In the weekly Resurgence Roundup, I compile some of the most interesting content I find online, as it pertains to the church and the people God has called us to reach. Keep in mind, I don’t endorse or agree with everything you’ll see included in the roundup. 

Cultural trends

Fecundophobia: The growing fear of children and fertile women

The Federalist

It’s almost as if there is a pattern in how the media treats stories about women and their wombs. “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament,” activist Florynce Kennedy famously said. But the fact is that, as far as the media are concerned, abortion is a sacrament. And keeping the womb empty at all costs during all, or nearly all, of one’s fertile years is the sine qua non of modern American womanhood. Woe to the woman who “chooses” otherwise.

Census Bureau: Means-tested gov’t benefit recipients outnumber full-time year-round workers

CNS News

Americans who were recipients of means-tested government benefits in 2011 outnumbered year-round full-time workers, according to data released this month by the Census Bureau. They also out-numbered the total population of the Philippines.

Gay couples, choosing to say ‘I don’t’

The New York Times

Now that same-sex couples in 14 states have all the rights and responsibilities of straight married couples, gay couples are rushing to the altar, right? Not exactly. Plenty of gay couples do not want to marry, and their reasons are as complex — and personal — as any decision to wed.

Case explores rights of fetus versus mother

The New York Times

Alicia Beltran cried with fear and disbelief when county sheriffs surrounded her home on July 18 and took her in handcuffs to a holding cell. She was 14 weeks pregnant and thought she had done the right thing when, at a prenatal checkup, she described a pill addiction the previous year and said she had ended it on her own — something later verified by a urine test. But now an apparently skeptical doctor and a social worker accused her of endangering her unborn child because she had refused to accept their order to start on an anti-addiction drug.

Survey says: Women are for life

Public Discourse

When the California legislature passed a bill to allow non-physicians to perform abortions, it was lauded as a monumental advance in women’s health. Most commentary and news articles on these two events have parroted the popular yet unsubstantiated narrative that women are largely supportive of the abortion agenda—widespread, open-access abortion policies with little or no restriction. Yet polling data fail to support this narrative.

Sexually transmitted unease: How casual sex works bad chemistry for good

The Christian Apologetics Alliance

“Scientists are confirming that sex is more than a momentary physical act. It produces powerful, even lifelong, changes in our brains that direct and influence our future to a surprising degree,” [OB-GYNs Dr. Joe S. McIlhaney Jr., and Dr. Freda McKissic Bush] write. A single sexual encounter sets off a cascade of changes in a young brain, and modern imaging technology allows researchers to observe those changes more thoroughly than ever before.

American church news

A first-person defense of writing in Jesus’ voice

The New York Times

In traditional Protestant theology, God’s revelation ceased after biblical times; people who claimed to have new teachings straight from God would be declaring themselves prophets. For a Presbyterian like Ms. Young, that is a no-no. But Ms. Young [says she is] doing something different.

A Brigham Young University professor’s escape from Mormonism

The Daily Beast

The summer of 2006, my husband and I mustered the courage to drive two hours away from our largely Mormon community in Utah to attend a non-Mormon church on a Saturday night. That way, no Mormon friends or priesthood leaders could possibly see us. We were paranoid, worried that if someone from Brigham Young University saw me at a non-denominational Christian church, I would lose my ecclesiastical clearance and my job as a professor.

Christian florist asks court to throw out ‘inappropriate’ homosexual discrimination lawsuit

Christian News

Attorneys for a Christian florist in Washington have asked a county court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general, which accused her of violating Washington’s anti-discrimination law for declining to help decorate a same-sex wedding.

Report: OJ Simpson plans to become televangelist upon release from prison

Christian News

Disgraced NFL legend OJ Simpson is reportedly planning on becoming a televangelist upon his release from prison. In an interview with the Enquirer and the Daily Mail, Simpson’s manager, Norman Pardo, explained that Simpson has been using his time behind bars to seek God. “O.J. is very religious now, and he’s been counseling other inmates with Bible studies for months,” he stated. “When I talk to him on the phone, all he wants to discuss is religion. He’s obsessed!”

‘Health care from the pulpit’: Here’s how some churches are spreading the word about Obamacare

The Blaze

Community organizers are joining pastors across the country to educate and help parishioners sign up for Obamacare. The coordinated initiative, called “Health Care from the Pulpit,” is being implemented by Enroll America, a non-profit with the goal of maximizing ”the number of uninsured Americans who enroll in health coverage made available by the Affordable Care Act.”

Poll: 76 percent believe in God, 38 percent do what God asks

Washington Examiner

America is still a God-fearing nation, one ready to listen to the Almighty and do as ordered, according to a new poll. The survey from YouGov.com reveals that 76 percent of the nation personally believes in the existence of a God, and half of those say that they have done something because God told them to. Including non-believers, this makes up 38 percent of the entire country.

International church news

Iran gives Christians 80 lashes for communion wine as UN blasts human rights record

Fox News

Iran’s regime has made stopping the spread of Christianity a cornerstone of its crackdown on religious freedom. There are estimated to be as many as 370,000 Christians in Iran, according to the most recent U.S. State Department report. The clerical rulers see Christianity as a threat to Iran’s majority ultra-orthodox Shiite Islamic religion

9 things you should know about persecution of Christians in 2013

The Gospel Coalition

Christians are the single most widely persecuted religious group in the world today. As we pray for the persecuted church, here are nine things you should know about the plight of believers around the globe.

US ‘spied on future Pope Francis during Vatican conclave’

The Telegraph

The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday. The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13.