 1. It represents a moral revolution. 2. It preaches a philosophy of narcissism and licentiousness. 3. It is permeated with blasphemy. 4. It is the music of false christs. 5. It is condemned by the Bible. 6. It is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. 7. It is at the heart of the one-world church. 8. It is addictive. 9. The only sure protection is separation. 70 pages. Available from the Books section of www.wayoflife.org.
MOTHS THAT THINK THEY ARE HUMMINGBIRDS (Friday Church News Notes, July 31, 2026, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is from CreationMoments.com, June 11, 2026: “There seems to be no end to the variety and wisdom of design in the creation. Most interesting are those creatures that share important traits and yet are nothing like each other. The whale is one example, it is constructed like a fish but is really a mammal. The sphinx moth is another such creature. While definitely a moth, it behaves in every way like a hummingbird and feeds on the nectar inside tobacco blooms. As a normal moth the sphinx could never reach the nectar in these deep-throated blooms, but it has a special tongue like a hummingbird. The moth hovers over the flower while inserting its long tongue into the flower. Its tongue, which is actually longer than the rest of its body, has two grooved halves, which, when fitted together, create what amounts to a long straw to draw out nectar. If the two halves don’t fit perfectly, the moth would starve to death. Obviously, the tongue of the first sphinx moth had to be fully-formed! As it hovers, the sphinx moth actually rivals the hummingbirds’ 50 wing beats per second with its own wing beat of 25 to 45 times per second! The wonderfully varied patterns in creation do not speak of relationships forged by millions of years of evolution. Rather, they speak of creative relationships, carefully designed by one all-wise Creator! REF.: Treat Davidson, ‘Moths That Behave Like Hummingbirds,’ National Geographic.”
“You show me a preacher who doesn’t cry out against sin, and I wouldn’t give a dime for a whole cow pasture of his converts!” (Lester Roloff).
CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mt. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Ro. 13:11-14).
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Distributed by Way of Life Literature, publisher of Bible Study Materials and reports for Fundamental Baptists and other fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians. Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. Brother Cloud lives in South Asia where he has been a church planting missionary since 1979. OUR GOAL IN THIS PARTICULAR ASPECT OF OUR MINISTRY (REPORTS AND FRIDAY NEWS) IS NOT DEVOTIONAL, BUT TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST PREACHERS IN THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCHES IN THIS APOSTATE HOUR.
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
The Way of Life Literature preaching and publishing ministry is based at Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario, of which Wilbert Unger is the founding Pastor. A mail stop is maintained in Port Huron, Michigan.
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