G3 Weekly—March 4, 2023

Ben Zeisloft

G3 Weekly 1920

Welcome to G3 Weekly—a summary of this week’s top news stories on Christianity and the public square.

This week, a study revealed that less than half of murders in the United States are solved. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a pro-life activist who called abortion “murder.” Meanwhile, a Christian school which came out as “affirming” toward self-professed LGBTQ students last year closed its doors after most of its donors pulled their funds.

Majority of Homicides in America Go Unsolved

“Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil” (Ecc 8:11).

Data reveal that less than one in two homicides in the United States typically remain unsolved.

The Marshall Project found that the clearance rate, the percentage of murders that are solved by law enforcement, continued a steady decline from 70% four decades ago to less than 50% as of 2020, according to a report from the organization. Experts said the decreased success in solving murders occurs because “over time, a growing proportion of killings are being committed by strangers and unknown assailants, as opposed to people the victim knew.”

The heightened use of firearms rather than fists or knives also increases the difficulty of closing cases since “detectives say they have fewer leads to follow.”

The phenomenon comes alongside a spike in the murder rate following the social justice riots in the summer of 2020 and the related movement to defund police forces. Approval of capital punishment has also reached a five-decade low: a mere 54% of respondents in one Gallup survey indicated support for the death penalty in the case of convicted murderers.

Politicians have therefore expressed their disapproval for capital punishment. Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, announced at the beginning of his term that he would not issue any execution warrants while in office. “The commonwealth shouldn’t be in the business of putting people to death,” he said. “I believe that in my heart.”

Texas Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Pro-Life Activist

“They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks with integrity” (Amos 5:10).

A defamation case against Mark Lee Dickson, the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn movement, was dismissed by the Texas Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds.

Dickson had called the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, the Afiya Center, and the Texas Equal Access Fund “criminal organizations” which “murder innocent unborn children,” leading the entities to sue him for defamation. A unanimous decision from the Texas Supreme Court said that the remarks were “protected opinion about abortion law made in pursuit of changing that law.”

“An examination of the statements and their context shows no abuse of the constitutional right to freely speak,” Justice Jane Bland wrote. “The speaker did not urge or threaten violence, nor did he misrepresent the underlying conduct in expressing his opinions about it. Either potentially could have removed his constitutional protections.”

The verdict in the case occurs after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the case which purported that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution protects abortion. States such as Texas have more strictly regulated surgical abortion even as laws neglect to prosecute abortion as murder and continue to allow self-managed, medically induced abortions.

Christian School Affirming LGBTQ Movement Closes Its Doors

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Eph 5:11).

Urban Christian Academy in Kansas City, Missouri, was forced to close after administrators published a statement endorsing the LGBTQ movement and lost the support of donors.

The private school, which educated students from kindergarten to eighth grade, added language to their website calling themselves an “affirming” institution. “We stand with the LGBTQIA+ community and believe in their holiness. We celebrate the diversity of God’s creation in all its varied and beautiful forms,” the website reads. “We believe God exists in gray and multitudes.”

Urban Christian Academy Executive Director Kalie Callaway-George said in an interview with ABC News that the institution anticipated some degree of backlash from its donor base, which reacted more strongly against the statement than they had originally expected. Eight churches soon withdrew their financial support of the school, while members of the congregations did the same.

“We anticipated a 50% loss in funding and made adjustments for that,” Callaway-George told the outlet. “We had an 80% loss in funding and that was too much to overcome.”

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Author G3 Weekly 1920

Ben Zeisloft

Ben Zeisloft is the editor of The Sentinel and a former staff writer for The Daily Wire. He and his wife, Neilee, are members at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.