RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IS INCREASING

God has warned us that before Jesus returns to put things right the world will be like it was during the days of Noah, Godlessness, violence, and lawlessness will abound. He has given us 2000 prophecies that tell us about the events that precede Jesus’ second coming.

Religious persecution against Christians in the Western world is rising at an alarming rate, according to a new report from Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty. The report states, “As the mainstream culture moves further and further away from a Christian worldview, Christian beliefs that contradict progressive secular values are increasingly denounced by the culture and wrongly portrayed as being hateful or bigoted.”

“This report is a warning call,” wrote FRC President Tony Perkins in a letter attached to the report. “It is shocking to see Western countries — the same ones we think of as free and open societies — take authoritarian measures against Christians simply trying to live out their faith. Hostility toward Bible-believing Christians is clearly and steadily rising in the West.” Perkins, former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, added, “Religious freedom is the foundation for the human rights that Western democracies seek to promote abroad. Yet, the ability to promote this fundamental human right will be lost if we do not protect it within our borders.”

In the United Kingdom, two town councilors were penalized (one was even arrested) for speaking out against a local Pride parade, a school chaplain was fired for telling students they don’t “have to accept the ideas of LGBT activists,” and at least six people were arrested or fined for praying outside abortion facilities or holding pro-life signs.

In Canada, a pastor was arrested twice for praying outside a library drag queen story hour, a church was fined for hosting in-person services in 2020, and a teen at a Catholic school was arrested for organizing a protest against biological men using women’s bathrooms. A Christian hybrid school was shut down in Germany, a Maltese health care worker was charged with a crime for sharing in an interview how he left the homosexual lifestyle, a Norwegian city denied Christian organizations community grant funding due to their biblical views on sex and gender, a woman was arrested in Spain for praying the rosary, and a Swedish bakery was investigated for refusing to bake a same-sex wedding cake.

Perkins noted, “This report is merely a sampling of the rise of actions by Western governmental officials that target Christians’ ability to practice and express their faith, especially in the public square.” He explained that the report “is a call to individuals to vigorously exercise their religious freedom while at the same time calling upon government officials to recognize and prioritize the protection of this fundamental human right so that religious freedom can continue to be promoted around the world.”

Fortunately, Jesus told us that the world would persecute Christians and even put us to death in the last days before He returns; first to rescue the Saints and then to pour out His wrath upon an unrepentant world. Sadly, Jesus tells us that many will fall away from faith, betray one another, and hate one another at this time. Patient endurance will be needed, and total trust in God regardless of the outcome knowing He is sovereign.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:9-14

WHY YOUNG AMERICANS DISSOCIATE FROM ORGANISED RELIGION

Younger Americans are more likely to dissociate from organized religion, according to a recent Pew Research study on religious “nones.

Fully 69% of ‘nones’ say they believe in the God of the Bible or some other higher power, but only 3% “go to religious services at least monthly,” and a plurality (43%) says religion does more harm than good. These numbers don’t show “a rejection of God,” Perkins interpreted, but rather a rejection of “organized religion, that in many ways has become milquetoast and has abandoned truth. ‘So,’ [think the ‘nones’], ‘why bother?’”

An exploding number of young Americans are drifting through life without any theological mooring. Many of them were raised in the church, yet they remain largely ignorant of the Bible and its teachings

The real reason is that churches and Bible Schools have compromised God’s Word by accepting evolution and billions of years as fact. The Bible reveals that God made a perfect world about 6000 years ago. Adam was made in God’s image on the sixth day and given dominion over all the earth. He was there at the beginning. Death and suffering entered the world as a consequence of Adam and Eve disobeying God. The world rejects this true history as it does the Biblical account of the worldwide flood of Noah’s day when God judged the world and destroyed all but eight people and the animals that God had brought to the Ark. The entire topography of the Earth was changed due to the catastrophic flood “All the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” Genesis 7:11. It is the reason we find billions of dead things buried all over the world including buried vegetation (fossil fuels). The world denies this event ever happened but has difficulty explaining the geological evidence.

Children are taught in schools that the universe started with the Big Bang. Life started in a primordial soup. Creatures evolved into more complex creatures as a result of natural selection and mutation. After much death and suffering men and women evolved from apelike ancestors. The survival of the fittest. God is not necessary and therefore does not exist. Does science support this theory?

The recent Encode project investigated DNA and its role in controlling the functions of all cells in the body. It revealed that DNA is a multi-dimensional assembly of information that controls the machines and transport devices in cells. Darwin did not have access to an electron microscope to see these complicated machines and transport devices inside all cells nor the DNA, the Information System that controls these machines. Information does not derive from matter or energy. There is only one source an Intelligent Designer who was outside of the universe (Time, Matter, and Space) He created. There is no way even the simplest cell could have evolved over time. The DNA, the information controlling the machines, and the complex machines had to be created perfectly at the same time to function – irreducible complexity.

God has raised up ministries such as Creation Ministries International, http://www.creation.com, and Answers in Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org to provide resources to present the case for creation so make sure you connect and support them.

PARTIAL OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE

To finish strong for God’s glory you require patient endurance. You have received the Holy Spirit to enable you if you will only say “Not my will but your will be done today“. Moreover, there is no higher calling, no bigger privilege, no greater joy, and you will be kept from the coming wrath of God.

“Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.“ Revelation 3:10

The following Scripture delivers a tough message but Jesus must be at the top of our pecking order.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” 2 Timothy 2:3

We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:9-14

Each of the seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3 represents the church in each of the last seven years (Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy) before Jesus returns first to rapture His church and then to return with the glorified Saints to conquer the Antichrist army at the battle of Armageddon.

The Scripture Revelation 3:7-13 is to the church of Philadelphia, the sixth church in the sixth year.

“Jesus says, I have set before you an open door, no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial (Rapture) which shall come upon the whole earth (wrath of God).” (Revelation 3:7-13)

Just as the six churches represent the church in each of the last seven years, likewise the seven seals also represent what is happening on Earth in each of the last seven years. It is at the sixth seal, the sixth year, that we see the celestial signs that precede Jesus’ return to Earth to rapture the Saints and to begin to pour out His wrath upon the unrepentant.

“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” ” Revelation 6:12-14.

It is at the trumpet blast at the opening of the seventh seal that the rapture takes place and the trumpet and bowl judgments are poured out on an unrepentant world for one year and ten days. Why one year and ten days. The year before a Jubilee year is always one year and ten days and the year following Jesus’ return will be a Jubilee year. It so happens that when God poured out His wrath the first time with Noah’s flood it also was for one year and ten days. Check it out.

If the rapture happens at the start of the seventh year it means that the seventh church. the church of Laodicea (Laodicea is a combination of two Greek words (LAO, meaning “God’s people”; and DIKE, meaning “justice or judgment”) Judgement of God’s people)

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” Revelation 3:15-19

Do you belong to a church that says we are rich, have prospered, and are in need of nothing? Or are you in a church like the church of Philadelphia?

“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name… Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial (Rapture) which shall come upon the whole earth (wrath of God).” Revelation 3:8,10

CURSE ISRAEL AND GOD WILL CURSE YOU

Jonathan Cahn opens up two stunning prophetic signs of judgment,  from the Turkish Parliament to Buenos Aires, Argentina, from the Abrahamic Covenant to the order of creation, from Israel to Pope Francis, the hand of God in real time and space!

There are consequences for cursing Israel. The Abrahamic Covenant declares that God will curse those who curse Israel.

“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3

In the Turkish parliament, a member called down judgment on Israel and was struck dead. See it in this video.

Hasan Bitmez, 53, a member of parliament from the Islamist Saadet Partisi, or Felicity Party, died at the Ankara City Hospital.

Bitmez collapsed at the lectern of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on Tuesday after calling down a curse on Israel for what they were doing to Hamas.

FROM NIMROD TO THE ANTICHRIST, SATAN’S LAST WORLD LEADER

The coming Antichrist’s One World Government will be put down by Jesus on His return at the battle of Armageddon, Jesus then initiates His One World Government. The nation God established for His purposes, Israel, will fulfill its destiny with its Messiah, Jesus, ruling the nations of the world.

It is amazing how the Bible reveals that mankind has not changed and down through the ages God’s arch enemy, Satan has raised up his rulers to deceive mankind and destroy God’s agenda which centers around the nation, Israel, The nation that God established for His purposes. In my lifetime the most horrific leader that Satan raised up was Adolf Hitler. He initiated the destruction of six million Jews, many were shot but mainly they were killed in gas chambers. At the height of deportations in 1943–44, an average of 6,000 Jews were gassed each day at Auschwitz.

You will learn from this video that Satan’s first world leader after the flood was Nimrod who built the Tower of Babel and we know how God put down that rebellion. The only true history of this world is given in the Bible, the nations that exist today arose from the descendants of Noah.

KENYA HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT

I have posted many KHC Mission Trip posts on this website over the years. The picture below is from my trip to Migori, Kenya to meet up with House Church leaders in 2022 for a three-day training meeting. The KHC founder/leader, Charles Otieno Owino is the big man on the far left of the picture. I am the only white man in the picture. I was 85 when this picture was taken. I have been financially supporting KHC since it was 7 house churches. It is well over 20 now. The KHC movement is servicing the rural areas in the north of Kenya and now into Tanzania. It is based on the church as described in the Book of Acts, there are no paid pastors and no church buildings. The email below is from Charles in response to an email I sent him. Basically, I am no longer in a position to send substantial funds to support the KHC Mission Trips so I said I will do my best to get the word out about the KHC Movement knowing that God will raise up supporters if this is work that He wants done.

“Thank you, brother. I believe God has a good plan for me, and the KHC movement. I always believe in God for His promises, even though sometimes His promises to us seem delayed. Invariably something better unfolds before our eyes.

It has been a long journey to bring the KHC movement up to where it is today, with only you giving us financial support. Until now and in all those years no one else has come up, ready to help fund the KHC movement. But I’m sure and without any wavering thought that God’s time will come whereby He will start to bring in one or more people to help KHC move to the next level. And I again say ” I’m sure” Only, let us make known put our request in prayers.

I will keep you in my prayers for a successful mission trip to Perth, via Melbourne and Adelaide. I am sure God will bring a positive outcome. Greetings to everyone, and also family in Perth whom you are visiting. Shalom”

If you would like to support the KHC Movement you can do so by clicking on the Donation icon on the Home Page. It was set up for KHC donations. You can also connect directly with Charles Otieno Owino: Email: otienochris@yahoo.com, Address: Isbana Rd, Migori Kenya, Phone: 254 741196559

DID GOD PLAY A ROLE IN KANSAS CITY CHIEFS WINNING SUPER BOWL LVIII?

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes gave God the glory after winning Super Bowl LVIII Sunday night, saying that the Lord “challenged” his team as it faced adversity all season. Mahomes has often spoken about his faith when presented with the opportunity. He told reporters before last year’s Super Bowl that his faith plays a role in everything he does. 

“My Christian faith plays a role in everything that I do,” Mahomes told the press. “I mean, I always ask God to lead me in the right direction and let me be who I am for His name.”

Mahomes, who threw for 333 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception en route to winning his third Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award, said in a post-game interview on CBS that the team dealt with adversity all season as the offense struggled at times. “It means a ton. Just the adversity we dealt with this year and to come through. The guys never faltered,” the 28-year-old father of two said. “I give God the glory. He challenged us to make us better. I am proud of my guys. They did awesome. Legendary.”

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt also gave glory to God in his comments after receiving the Vince Lombardi Trophy on stage.  

“First of all I want to congratulate [head coach] Andy [Reid], the football team, our coaching staff on an incredible performance. It’s been an amazing five-year run,” Hunt said. “I want to thank the Lord for giving us this opportunity.”

God is in control of all that happens in His World so I ask could God have honoured these two men’s faith with a win? The secular media would not agree but I think so.

NATIONS’ PUSHBACK AGAINST WEF GLOBALIST AGENDA

It is clear from Scripture that God created the nations at the Tower of Babel when He confused the languages. He established His own nation Israel to be His witness to the world and Jesus will rule all the nations of the world from Jerusalem when He returns. The following Scripture indicates that on His return He will judge the nations based on how they treated their people.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25:31-32

Even on the new Earth after the White Throne judgement where only the righteous dwell there will be nations.

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:22-27

There will be nations and kings on the new Earth so it is helpful to view the nations of the Earth, particularly our own nation, and contemplate how Jesus will judge us. It may stimulate us to get into earnest prayer with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni is the first non-socialist, conservative, God-fearing leader of Italy since WWII.  She has reversed abortion laws, and rejected EU immigration and LGBT and sex change pressures.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban’s continued re-election and defiance of EU pressure to accept abortion, LBGT and immigration initiatives, and support of Ukraine, is another sign. He told the EU, “There is not enough money in the world to force us to let migrants in, and there is not enough money in the world for which we would put our children or our grandchildren in the hands of LGBTQ activists. That’s impossible.” 

Argentine President Javier Milei has vowed to fix Argentina’s perennial economic problems by making drastic budget cuts, replacing the battered peso with the US dollar, and shutting down the central bank. 

Taiwan’s election of William Lai a strong supporter of Taiwanese independence was a guarantee of Taiwan’s continued pushback and defiance of Beijing.

LAST DAYS PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IS RELENTLESS

Despite two unanimous acquittals at the Helsinki District Court and the Helsinki Court of Appeals, Finland’s state prosecutor has now taken an elderly member of parliament and a Lutheran bishop before the Supreme Court to answer for their traditional Christian beliefs on sexuality. Dr. Päivi Räsänen, who has served in parliament for 29 years, and Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (ELMDF), are facing “spiritual persecution” for upholding the Scripture, said a letter signed by dozens of Christian and Jewish leaders.

“Once again you face unjust charges. For almost half a decade, you have confronted targeted legal harassment for simply living out your Christian faith, the direct result of not just political persecution but also spiritual persecution,” says the letter, which was led by Advancing American Freedom and released today. “Now, despite twice being unanimously declared not guilty at the Helsinki District Court and the Helsinki Court of Appeals, the prosecutor has filed another appeal, potentially forcing a third trial at Finland’s Supreme Court.”

Authorities have centered their legal case on a five-year-old social media post made by the MP, a member of the Christian Democrats Party, asking why her Lutheran church body would take part in an LGBT “Pride 2019” event. The post on Twitter, now X, included a photo of Romans 1:24-27, which clarifies that homosexual behavior is sinful. 

Two years later, in April 2021, prosecutors charged Räsänen and Pohjola with “agitation against a minority” under the nation’s law against “War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.” Police arrested Räsänen and subjected her to 13 hours of police interrogation before her trial. Prosecutors dubbed the Bible verses in her tweet, a booklet the two wrote in 2004 expounding on biblical doctrine titled “Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relations Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity,” as well as comments Räsänen made on the radio in December 2019 as “hate speech.”

Räsänen and Pohjola were first acquitted by the Helsinki District Court on March 30, 2022. The three-judge panel ruled that prosecutors had violated the Christians’ right to freedom of expression contained in Section 12 of the Finnish Constitution, as well as noting the thorny legal questions posed if secular judges begin ruling on matters of religious doctrine. “It is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts,” the court declared.

But within days, then-Prosecutor General Raija Toiviainen appealed the charges. Räsänen then faced a two-day trial last August 31-September 1. The Court of Appeals unanimously acquitted MP Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola on November 14, 2023. Under the law, social media posts must be intended to offend, and “there must be an overriding social reason for interfering with and restricting freedom of expression,” they ruled. The judges ordered the state to pay both defendants’ legal fees.

Finland’s current state prosecutor appealed the dismissal once again earlier this month.

“It is shocking that the Finnish state prosecutor has decided to target MP Räsänen for a third time, because she politely expressed her religious beliefs in public,” Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council — and who signed the letter — told The Washington Stand. “So far, the Finnish courts have been clear in affirming Räsänen’s right to express her religious beliefs. However, the process of being dragged through court is often the punishment itself.”

The thirst to continually prosecute the grandmother of 10 exposes the government’s intolerance and malice toward traditional Christian viewpoints, said Paul Coleman, executive director of ADF International, which is supporting Räsänen’s legal defense. “Dragging people through the courts for years, subjecting them to hour-long police interrogations, and wasting taxpayer money to police people’s deeply held beliefs has no place in a democratic society,” said Coleman. “As is so often the case in ‘hate speech’ trials, the process has become the punishment.”

What we see playing out in Finland is happening in most Western countries and it demonstrates that a spiritual battle of immense proportions is underway exactly as the Bible prophecies will take place before Jesus returns. Before Jesus returns Satan is cast out of heaven and knows his time is short (Revelation 12).

“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” Revelation 12:7-12

HOW A WORLD WITHOUT GOD FUNCTIONS

Christ the King has been forced out of the public square in secular Western society. In His stead, the masses now do exactly as C.S. Lewis predicted and worship celebrities. Within the USA, Taylor Swift towers above them all. According to a new survey, country star-turned-pop icon Taylor Swift’s endorsement would likely influence 18% of voters in America, including about 30% of voters under the age of 35.

Without a God to worship, the public will inevitably worship lesser gods. This lesson is written throughout history: the ancients would worship and sacrifice to Zeus, Jupiter, Odin, Horus, and countless others. Without the revelation of the one true God, Perfection Himself, these false gods were but exaggerations of common human strengths and weaknesses.

Now, in the ages since Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection, a new sort of god has come to be. No more can men conjure gods in their imaginations, unseen beings responsible for thunder and lightning; instead, the public now worships those among them who are deemed to have transcended common human limitations: billionaire businessmen, cutting-edge scientists, and talented performers are all glorified in God’s place.

Under the tutelage of the Serpent, man has usurped the throne of God — if only in his own mind. Where God invites man to become one with Him, man’s new idea of god promises that every man can become a god, and on his own terms, not on Someone Else’s.

Without Christ at the center of the public square, man now gobbles poison, and Swift is peddling it with her views on abortion and sex. In fact, Swift’s very few political statements directly contradict the noble notion of self-sacrifice inherent in a Christ-centered public square: endorsing the killing of one’s own children for whatever reason — career, reputation, economic ease, or just consequence-free sex — and supporting the sterile LGBT agenda, incapable of producing children or building families, in direct conflict with God’s design for human sexuality. Like the rest of the cultural elite horde, Swift buys into, repackages, and mass-distributes the Luciferian agenda. But unlike the rest of the cultural elite horde, her influence may be enough to alter the outcome of an election.

Finally, there is an alarming degree of political illiteracy prevalent among her fans. Self-declared “Swifties” willing and ready to base their vote on the pop star’s endorsement are not informing their political worldview but allowing someone else to form it for them. One politician’s endorsement of another is a means of informing the political worldview of citizens, a way of saying, “If my policies align with your priorities, then consider voting for this guy, there’s a lot of overlap.” But if swaths of Americans are prepared to vote for a candidate based only on one individual’s recommendation, they are not bearing in mind the God-given responsibility they have to form their consciences well and vote accordingly. They are not bearing in mind God’s commandments and designs and how those ought to be lived out in a virtuous society.

The ”democratic” part of our democratic republic is increasingly falling under the control of a handful of powerful, uber-wealthy cultural elites who dictate where political power goes and how it is exercised. Sounds an awful lot like tyranny.

Where we are in history is given in detail in end times Biblical prophecies. We are fast approaching the prophesied last seven years before Jesus returns to Earth. Lawlessness will abound and persecution of Christians will intensify. Are you ready for Jesus return?

Living Eternal Now – Ready for Jesus’ Return available on Amazon.

Taken from an article in The Washington Stand: The Swiftian Candidate: How a Pop Star Might Impact the Presidential Election by S.A. McCarthy (news writer for The Washington Stand)