Explainer: What families should know about the Child Tax Credit payments

Today, parents of America’s 60 million children will begin receiving a second payment as part of the enhanced federal Child Tax Credit. The checks normally arrive on the 15th of each month, but the IRS is sending the money earlier because August 15 falls on a Sunday this year. As individuals begin receiving these payments, Christians may wonder what the program entails and what it means for families who receive the credit.

This Week in Washington, D.C.

This week, the Senate passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution. During the amendment process known as “vote-a-rama,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) offered an amendment to prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for funding of abortions and abortion-related discrimination. The amendment ensures that the budget will comply with the long-standing Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal dollars to pay for abortion, and the Weldon amendment, which protects the consciences of health care worker who refuse to participate in abortion.

Click here to read more about the Hyde Amendment.

Additionally, this week a federal court in Texas ruled that it is unlawful to force healthcare professionals to violate their consciences for gender transition procedures. This is good news for children, families, and Christians who want to continue serving in roles without conforming to “the latest fashionable ‘right side of history’ cause.” In 2016, regulations promulgated by the Obama Administration’s Department of Health & Human Services required medical providers to perform and insure abortions and gender-transition procedures or face penalties. The regulations came to be called the transgender mandate, because it would require physicians to provide gender reassignment surgeries and administer hormones to facilitate gender reassignment, including to children, even if the doctor believed the procedure would be harmful.

Click here to read more about this case.

From The Public Square

Louisiana governor says he's fasting over COVID-19
The Hill

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) on Monday began a three-day period of fasting during lunch time with his wife in honor of the state's health care workers. Taking to Twitter, Edwards urged other Louisianans to join him and his wife in fasting and prayer.

Rise of ‘nones’ might be waning, State of the Bible 2021 suggests
Baptist Press

The rise of the “nones” or religiously unaffiliated might be waning, the American Bible Society (ABS) said in findings focused on Gen Z in the 2021 State of the Bible report.

Teens Are Lonelier Than Ever. What Do Smartphones Have to Do With It?
Institute for Family Studies

As access to smartphones grew, teen loneliness increased, per a recent study of more than 1 million teens around the world.

Apple to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse
Associated Press

Apple unveiled plans to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse, drawing applause from child protection groups but raising concern among some security researchers that the system could be misused, including by governments looking to surveil their citizens.

What You Need to Read

Jared Kennedy with How to show Christlike care for a student who struggles with same-sex attraction

Kids should feel safe confessing their sins to Christian parents and their church community. But there’s understandable shame for a kid confessing same-sex attraction or transgender feelings, especially if that child has grown up around coarse gay jokes or politically charged opinions about the LGBTQ movement. It’s understandable for a kid who grows up in that context to fear losing friendships if they allow their struggles to become public knowledge. What can a parent or a church leader do in the face of such shame? What does it look like to show love and compassion for a child who experiences the discord of gender confusion or same-sex attraction?

Josh Wester and Jordan Wooten with Why objective truth is the issue at hand in the transgender debate

Human beings do not decree what is or is not true. We are not God or gods. As limited and finite beings, our duty is much more modest. We recognize truth. We share truth. We stand for truth. But we do not fashion or alter what is true. And in our culture today, perhaps our hubris and propensity for exceeding the boundaries of our own authority is nowhere better displayed than with regard to gender.

Jason Thacker with Where do we draw the line on hate speech?

In a time where there is already a considerable amount of distrust in institutions, governments, and even technology companies themselves, ill-defined and broad policies that seem to equate historic and orthodox beliefs on marriage and sexuality with the dehumanizing nature of real hate speech and violence only widens the deficit of trust and increases skepticism over the true intention behind these policies.

This Week at the ERLC

On the final episode of Capitol Conversations with the current ERLC DC team, David French joins Jeff Pickering, Travis Wussow, and Chelsea Patterson Sobolik to talk about religious liberty, pro-life policy, and January 6th.

On WeeklyTech, Jason Thacker is joined by Dr. Christian Miller, professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and director of the Honesty Project to talk about his new book from Oxford University Press, Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue.