Axios, by Russell Contreras: Artificial intelligence models are quietly shaping spiritual advice — often by leaving faith out.

Why it matters: As churches, apps and spiritual chatbots embrace AI, new research suggests general-purpose models may be ill-equipped to handle sensitive questions of faith: grief, forgiveness, marriage, guilt and conversion.

– A new multi-university consortium released three studies Tuesday revealing that AI systems systematically sideline religious perspectives when users need them most.
– The studies also found that AI systems subtly steer people toward some faiths and away from others when they ask about religious conversion.
– The studies were unveiled Tuesday, a day after the Vatican released Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical that warned AI could erode human judgment, deepen inequality and make war easier.

What they found: Americans expected religion to appear in answers to moral and life questions 45%–59% of the time, depending on the topic, researchers found. AI models mentioned religion only 5%–16% of the time.

– Every single model tested exhibited a repeatable pattern of steering users toward specific beliefs, showing strong positive bias toward Catholicism, Baha’i and Sikhism.
– Meanwhile, it generated negative bias toward Jehovah’s Witnesses, atheism and agnosticism.

Zoom in: Humans rated religion as relevant in answers about grief and loss 59% of the time. AI models referenced religion just 16% of the time, per the study.

– On questions involving family, parenting and forgiveness, humans expected religion in answers 55% of the time. AI models mentioned it only 10% of the time.
– On ethics questions, including whether lying to friends is acceptable, humans expected religion in responses 45% of the time, while AI models mentioned it just 5% of the time.

The new research is from the Consortium for Evaluating Faith and Ethics in AI (CEFE-AI).

– The study is among the first systematic, cross-faith attempts to measure AI response to religion and faith.

State of play: AI is already spreading through religious life, from church chatbots to prayer apps to tools that help pastors draft sermons and manage congregational work.

– Churches are turning to AI to reach worshippers, personalize sermons and power religious chatbots, raising questions about “who, or what, is guiding the flock.”

What they’re saying: “When AI actively excludes religious voices from these important conversations, it impoverishes rather than enriches humanity,” the Rev. John Paul Kimes, a professor of practice at the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement.

– David Wingate, a computer science professor at Brigham Young University, said the studies showed AI systems encourage users to discuss life’s challenges with their parents, teachers, friends, and therapists.
– “But not with a pastor, a rabbi, an imam, or a spiritual leader.”

Between the lines: The findings cut both ways: adding more religion could feel like proselytizing, but never mentioning it can make secularism the default.

– The researchers argue the better target is calibration by recognizing when religious or spiritual resources are contextually relevant without assuming a user wants them.

Methodology: The findings are based data collected May 5 to 19, 2026, from CEFE-AI, involving researchers from Baylor University, Brigham Young University, the University of Notre Dame and Yeshiva University.

– Researchers surveyed 1,125 U.S. adults through Verasight and collected 11,250 ratings measuring whether respondents expected religion to appear in answers to ethical and personal questions.
– The studies also evaluated 27 large language models using 150 questions involving topics such as grief, marriage, ethics, addiction and meaning. Fourteen models were included in the results of the religious representation test of the AllFaith Benchmark, including OpenAI’s GPT 5.5, Anthropic’s Claude 4.7, and Google’s Gemini 3.1.

Prophetic Link:
“The second commandment forbids the worship of the true God by images or similitudes…. The mind, turned away from the infinite perfection of Jehovah, would be attracted to the creature rather than to the Creator.” Sons and Daughters of God, 57.5

Source References

• AI stumbles on questions of faith

Christian Daily, by Chris Eyte: Scotland recorded its highest-ever number of abortions in 2024, with nearly 18,800 terminations logged in the latest government figures — a development that has drawn a response from a prominent evangelical advocate who says honest, compassionate conversations are increasingly urgent.

Public Health Scotland released the data May 26, showing 18,783 abortions performed last year — a 55% rise in demand since 2016. The termination rate stood at 17.6 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. In NHS Lanarkshire alone, the number of terminations was 86% higher than a decade ago.

The report also documented a sharp disparity based on economic status. Women living in Scotland’s most deprived areas terminated pregnancies at a rate of 23.7 per 1,000 — roughly double the rate recorded in the least deprived areas, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Among other findings: 60.8% of all abortions involved medication taken at home, 277 terminations were recorded as disability-selective, and 209 occurred after 18 weeks of pregnancy. Four in 10 women who had an abortion in the reporting period had undergone at least one previous termination.

Dawn McAvoy, who leads Both Lives, a United Kingdom-wide initiative calling for the protection of both mother and unborn child, said current healthcare systems across the U.K. present abortion as the primary option for pregnant women.

“Across Holyrood, Stormont and Westminster governments are failing to support women to choose life for them and their unborn babies,” said McAvoy, who also works with the Evangelical Alliance UK.

She addressed so-called buffer zones — areas around abortion facilities where conversations with patients are legally restricted — arguing that such restrictions remove a critical, last-minute opportunity for women to access support and reconsider their decision.

“The opportunity to speak with a woman outside an abortion clinic — to offer support, compassion, and practical help — may be the last chance for her to choose life,” she said. “That matters because we know that, even at that stage, some women have been supported to continue their pregnancies.”

But McAvoy also told Christian Daily International that the need for open dialogue extends well beyond clinic doorsteps. “There has always been a need to think beyond those specific locations and to foster compassionate, thoughtful, and honest conversations long before a woman faces a pregnancy crisis or begins considering abortion,” she said.

With the majority of U.K. abortions now carried out through self-administered medication at home, McAvoy said that earlier, community-based support has become more critical than ever. “Those earlier conversations and sources of support matter more than ever for many women,” she said.

Prophetic Link:
“The evils that are so apparent at the present time, are the same that brought destruction to the antediluvian world. “In the days that were before the flood” one of the prevailing sins was drunkenness. From the record in Genesis we learn that “the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Crime reigned supreme; life itself was unsafe. Men whose reason was dethroned by intoxicating drink, thought little of taking the life of a human being.” Review and Herald, October 25, 1906.

Source References

• Scotland records highest-ever abortion total as advocate calls for open dialogue

BBC, by Sarah Rainsford: In some parts of Europe, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine can feel like a distant threat. But in Romania, that war is right next door and increasingly dangerous.

In Galati, there is an apartment block with a hole in the roof that proves it.

Residents have just begun returning to check on their homes, after an attack drone slammed into the building early on Friday as dozens of people slept.

It sparked a fire and panic.

We climbed 11 floors up to the roof on Saturday to see where the drone punched through the concrete. There’s a jagged hole, a couple of metres wide, now covered with plastic.

The flat below was badly damaged, and a woman and her teenage son remain in hospital with bruises and minor burns.

But it’s clear the consequences of this strike could have been far worse: the drone hit the lift shaft on the roof, which absorbed much of the blast.

“It was really very terrifying,” says Costel Patrichi, a resident who’s in charge of the building. “But if the drone had hit the side, it could have destroyed a whole floor or more.”

He describes how his phone buzzed with an alert that morning just before 02:00, warning of the danger: a drone was approaching from the Ukrainian border a few miles away.

Moments later came the bang.

“They told us we are protected by Nato, not to worry. But look where we are now!” Costel tells me, frustrated like many that Romania’s air force couldn’t intercept the drone.

When a Ukrainian drone targeting northern Russia was recently knocked off course into Estonia, it was a Romanian fighter jet there that shot it down – part of Nato’s quick reaction force.

Here, though, pilots only had moments to react before the weapon was over a built-up area. At that point, interception was too risky.

“Now I’m afraid. If go back to my flat tonight, I will sleep with fear. Because this could happen again,” Costel admits.

It is the same fear that Ukrainians endure nightly as Russia launches ever more attack drones at its neighbour. Very often, they smash into residential areas, destroying homes and taking lives.

Now Romania, a member of both Nato and the EU, has been hit.

It is the most serious incident of its kind in this country since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

True to form, Russian President Vladimir Putin claims there is no evidence this was a Russian drone.

But Romania has been very clear: it was a Geran-2, otherwise called a Shahed, and it was Russian.

“It’s sure, because we had another one four or five weeks ago that didn’t explode. We compared and they are completely identical,” Romania’s President Nicușor Dan told the BBC World Service.

The drones are used to target Ukrainian ports on the other side of the river Danube that are vitally important to Ukraine’s grain exports.

On Friday, Romania tracked a swarm of 43 of them as they travelled from east to west.

“One hit by the Ukrainian army changed direction and passed to Romanian territory. That is sure,” Dan said.

Romania’s Nato allies have called Russia’s conduct “reckless” and stressed that Moscow’s war of aggression was to blame for what happened.

In Washington, though, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ignored reporters’ requests to comment.

And there is clearly caution in the response, as well as condemnation.

No-one is accusing Moscow of mounting a deliberate attack on Romania.

And whilst government sources in Bucharest tell us they considered invoking Article 4 of the Nato treaty, which would trigger an emergency meeting, that idea was rejected to avoid creating panic.

The next potential step would have been Article 5: the mutual defence clause, under which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

That’s not on the table.

Instead, Romania has shut down a Russian consulate in the port city of Constanta as a “warning”, according to its president. Dan said the next move in the “diplomatic hierarchy of measures” would be to kick out the Russian ambassador.

But for now, he’s going nowhere.

Romania has called for Nato to move faster with a pledge to transfer more military equipment to this stretch of its eastern edge.

The government is already acquiring drones of its own and has plans to develop others in co-operation with Ukrainian companies.

The EU was already working on a new set of sanctions against Moscow.

But the risk of this war escalating and expanding has rarely felt greater – and the people we met in Galati feel very vulnerable.

“This was insane, it happened right in the middle of town,” says Adrian, after checking his own family’s flat in the building that was hit.

“No-one feels safe now.”

For that, he blames Russia and its president.

“But I don’t think the sanctions are enough,” Adrian adds. “Because they could take everything from Russia, and they would still attack.”

Prophetic Link:
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matthew 24:6, 7

Source References

• ‘No-one feels safe now’: Residents of Romanian city hit by drone share fears

Vatican News, by Salvatore Cernuzio: The “full unity” of Christians is not only a distant goal but an urgent need, particularly in light of the conflicts afflicting the world and especially tearing apart the Middle East.

Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the necessity of a more vigorous ecumenical commitment in this era of wars and divisions during a phone conversation and in a letter to the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria, Tawadros II, Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, on the occasion of the Day of Coptic-Catholic Friendship.

According to a statement from the Holy See Press Office, the conversation centered on “the desire to give new impetus to the celebration of the Day of Friendship between Copts and Catholics, seeking to overcome any obstacles to dialogue based on faith and charity.”

Moreover, the Press Office also noted that the discussion expressed “awareness of the shared responsibility for proclaiming the Gospel and promoting peace and reconciliation, especially in the greatly troubled Middle East.”

The “noble tradition” initiated by Pope Francis

Pope Leo XIV sent a letter reiterating this same sentiment to the Coptic Orthodox Pope for the Day, whose idea originated with the Patriarch and was later embraced and promoted by Pope Francis on May 13, 2013, just two months after his election.

The idea was to commemorate the forty years since the historic meeting between Paul VI and Shenouda III in 1973, which culminated in the signing of a common Christological declaration.

Tawadros II and Pope Francis met again ten years later, in May 2023. First, they met in St. Peter’s Square for the General Audience to bless the crowd together, then the following day, in the Apostolic Palace to reaffirm the hope of Eucharistic communion and to commemorate the 21 Coptic Christians who were killed by decapitation by ISIS in 2015 on a Libyan beach.

Now those 21 Christians are included in the Roman Martyrology as “a sign of spiritual communion” between the See of Peter and the See of Mark.

Pope Leo XIV thus continues this “noble tradition” initiated by his “beloved predecessor” Francis of celebrating the Day of Coptic-Catholic Friendship and urges that this observance give fresh momentum to the shared journey, marked by past separations and “misunderstandings” and new reconciliations.

“At a time when our world is afflicted by so many conflicts, particularly in the Middle East, Christians must, more than ever,” Pope Leo insisted, “strive for full unity so that we may bear witness together to the Prince of Peace. In doing so, we can be confident in the powerful intercession and example of the countless martyrs who have suffered for the name of Christ.”

Witnessing God’s goodness to humanity

Pope Leo had already acknowledged the “Day” during the last Regina Cœli on Sunday, May 10, sending a “fraternal greeting” to Pope Tawadros II, who had celebrated the Eucharist the previous day at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice with several Coptic bishops and priests.

The two have not yet met in person. The Coptic Orthodox Pope had sent a letter of congratulations to the American Pope upon his 2025 election, and there was also a phone call. While awaiting an encounter, Pope Leo, from the window of the Apostolic Palace, asked for prayers for the entire “beloved” Coptic Church “in the hope that our journey of friendship will lead us to perfect unity in Christ.”

In the letter signed on May 4 and published on Friday, May 15, he reiterates this hope, focusing particularly on the very concept of “friendship.”

For Christians, he said, it is not “a vague sentiment; it is at the very heart of our life and faith. For our Lord himself calls us his friends, and he teaches us that ‘no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ Thus it is by drawing upon Christ’s friendship with us that we will be able to strengthen the friendship between ourselves, and between our Churches, as we continue to bear witness together to the divine philanthropia for all humanity!”

Dialogue and unity

In this spirit, Pope Leo XIV expressed the hope that the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches—which since 2003 has engaged in “extremely fruitful” theological dialogue resulting in three documents demonstrating “an increasing theological understanding”—may “resume its work as soon as possible with all Churches of the Oriental Orthodox family, in order to respond to Christ’s prayer, ‘that they all may be one.’”

In the same letter, the Pope thanked the Coptic Orthodox Church for hosting participants, including several Catholic delegations, at the Sixth World Conference of the “Faith and Order” Commission, held in October 2025 at the Monastery of St. Bishoy in Wadi El Natrun.

Pope Leo XIV also expressed confidence that reflections for the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea “will rekindle our desire to achieve the visible unity of the Church — a unity rooted in the one baptism that we profess in the Nicene Creed, and which, I sincerely pray, we shall attain.”

Looking ahead to Pentecost, Pope Leo invoked the Holy Spirit to “guide Copts and Catholics on our common pilgrimage in truth and charity towards full communion.”

Prophetic Link:
“The wide diversity of belief in the Protestant churches is regarded by many as decisive proof that no effort to secure a forced uniformity can ever be made. But there has been for years, in churches of the Protestant faith, a strong and growing sentiment in favor of a union based upon common points of doctrine. To secure such a union, the discussion of subjects upon which all were not agreed—however important they might be from a Bible standpoint—must necessarily be waived.” Great Controversy, 444.2

Source References

• Pope to Tawadros II: In a world afflicted by conflict, Christians must witness unity

USA Today, by Jeanine Santucci: A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck Hawaii the night of May 22, local time, and was felt by residents across the islands, with reports of damage to homes and downed power lines, officials said.

The earthquake struck at 9:46 p.m. local time, which is 3:46 a.m. ET, about 8 miles away from Honaunau-Napoopoo on the Big Island, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Strong shaking was felt on the western part of the Island of Hawaii, known as the Big Island. There was no tsunami threat, the U.S. Tsunami Warning System said.

Hawaii County Mayor Kimo Alamdeda said several rockslides happened as a result of the earthquake, and roadway crews were working to clear debris overnight. The slides were reported along Highway 11 from Captain Cook to Ocean View, he said. There were also reports of downed utility lines and power outages, and reports of damage to homes and other structures, he said. Minor damage was also reported at Kona Hospital, but services were not disrupted, he said.

Several aftershocks have already occurred in the area, including one with a magnitude of 4.0, USGS said. More are expected in the coming days.

More than 2,400 people submitted reports about feeling shaking within a few hours of the main quake, USGS said.

Thousands of earthquakes happen every year in Hawaii, most too tiny to be felt, due to activity from volcanoes or because of the weight of the islands pressing down on the Earth’s underlying crust. Over the past 50 years, there have been 36 other earthquakes with magnitudes over 5.0 within a 60-mile distance from the epicenter of May 22’s quake, according to USGS.

The most recent quake was not directly caused by volcanic activity, said the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. It was caused by stress from the weight of the Hawaiian island chain bending the oceanic plate below.

“The earthquake had no apparent impact on either Mauna Loa or Kīlauea volcanoes,” the observatory said.

How powerful is a 6.0 quake?

Magnitude measures the strength of an earthquake. Here are the effects of different magnitudes of earthquake, according to Michigan Technological University:

– Below 2.5: Generally not felt
– 2.5 to 5.4: Minor or no damage
– 5.5 to 6.0: Slight damage to buildings
– 6.1 to 6.9: Serious damage
– 7.0 to 7.9: Major earthquake. Serious damage.
– 8.0 or greater: Massive damage, can destroy communities

Prophetic Link:
“How carefully should we avoid mirth and unbecoming levity on the cars, on the boat, wherever we may be; for the daily record of disasters shows that there is no safety anywhere. Even in our homes we are in danger; for storms, floods, and fire are sweeping off thousands, while earthquakes are destroying additional thousands. If there ever was a time when we should be sober and watch unto prayer, it is now. Our lives are safe only when hid with Christ in God. We need every day to purify ourselves even as he is pure. There is always hope for us in God. Faith is our defense, for it connects our human weakness with divine power. Men may laugh at our credulity in believing that angels of God were commissioned to avert a terrible calamity; but I am just simple enough to believe it, and this faith I shall cherish. I believe that God delivered us from what Satan would have been glad to make a terrible calamity.” Review and Herald, January 29, 1884, Art. A, par. 9

Source References

• Magnitude 6.0 earthquake rattles Hawaii’s Big Island, damaging homes

CNN, by Simone McCarthy, Hira Humayun, Bo Gu, Charlotte Reck, and Sylvie Zhuang: A gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China has killed at least 82 people, according to state media, the country’s deadliest mining disaster in more than a decade.

Rescue efforts are still underway nearly a day after the blast took place, according to state broadcaster CCTV, with emergency teams descending into the Liushenyu coal mine to search for any workers trapped beneath the ground.

The blast happened some 300 meters below ground, according to CCTV. In the aftermath, the explosion site is reported to have filled with water and debris from broken walls. Rescuers are bringing water pipes and kayaks to climb down and access the scene.

But their attempts have been complicated by the fact the underground map provided by the coal mining company and distributed among rescue teams does not match the actual underground condition, state-run Beijing News reported. This has meant rescuers have to search all the tunnels rather than targeting a specific location.

Underground workers are also required to carry a personal GPS tracker, Beijing News reported, but some workers did not have their device with them at the time of the explosion.

Nearly 250 people were working underground at the facility in Shanxi province when the explosion took place Friday evening. At least 201 people were evacuated as of Saturday morning, CCTV reported, adding later in the day that 123 were undergoing treatment in hospital.

Authorities revised down an earlier toll given as 90 on state media, citing confusion at the scene. It remains unclear if there are still workers unaccounted for.

“After the accident, the scene was chaotic,” said the county chief of Qinyuan, where the mine is located, “and the company could not provide a clear count of the number of workers on site, resulting in inaccurate figures reported initially.”

At a press conference held in the city of Changzhi on Saturday evening, Mayor Chen Xiaoyang said that according to preliminary assessment the coal mining enterprise involved committed “major violations of the law.”

Zhang Wenbo, chief of the city’s emergency management bureau, warned that there were further risks ahead.

“During the rescue work…toxic and harmful gas has exceeded the limit for a long time, and there is a risk of secondary disasters,” Zhang said.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping instructed Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing to attend the scene on Saturday evening, according to state media. Zhang is believed to be guiding the emergency response operation as it continues.

Xi has urged a “thorough investigation” and “accountability” for the incident.

A crackdown on illegal mining activities, including falsification of safety monitoring, hidden operations and unclear reporting on the number of people going underground is also believed to be a priority for the country, according to CCTV.

Contacted by CNN, a person answering the phone at the company operating the mine – Shanxi Tongzhou Group Liushenyu Coal Industry – said they were “not aware of the situation,” and ended the call.

State media on Saturday reported that the person in charge of the “involved enterprise” had been taken “under control measures according to law,” a phrase typically used to indicate a person has been detained.

The cause of the blast is under investigation, Xinhua reported.

One injured miner, Wang Yong, told CCTV that he realized something was wrong when he saw a burst of smoke and smelled sulfur “just like firecrackers.”

“I told people to run – while running, I saw people who had been choked and knocked down by the smoke, and then I fainted too,” Wang said. “Later, after lying there for about an hour or so, I woke … (and) then woke up the people next to me, and we left the mine together.”

The disaster is the latest in a long line of devastating incidents linked to coal mining in China and is believed to be the deadliest since a 2009 blast at a state-run mine in Heilongjiang province killed 108 people. The early 2000s saw multiple mining incidents with death tolls over 100.

Safety records have improved since then, alongside industry consolidation and tightened regulation, but tragedies continue to happen – typically followed by central government calls for more accountability and oversight.

In 2023, 53 workers were killed in a mine collapse in Inner Mongolia, state media reported. The following year, Beijing implemented new coal-mining regulations putting more burden on operators to conduct checks, and local officials to enhance supervision.

Coal is a major source of energy in China, accounting for more than half of the energy consumption of the world’s second-largest economy – and playing a critical role in its energy security.

Even as Beijing has pushed forward a green transition, the country has continued to expand coal infrastructure, including to ensure grid stability for renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Shanxi province, where the latest incident took place, is one of the country’s leading producers, accounting more than a quarter of the country’s coal.

Prophetic Link:
“I read the daily papers and see the casualties by sea, the destruction of life by land, disaster and death without a moment’s warning, hundreds swept into eternity without any time to repent and seek pardon of their sins, contagious diseases in fevers, cholera, smallpox, and various ills to which humanity is subject. Plagues are in our world and the Spirit of God is being gradually withdrawn from the children of men.” Letters and Manuscripts, Volume 7 (1892), par. 5

Source References

• China’s worst coal mining blast in over a decade kills 82

Psychology Today, by Avrum Weiss: Experts are reporting that we may be in an epidemic of adult children cutting off contact with their parents. In one recent study, researchers found that 26 percent of young adults are estranged from their fathers, and six percent are estranged from their mothers. The parents report that these estrangements often happen without notice or explanation, leaving them feeling deeply hurt and in the dark.

Baby boomers were raised by parents of the “greatest generation,” the generation that lived through the great depression and fought in World War II. That generation, as a whole, tended to parent in fairly traditional, authoritarian ways, telling their offspring that “Children were meant to be seen and not heard.” Corporal punishment was still an acceptable way of disciplining children, and children were often afraid of their parents, particularly of their fathers. Mothers frequently threatened their children to “wait until your father gets home.” Children being afraid of their parents was not only normalized, it was often regarded as an essential strategy to ensure good behavior in children. When children misbehaved, it was commonly believed that the cause was insufficiently strict parenting. Many men of that generation have told me that being afraid of their parents was an essential part of becoming a disciplined adult of good character, and they frequently lament that their children are spoiled and lack ambition and resilience because they “had it too easy” and had no reason to fear their parents.

The children of those Boomer parents often parented their children in ways that were a reaction to their dissatisfaction with how they were parented. In contrast to what they experienced as their parent’s uninvolved, hands-off (some would even say neglectful) style of parenting, this newer generation of parents tend to be highly involved in their children’s lives, leading to the term “helicopter parenting.” Fathers, in particular, are often determined to parent differently than the men who raised them, and they have pioneered the acceptance of fathering as an equal role in child-rearing.

These Millennial children of Boomers also strive to create more egalitarian relationships with their children and have rejected using fear as a parenting strategy. Rather than responding to bad behavior punitively with punishment, these younger generations are often averse to conflict with their children and hesitant to set firm limits they worry would risk rejection. As a result, they are more likely to use talking and reasoning as their primary disciplinary strategy.

The children of Boomers have been largely successful in their efforts to raise children who are not afraid of them, but one consequence of this parenting style is that the generation who grew up afraid of their parents is often now afraid of rejection by their children. Because of their parents’ conflict-avoidant style, the children of Millennial parents have fewer opportunities to experience the kind of anger and disappointment with their parents that psychologists tell us is an important part of learning about healthy conflict resolution. In previous generations, the hierarchical, authoritarian relationship between parents and children served as a governor to suppress some of the expressions of anger and disappointment that children and young adults naturally have about their parents’ inadequacies and failings. In the absence of those prohibitions, children’s rage, with nothing to push back against, grew more expansive.

As the newer generations mature and individuate from their families, it may be that their inexperience with healthy anger, disappointment, and conflict resolution with their parents makes it more difficult for them to accept their normal feelings of anger and disappointment. Cutting off their parents may be a way of defending against the bad feelings they are having difficulty tolerating in themselves, blaming their parents for creating those feelings. In extreme cases, particularly if they have not had many experiences of healthy conflict resolution in their families, they may take the extreme step of cutting off their families completely, in an effort to extrude the challenging emotions they are experiencing.

Exacerbating these generational dynamics, experts tell us that it is not unusual for estrangement to begin as the result of an adult child entering psychotherapy. Younger therapists, raised by Boomer parents themselves, may also be less comfortable with anger and less confident in their ability to tolerate strong feelings in their patients. As a result, they may be more inclined to advise their patients to act out those feelings rather than being able to model embracing and containing those feelings in the interest of healthy conflict resolution. When these less-seasoned therapists work with parents who have been estranged, they may unintentionally compound their patients’ feelings of helplessness and hopelessness by counseling them to fear their children, to bite their tongues, and not talk to their children about the impact of their cutoffs.

And so, we arrive at a situation where a generation who grew up afraid of their parents end up being afraid of being estranged from their children.

Prophetic Link:
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Matthew 24:12

Source References

• Unpacking the Epidemic of Parental Estrangement

Jazeera: The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda a “public health emergency of international concern” after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths were reported.

In a social media post on Sunday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency but that neighbouring countries are at high risk of further spread.

Health authorities have confirmed the current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), a rare type of Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in the DRC and Uganda, this is only the third time BVD has been reported.

The WHO said the outbreak could be much larger, given the high positivity rate of the initial samples and the increasing number of suspected cases being reported.

The DRC accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.

Officials first reported the spread of the virus in the DRC’s eastern province of Ituri, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDCP) reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.

Later on Sunday, a laboratory confirmed a case in the major DRC city of Goma, under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, health authorities told the AFP news agency.

“A positive case in Goma has been confirmed by tests carried out by the laboratory. It involves the wife of a man who died of Ebola in Bunia, who travelled to Goma after her husband’s death whilst already infected,” Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), told AFP.

The DRC/Rwanda border closure has put everybody in the region on high alert, said Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from Goma.

The positive case in Goma demonstrates why Rwanda’s preventive measures were “justified”, Uaykani said.

Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case it said was imported from the DRC, saying the patient died at a hospital in its capital, Kampala. The WHO then confirmed a second case had been reported in Kampala, adding that the two cases did not appear to be linked and both patients had travelled from the DRC.

Uganda’s health authorities have implemented measures at the hospital where the Congolese man died, said Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soy, reporting from Kampala.

Health workers at the hospital “are testing people, they’re checking for fever, they’re sanitising people and they’re giving them masks”, Soy said.

Government officials say “that they managed to trace people that this man interacted with” and are now monitoring them, she said.

President Yoweri Museveni has also said that “there is no need for alarm, as the situation is under control,” Soy said, adding that “the border with DRC has not been closed yet, but government officials say that they are monitoring all this very closely”.

The DRC-Uganda outbreak poses a public health risk to neighbouring countries, the United Nations health agency said, advising countries to activate their national disaster and emergency management mechanisms and undertake cross-border screening and screening at main internal roads.

The WHO advised immediate isolation of confirmed cases, allowing only restricted national travel and no international travel until 21 days after exposure.

It urged countries not to close their borders or restrict travel and trade, as this could lead to people and goods making unmonitored border crossings.

The often-fatal and highly contagious virus, which causes fever, body aches, vomiting and diarrhoea, spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, contaminated materials or those who have died from the disease, according to the ACDCP.

Prophetic Link:
“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matthew 24:7

Source References

• WHO declares Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, Uganda a global health emergency

WFSB, by The Associated Press and Adithi Ramakrishnan: A biotech company that aims to resurrect lost creatures said Tuesday it has hatched live chicks in an artificial environment — a development that was met with mixed reviews from scientists and critics of its de-extinction mission.

Twenty-six baby chickens — ranging from a few days to several months old — were born from a 3D printed lattice structure that mimics an eggshell, according to Colossal Biosciences.

Colossal previously announced it had genetically engineered living animals to resemble extinct species, including mice with long hair like the woolly mammoth and wolf pups that take after dire wolves.

Colossal’s CEO Ben Lamm said the artificial egg technology could one day be scaled up to genetically tweak living birds to resemble New Zealand’s extinct South Island giant moa, whose eggs are 80 times the size of a chicken’s and would be difficult for any modern bird to lay.

“We wanted to build something that nature has done a pretty good job of developing and make it better and scalable and even more efficient,” Lamm said.

Independent scientists say the technology, while impressive, lacks some components to be truly considered an artificial egg. And they said the idea of reviving extinct beasts is likely impossible.

“They might be able to use this technology to help them make a genetically modified bird, but that’s just a genetically modified bird. It’s not a moa,” said evolutionary biologist Vincent Lynch with the University at Buffalo.

To hatch the chicks, Colossal scientists poured fertilized eggs into the artificial system and placed them in an incubator. They also added calcium, which is normally absorbed from the eggshell, and imaged the embryos’ development and growth in real-time.

Scientists say Colossal has designed an artificial eggshell with a membrane that allows the right amount of oxygen to get in, just like a real egg. But other components of an egg — like temporary organs that form to nourish and stabilize the growing chick and remove waste — weren’t included.

“That’s not an artificial egg because you’ve poured in all the other parts that make it an egg. It’s an artificial eggshell,” said Lynch.

In decades past, researchers have used cruder technology to create transparent eggshells that hatched chicks from plastic films or sacks. Such technologies are useful to study chicken development and glean insights that can also be applied to other mammals and even humans.

“Producing a chick from an artificial vessel is not necessarily new,” said Nicola Hemmings, who studies bird reproductive biology at the University of Sheffield. Hemmings is not part of the Colossal team.

There’s a long road ahead before Colossal attempts a moa resurrection using this artificial egg system. Scientists first need to compare ancient DNA from well-preserved moa bones to genomes of living bird species. And they need a bigger eggshell.

“We didn’t want to wait till we were ready to birth a giant moa. We actually wanted to start working on the engineering challenges for surrogacy and birth now,” Lamm said.

Even if Colossal succeeds in creating a tall bird similar to the moa, some scientists are concerned about what happens after — including how it would survive in a landscape that looks nothing like that past.

“The big challenge is, what environment is this animal going to live in?” said bioethicist Arthur Caplan with New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.

Such de-extinction efforts may make more sense with currently endangered species, where scientists could preserve sperm and egg cells from living members to attempt to bring more back, Hemmings said.

“My personal interests lie more in preserving what we’ve got than trying to bring back what is already gone,” Hemmings said.

Prophetic Link:
“The people in Noah’s day possessed sharp intellects, and they sought to show, on scientific grounds, that it was impossible for his prophecy to be fulfilled. Noah was laughed to scorn because of his warnings; he was regarded as a fanatic. Noah’s implicit trust in God annoyed while it condemned them; but they could not move this faithful reprover from his position. The Lord had given the warning, and that was enough for Noah. The arguments of the philosophers were nothing to him, when the message of God was sounding in his ears, “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Signs of the Times, February 27, 1879, par. 14

Source References

• A de-extinction company has hatched live chicks from an artificial eggshell

MSN, by Everett Sloane: Smoke has hung over parts of South Georgia and Southwest Florida for weeks, thick enough to close roads, cancel school outdoor activities, and send residents with respiratory conditions indoors. The source: a string of wildfires that have burned more than 170,000 acres across the Southeast this spring, fueled by a drought that now covers roughly 62% of the contiguous United States. It is the kind of fire season the region has rarely seen, arriving months before the traditional peak out West and stretching federal firefighting resources in ways that could ripple through the rest of the year.

The biggest fires burning in the Southeast

Three blazes account for the bulk of the damage. In Florida, a fire in Big Cypress National Preserve had consumed 30,225 acres with zero containment as reported in a late-February 2026 National Park Service daily update. Crews were conducting strategic firing operations to slow the blaze through the preserve’s swamp-and-sawgrass terrain, but the combination of bone-dry conditions and difficult access made progress slow. By late May 2026, the fire remained a concern as drought conditions in the preserve had not meaningfully improved.

Farther north, two fires in South Georgia have proven even larger. The Pineland Road and Highway 82 fires together burned more than 50,000 acres as of late April, based on Georgia Forestry Commission figures cited in a NASA Earth Observatory analysis. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency on April 22, mobilizing state resources and noting that FEMA had approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant for the Pineland Road blaze. That grant approval means federal dollars can help cover suppression costs, freeing local agencies to focus on evacuations, sheltering, and public safety.

“We are dealing with conditions we have not seen in decades,” Georgia Forestry Commission Director Tim Lowrimore said in an April briefing, describing fuel moisture levels across South Georgia as critically low. In Florida, a National Park Service spokesperson noted that the Big Cypress fire was “burning in terrain that makes traditional suppression tactics extremely difficult,” with crews relying on strategic firing operations rather than direct attack.

The remaining acreage in the 170,000-acre regional total comes from dozens of smaller fires scattered across multiple Southeastern states. No single federal agency publishes a running regional aggregate, so the figure is assembled from individual incident reports, each with its own reporting timeline and measurement method. The documented major fires alone account for more than 80,000 acres; the composite number should be understood as a best available estimate rather than a single-source confirmed total.

A drought with national reach

The fires are not burning in isolation. As of late April 2026, 61.68% of the Lower 48 states fell within the D1 through D4 categories on the U.S. Drought Monitor, the federal classification system that ranges from moderate drought (D1) to exceptional drought (D4). NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has stated that over 60% of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing drought, and its seasonal outlook projects those conditions persisting into summer.

For the Southeast specifically, the drought has turned landscapes that normally stay damp well into spring into ready fuel. The organic soils in Big Cypress, which in a normal year would be saturated, have dried enough to sustain ground fires that are extremely difficult to extinguish. In South Georgia, pine flatwoods and wiregrass understory that would typically carry low-intensity prescribed burns have instead fed fast-moving wildfires under high winds and low humidity.

Nationally, wildfire activity is tracked through statistical summaries maintained by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Year-to-date tallies show that early 2026 fire activity is elevated compared to recent years, particularly in regions experiencing prolonged dryness. NIFC’s national fire updates have highlighted the Southeast specifically, a region that in past decades rarely competed with the West for top billing during fire season. Recent bulletins note the deployment of interagency crews, aircraft, and logistical support to Florida and Georgia, a clear signal that these fires are significant enough to draw on the national pool of firefighting resources.

What residents need to know

For people in fire-affected areas of South Georgia and Southwest Florida, the governor’s emergency declaration carries immediate practical weight. State agencies have expanded authority to assist with evacuation, sheltering, traffic control, and property protection. The FEMA grant approval for the Pineland Road Fire means suppression funding is flowing, which can prevent local jurisdictions from being forced to choose between firefighting costs and other public safety needs.

Smoke is a serious and underappreciated hazard from fires of this scale. Particulate matter from wildfire smoke routinely degrades air quality across multi-county areas for days or weeks, posing risks for people with asthma, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. Residents should monitor their county emergency management office and local health department for air quality advisories, and check AirNow.gov for real-time particulate readings.

Why federal firefighting resources face a stress test in 2026

The Southeast’s early-season surge has already pulled crews and equipment that might otherwise be staged for summer fires in California, Oregon, or Montana. Federal firefighting capacity is finite: there are a limited number of hotshot crews, large air tankers, and Type 1 incident management teams available nationwide. When those resources deploy to Georgia and Florida in spring, they are not available elsewhere.

If drought conditions hold into summer, as NOAA’s outlook suggests they will, agencies could face difficult allocation decisions. The 2026 fire year is shaping up as a test of whether the nation’s suppression infrastructure can handle simultaneous large-fire campaigns in the Southeast and the West, something that has rarely been required at this scale.

There is also uncertainty about what the current fires mean for the months ahead. In some Southeastern ecosystems, spring burns consume available fuel and can reduce the risk of more intense fires later. In others, partially burned landscapes leave behind weakened vegetation and dried-out root systems that are vulnerable to reburning. Without detailed post-fire fuel assessments, it is too early to say whether this spring’s fires will ease or worsen conditions heading into fall.

What is already clear is that the old assumption, that serious wildfire is primarily a Western problem, no longer holds. With drought gripping nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 and the Southeast posting fire numbers that rival some Western states, 2026 is forcing a broader reckoning with where and when the country expects to fight fire.

Prophetic Link:
“All through the Bible we find that a careful observance of the Sabbath is repeatedly enjoined, and God has plainly stated that those who knowingly break the Sabbath shall not prosper. He who has given man six days wherein to labor to obtain a livelihood, has reserved only one day to himself; and he looks with indignation upon those who appropriate any portion of this time to their own secular business. There are some who carry their business into the hours of the Sabbath to such an extent that they write business letters, and even collect debts, pay bills, and settle accounts upon the Sabbath. But God’s eye is upon them, and although they may appear for a time to prosper, he will surely visit them with judgment. He can by a word scatter faster than they can gather. By fire, by flood, by the tempest or the earthquake, he can cause them to lose all that they have gained by violating the Sabbath.” Signs of the Times, April 8, 1886, par. 7

Source References

• Southeast wildfires have now scorched 170,000 acres as 62% of the US sits in drought

Axios, by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen: Las Vegas has long been known as Sin City for its 24/7 access to all kinds of indecencies.

America is quickly becoming Sin Nation. Or, as President Trump put it while discussing prediction markets in the Oval Office last month: “The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”

Why it matters: Once-forbidden vices — weed, gambling and porn — are no longer confined to back alleys or the desert.

They’re ubiquitous, digital and spreading at a pace that has outstripped the country’s social and regulatory guardrails.

Governments didn’t turn a blind eye to most of this behavior. They encouraged it. We’re scaling sin in real time.

This shift in American governance, both at the national and local levels, didn’t play out all at once — or get kick-started by a singular moment. It happened in a thousand small ones, one app launch and regulatory retreat at a time.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat made sense of our “more immoral society” this way: “As our laws have become less moralistic and more libertarian, addictive behaviors have increased.”

Substacker Derek Thompson points out that in a 2023 Wall Street Journal poll, Americans said patriotism, religion, having children and community all mattered less to them than in years prior. The only metric that mattered more? Money.

The biggest factors that ushered in our more addicted, money-hungry America:

1. Smoking weed. Not long ago, you might’ve gone to jail for using pot, much less selling it. Now, it’s legal for a vast swath of Americans and serves as a primary tax engine for nearly half the country.

24 states plus D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana, with 40 states allowing medical use.

The Trump administration ordered the reclassification of medical marijuana as a Schedule III drug last month, moving it from alongside heroin and ecstasy to the same category as steroids and ketamine.

States have collected nearly $25 billion in cannabis tax revenue since the first legal sales began in 2014, according to the Marijuana Policy Project — with 2024 alone setting a record at $4.4 billion. California topped $1 billion by itself.

2. Betting. There’s no reason to visit a sportsbook when you have one in your pocket. That lack of friction is destroying the lives — and arguably the morality — of countless young Americans, even as it fills state coffers.

More than half of American men ages 18-49 have an account with an online sportsbook, per a Siena poll out last month. 63% of bettors said they’d bet $100 or more in one day. 31% reported having someone express concern about their sports betting, up from 23% last year.

A UCLA study found bankruptcy rates and debt collection amounts rose in states that legalized sports betting — with young men in low-income areas hit hardest.

Prediction markets have raised the stakes beyond sports. They’re not technically gambling — that’s what their founders say, even as the public and some state prosecutors disagree. But their purview goes far beyond prop bets: You can now put money on chaos and destruction, gamifying the outcome of war. The money at stake is huge: April saw a 1,200% year-over-year increase in trading volume for Polymarket and Kalshi combined, per The Wall Street Journal.

3. Porn — and its AI-generated shadow. Online pornography was already ubiquitous before AI. Now, deepfake technology has created an entirely new category of harm that barely existed two years ago.

The average age of first exposure to online pornography is now 12, with 15% of kids first seeing it at 10 or younger, according to a Common Sense Media survey of 1,300+ teens.

AI is making it worse: Deepfake files online exploded from 500,000 in 2023 to an estimated 8 million by the end of last year, with up to 98% being nonconsensual, according to cybersecurity firm DeepStrike.

Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act last year, criminalizing the posting of nonconsensual intimate images, including AI deepfakes. But the law can’t keep pace with the scale: A company named in a recent lawsuit claims to create 1,000 AI-generated “influencers” per week.

The big picture: This is what happens when all three of the tectonic shifts we’ve told you about — in governance, in the post-news era, in the age of AI — collide at once.

AI is supercharging the supply, creating deepfakes at a pace no law can match. Our shattered information ecosystem means there’s no common authority left to set norms or apply social pressure. The government, rather than policing the line, has become the cashier.

Each shift alone would strain our culture. Together, they’ve created Sin Nation.

What’s next: There’s potential for political agreement that some portion of America’s scaling of sin might have been too much, too fast.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) posted on X in March: “Pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction & debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation.”

Figures from varying corners of GOP ideology responded in agreement: Michael Knowles, Ann Coulter, Erick Erickson.

The bottom line: Reining in Sin Nation could be one of the rare issues that unites left and right.

Don’t bet on it — though, of course, legally you could.

Prophetic Link:
“It was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law and bring His judgments upon the nation. So now it is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.” God requires of His people now as great a distinction from the world, in customs, habits, and principles, as He required of Israel anciently.” Adventist Home, 460.1

Source References

• Behind the Curtain: Scaling sin

USA Today, by Maureen Groppe: The Supreme Court on May 11 handed Alabama Republicans a major win in their effort to pursue a more favorable congressional map for the midterm elections, the latest boost for the GOP’s chances of keeping control of the U.S. House.

Over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices, the court lifted a ruling that had blocked state Republicans’ preferred map as racially discriminatory and for illegally diluting the voting power of Black Alabamians.

Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, said the nation is returning to the “Jim Crow” era of racial discrimination.

“And anybody who is alarmed by these developments −as everybody should be − better be making a plan to vote in November to put an end to this madness while we still can,” Johnson said in a statement after the decision.

Alabama had argued that the court’s recent decision weakening Voting Rights Act protections for minorities meant it should not have to use a map that included a second majority-Black district to comply with the civil rights law.

“Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote in the state’s emergency appeal last week.

He called the ruling a major victory.

“For too long, unelected federal judges have had more say over Alabama’s elections than Alabama’s voters,” Marshall said on social media. “That ended today.”

The state has been under an order by a lower court to keep in place until after the 2030 Census the map with the second majority-Black district.

In a dissent joined by her two liberal colleagues, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the majority for lifting the ruling after early voting in the May 19 primary had already begun. The court did so, she said, without “any sound basis” and “without regard for the confusion that will surely ensue.”

The court’s majority said the lower court needs to consider whether its original ruling is in line with the recent Voting Rights Act decision about Louisiana’s congressional map.

Sotomayor said the facts and legal arguments in the two cases are different. She added that the lower court can now decide that for itself, suggesting the court could reapply its judicial block to the map.

In 2023, a closely divided Supreme Court backed the lower court’s ruling that Alabama’s Republican-drawn map likely violated the Voting Rights Act. That 5-4 ruling was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts who was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Both voted, in last month’s ruling in the Louisiana case, to limit the scope of the Voting Rights Act.

After issuing that ruling, the court expedited making the decision final to give Louisiana time to draw a map preferred by Republicans.

Our Comment:
While most people are focused on race, those who understand prophecy know that increasing the conservative base leads to an increase in conservative power. That has religious implications that may eventually lead to a Sunday law. The Enemy is underhandedly working to set the stage for the final movements. We are already starting to see the dismantling religious protections through conservative control of politics. 

Prophetic Link:
“Those who honor the law of God have been accused of bringing judgments upon the world, and they will be regarded as the cause of the fearful convulsions of nature and the strife and bloodshed among men that are filling the earth with woe. The power attending the last warning has enraged the wicked; their anger is kindled against all who have received the message, and Satan will excite to still greater intensity the spirit of hatred and persecution.” Great Controversy, 614.3

Source References

• In win for GOP, Supreme Court backs Alabama effort to seek new voting map