Former Democratic presidential candidate and congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard called on "independent-minded Democrats" to join her Tuesday morning as she announced her exit from the Democratic Party, citing a raft of concerns including the party’s "cowardly wokeness," their stoking of anti-white racism, hostility to people of faith and elitism. In a statement shared to her Twitter account, Gabbard alleged that the Democratic Party "[a]ctively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war." Read more.

Following backlash from the public and elected officials, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has agreed to temporarily stop performing body mutilating sex-change surgeries on minors suffering from gender dysphoria. Jason Zachary, a Republican state representative from Tennessee, shared a letter on Twitter that he received from the Nashville-based medical center on Friday. In the letter, VUMC Deputy CEO and Chief Health Systems Officer Dr. C. Wright Pinson wrote that "we are pausing gender affirmation surgeries on patients under 18" while the hospital works to conduct a clinical review to ensure that its practices comply with recently issued guidelines from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health." He also stated that "VUMC’s policies and practices allow employees to request an accommodation to be excused from participating in surgeries or procedures they believe are morally objectionable." A Sept. 28 letter from Zachary and other members of the Tennessee House Republicans asked the Vanderbilt Board of Directors to "take immediate action by halting all permanent gender transition surgeries being performed on minor children" in response to The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh unveiling the findings of an investigation that revealed that "Vanderbilt drugs, chemically castrates, and performs double mastectomies on minors." Read more.

Samaritan's Purse CEO, the Rev. Franklin Graham, told The Christian Post that the Evangelical Christian charity has deployed approximately 1,000 volunteers to southwest Florida to help residents recover from Hurricane Ian and to make it clear that God loves them. Volunteers are particularly focused on Fort Myers, Punta Gorda and Englewood, the areas hit hardest by the hurricane. "Everything that we do, we want to do it in the name of Jesus Christ. I want people to know that God loves them; He hasn’t forgotten them. Many times in storms like this, people think that maybe God’s mad at them and He’s judging them. No, I want them to know God loves us," Franklin explained. Read more.

Fairview Baptist Church in South Carolina has launched an investigation into a pastor after he gave minors in his care stickers that say "i ❤️ hot youth pastors." The church announced on Facebook that Cory Wall has been suspended "and will not be involved in student leadership responsibilities while this situation is being investigated." The sticker came to light after a woman shared an image of it on Twitter, explaining it was sent to her by a friend in South Carolina who got it from a local mom group. Part of the caption reads: "The youth pastor gave my younger sister (14 years old) and other students, this sticker during Midweek last night. He is 35 years old ... This made her very uncomfortable." In a copy of an email Wall sent to the woman who raised the alarm about the stickers in the mom group, Wall said he was just poking fun at the "I Love Hot Mom" culture and claimed his "intentions were pure." Read more.

Political columnist and author Jeff Crouere discusses the recruiting challenges the United States armed forces are currently facing, noting that there is no longer an urgent "call to service." Pointing to the current COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members despite President Joe Biden declaring "the pandemic is over," Crouere writes that efforts to create a more "woke" military are, as U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) asserted, creating "a less productive military." While communist China doesn't "waste time training their soldiers on correct pronoun usage, CRT, or exposing them to drag queen shows," the U.S. military celebrates Gay Pride Month and hosts drag queen events. "Instead of focusing on important military goals, the current Defense Department leadership seems more intent on satisfying progressive activists," Crouere cautions. Read more.

Family Research Council's Joseph Backholm writes that the left does not fear Christian nationalism but merely wants to motivate their voting base by shaming others into silence. Pointing to California Gov. Gavin Newsom's misuse of Scripture to advocate for abortions and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), a self-proclaimed "pro-choice pastor," Backholm asserts such individuals "are not concerned that you may be falling into idolatry, they’re concerned for their political power." Read more.

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Islamic terrorists attacked Njilang village, Borno state, in Nigeria on Oct. 4, killing three Christians, wounding dozens and burning homes, sources report. The terrorist attacks mark the latest of many acts of violence over several years targeting the Chibok area. Although local news reports attributed the assault to Boko Haram, an area resident identified the assailants as members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), with local resident Daniel Musa telling Morning Star News that ISWAP has attacked three other predominately Christian communities in the area in the past two weeks. A faction of Boko Haram aligned with ISWAP in 2016, but many Nigerians still refer to the group as Boko Haram. Read more.

During an interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber condemned the idea that the church should be running the government and cautioned advocates of Christian nationalism that pursuing such an agenda will result in the persecution of Christians. "I object to it because Jesus said His kingdom is not of this world. I object to it because every time it’s been adopted it wound up persecuting people like me. It doesn’t stop at persecuting people who are not Christians. It eventually winds up persecuting people who are Christians for whom the flavor of their Christianity is different from that of the government," he said. Barber, who was elected president of the SBC in June, also addressed controversial issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and instances of sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches, stating that leaders "didn't just ignore" victims, but also "attacked" them. Barber did not mince words when it came to his biblical ideals, making it clear to Cooper, who is gay, that practicing homosexuality, like all other sins, is incompatible with being a good Christian or Southern Baptist. Read more.