It’s Saturday, June 7, 2025.

Today’s edition covers why Pride marches are down, an exposé of demonic possession in Hollywood actors, other good and bad news, and trinitarian passages in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament).

When the LORD gives you wisdom, “you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.” (Proverbs 2:20)

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Of Christian Concern

PRIDE BEFORE A FALL: “PRIDE” MARCHES LOSE UP TO 50% OF THEIR SPONSORSHIP

Perhaps “accostomed” would be too strong of a word, but Americans have, in recent years, become used to enduring the flaunting of sexual perversions in the month of June. For years, it has been celebrated as “Pride Month,” with LGBTQ-themed parades, marches, festivals, workshops, fundraisers, and more.

These events increasingly found sponsorships from the corporate world, likely in large part to the influence of the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), published annually by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, which rates businesses on their level of support for LGBTQ+ efforts and has advanced widespread systematic corporate policy changes as a result.

However, a shift began to occur in 2023, when Bud Light and, to a lesser degree, Target experienced significant public backlash and boycotts for their promotion of LGBTQ+ people and products. Bud Light’s ad featuring trans activist Dylan Mulvaney and Target’s sale of transgender bathing suits allegedly in children’s sizes were two too many straws for the public. The campaign against Bud Light was so triumphant that the beer brand has become a byword and a synonym for a successful boycott: “Give ‘em the Bud Light treatment!”

Last year (2024), in the wake of that upheaval, corporate enthusiasm for Pride was starting to cool off. Then, this year, Trump took office and, through several actions, significantly diminished the appeal of out-and-proud support for transgenderism. He issued an executive order stating that the federal government would only recognize the two sexes. He revoked Biden administration actions to extend certain privileges to LGBTQ people, banned transgender treatments from federal prisons, blocked LGBTQ+ flags from being flown on federal buildings, and more.

Now, as June 2025 has dawned, we see the cumulative effect of these turning tables. Slate reports massive decreases in the sponsorship of Pride events across the nation, from cities in Nebraska, Florida, Virginia, and elsewhere, all the way to New York City, the District of Columbia, and even the gay capital of the world, San Francisco. The events in these latter three have a collective shortfall of $1.3 million, while others have seen 40 and even 50 percent fewer contributions from businesses. “Some Pride festivals have been forced to scale back their events while they grapple with a new reality, and others worry that, someday in the near future, they may no longer have the money to exist at all.”

My, how the Prideful have fallen!

While it would be premature to celebrate total victory over the elements of sexual perversion in American culture, there’s undoubtedly a lesson here for Christians and conservatives about what can be accomplished socially and politically by collective, motivated action.

For lists of some businesses still supporting Pride events, see here and here.

Also Noteworthy

→ Thousands of Ukrainians are coming to Christ amid the war with Russia, Ukrainian minister Dr. David Karcha revealed in an address at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s European Congress on Evangelism last Thursday. “In the world's eyes, Ukraine is a story of war. But in God's eyes, it is a story of revival, a story that reminds us all that the Gospel…advances.”

→ Michael Tait, former singer of Christian music groups DC Talk and later Newsboys, faces allegations of sexual abuse from three men. Two of the cases involve substance abuse. Tait has not publicly commented on the allegations, but the remaining Newsboys members released a statement, saying in part, “When he left the band in January, Michael confessed to us and our management that he ‘had been living a double-life’ but we never imagined that it could be this bad.”

→ New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, an Anglican bishop, suggested in a recent interview on Premier Unbelievable? that abortion is morally permissible in cases of severe deformity, incest, rape, or the health of the mother, including mental health. In a critical reaction to the clip, cultural commentator Matt Walsh observed that “literally every abortion could be justified as a ‘mental health’ intervention,” so Wright “is indeed excusing many abortions, if not all of them.”

• RELATED: In the same conversation, Wright suggested that belief in the bodily resurrection of Christ is not necessary to be a Christian.

→ A Lifeway Research study of evangelical and Black Protestant pastors found that “Only around 1 in 100 pastors leave the ministry each year,” which is “quite low given the demands of the role.” This figure has hardly budged for the past decade, at 1.3 percent in 2015 and 1.2 percent this year.

→ The Trump administration has rescinded Biden-era guidance that attempted to require physicians to provide abortions in certain circumstances regardless of state laws.

→ Conservative media commentator Floyd Brown, who was fired last week from his role in the Trump administration’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, says the only explanation he was given for his termination was that he needed to “recant [his] belief in traditional marriage and [his] past statements on the topic.” Some of Brown’s claims are disputed.

→ Étienne-Émile Baulieu, the French biochemist known as the father of the abortion pill for his role in developing and advocating for Mifepristone (RU486), died last week at 98. Soon, he “will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).

Content Catch-Up

Recent notable content of Christian interest.*

→ Hollywood and Demonic Possession: Christian YouTuber Taylor Alesia highlights how common it is for Hollywood actors to be demonically possessed while acting, a fact that some actors openly acknowledge. (Video)

• RELATED: In a 2023 interview clip, Jonathan Roumie, the actor who plays Jesus in The Chosen, discusses praying to the deceased Lonnie Frisbee, the man he portrayed in the film Jesus Revolution. (Video)

→ Preacher Benny Hinn’s Men Assault a Journalist?: Independent journalist Tyler Oliveira highlights the problems with prosperity gospel preachers and their teachings, confronting Joel Osteen and rushing the stage during one of Benny Hinn’s sermons. Hinn’s church security team allegedly assaults Oliveira’s cameraman. (Video)

→ Creationist Scientist Predicted What Evolutionist Scientists Could Not: In a lecture, Christian astrophysicist Jason Lisle describes how, coming from a biblical young-earth creationist perspective, he accurately predicted the findings of the James Webb Telescope, while secular humanist evolutionist scientists got it wrong. (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

The Bible, Briefly

The Trinity In the Old Testament

Many have suggested that God’s apparent self-talk in Genesis 1:26 (”Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”) implies multiple divine persons within the Godhead—that is, a hint at the doctrine of the Trinity, which would be revealed in greater detail later. However, in a lecture on the matter, the late, beloved Muslim-turned-Christian apologist Nabeel Qureshi offered several additional texts in the Hebrew Scriptures (i.e., the Old Testament) that imply the existence of multiple Persons of the One True God.

Genesis 19:24

After the LORD appears to Abraham as a man in Genesis 18, the next chapter relates, “Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven” (Genesis 19:24). The verse refers to the LORD twice, as though He were in two different places at once.

Amos 4:11

In Amos, God doubles down on this apparent differentiation. The prophet writes, “‘I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah…,’ declares the LORD” (Amos 4:11). Once again, the LORD speaks of God as separate from Himself, though Scripture is clear the LORD is the only God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:8; 45:5).

Psalm 110:1

David’s famous words in the book of the Psalms, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand…’” (Psalm 110:1), likewise make it seem, in Qureshi’s words, “almost as if there are two gods, but we know there’s only one God. The Old Testament is very clear about that.”

Daniel 7:13-14

In Daniel 7, the prophet Daniel sees a vision of God, whom he refers to as “the Ancient of Days” (7:9-10). Then, he relates, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him” (Daniel 7:13).

Here, there are two figures:

1. “one like a son of man”

2. “the Ancient of Days”

The Ancient of Days is God, but then the “one like a son of man” comes with the clouds of heaven—a description of God, as in Deuteronomy 33:26 (”There is none like God…who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty”). So, both figures are God.

This is confirmed by the following verse in Daniel: “And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him…” (Daniel 7:14). These are “only the divine prerogatives of God,” Qureshi says. For example, “This word ‘serve’ is used over 130 times in the Bible. Every time it’s used, it’s used to denote a service due to God alone.”

Further confirmation of this interpretation is given by Mark 14:61–64, where the high priest asks Jesus, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?,” and Jesus replies, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven,” then “the high priest tore his garments and said, ‘What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy.’” From his reaction, we can deduce that the high priest recognized the divinity of Daniel 7’s “son of man,” whom Jesus was alluding to and claiming to be.

Conclusion: The concept of multiple Persons in the Godhead is not limited to the New Testament. It is the consistent teaching of Scripture.

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Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

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