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Kickstarter Tried to Cancel Jesus, But They Couldn’t Succeed

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Crowdfunding websites have become a unique and innovative way for inventors, non-profits, and concerned citizens to raise funds and find new fans of their products and causes.

But lately, we’ve seen these crowdfunding sites take political stances, and they naturally lean left. Remember back in February when GoFundMe froze donations to Canada’s Freedom Convoy based on Justin Trudeau and his government-funded media’s disinformation about the convoy? GoFundMe eventually returned the donations, but they made their battle lines clear.

Kickstarter is now engaging in some similar political and religious censorship. Recently, the site for artists and inventors to fund new projects canceled a previously-approved fundraiser for a product called “Talking Jesus Doll.”

I’ll have to admit, the doll idea sounded sacrilegious to me until I dug deeper. It turns out, the doll actually teaches kids some of Jesus’ words directly from the Bible.

The company responsible for the Talking Jesus Doll explains on its website that “in the last few years, toys have been weaponized with wokeness. Now, almost every product from Big Toy aisle is pushing a gay, trans, anti-white, anti-police or anti-family agenda to separate your child from their family and from their Creator.”

“The only salvation this world has is in Jesus Christ,” the site continues. “And because children form their religious and moral beings as young as age 2, it is essential to introduce … your children to Jesus and His teachings at the earliest age. That is why we built The Talking Jesus Doll.”

I spoke with David Mauro, the founder of Live for Good, Inc., maker of the Talking Jesus Doll, on Monday afternoon, and he told me that his inspiration for the toy came from the stuffed animals that his three girls cherished. He realized that their toys had educational and sentimental value, but none of them had spiritual value. In fact, nothing like that existed, so he decided to make something that would fill that gap.

One of the great things about a toy like this, Mauro told me, is that it personifies Jesus in a way that kids can’t get from a book, a video, or an app on a phone or tablet. Another advantage to a toy like the Talking Jesus Doll is that when kids play with it, they have exposure to the words of Jesus straight from the Bible, which will benefit them when they get older.

Mauro explained on the company’s blog how the process of having a project approved on Kickstarter works.

“To get on Kickstarter, you have to go through a thorough evaluation process where they collect lots of information and review your project,” Mauro writes. “After we submitted our project, story, photos and funding goals to Kickstarter, they approved it.”

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A few weeks after the project got underway, and as the Talking Jesus Doll had backers paying their hard-earned money to help get the product off the ground, Kickstarter sent Mauro an email stating that the project didn’t fall within Kickstarter’s rules.

Mauro pressed Kickstarter on what the problem was, and the crowdfunder pointed to one paragraph on the Talking Jesus Doll’s page.

“And in the last few years we watched once-wholesome toys and television shows devolve into woke propaganda campaigns,” the paragraph read. “It’s true. Lego’s became LGBT, Mr. Potato Head went non-binary; Barbie became Bar-bi. Big Toy embraced the religion of wokeness which is designed to separate children from their families and their Creator.”

Rather than a problem, Mauro saw the paragraph as “evidence that our kids need Jesus now, more than ever.” So, rather than deleting the offending paragraph, he added links to each phrase that proved his point.

I highly recommend you read the post; Mauro clearly did his homework. But it wasn’t enough for Kickstarter, who pulled the plug on the project, which was 71% funded within four days!

“It could have been the paragraph,” Mauro writes. “It could have been the fact that our product is Jesus. We never got and never will get a clear explanation. Whatever it was, Kickstarter chose not to side with us or our backers. They caved.”

“We did not cave and will not,” he continues (with emphasis in the original). “Our Talking Jesus Doll says ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6). Jesus is Truth. Period. To deny the Truth is to deny Jesus. No amount of money is worth that.”

None of the money from the Kickstarter campaign went to Mauro and his company, although Kickstarter did refund the money that supporters donated. Mauro said that he’s heard from several backers who have ordered one of the dolls.

Even though Kickstarter tried to kill the Talking Jesus Doll project, good has come out of it. The doll should release soon, and it has become a successful product launch. Mauro has even pioneered a new type of toy — one with spiritual value (although, as he joked to me, “pioneers often have arrows in their backs”). He also knows that he couldn’t have done this alone.

“It’s a God thing,” he told me. “It’s not a me thing.”

“Remember that they tried to cancel Jesus once before … and we know how that turned out,” he concluded. And we know that Jesus’ story is the greatest true story ever told.

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Keith Getty says Christians must ‘sing the Bible’ in the age of AI ahead of Sing! Conference

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Ten years after Keith and Kristyn Getty launched what was intended to be a one-time event celebrating a book about congregational singing, the Sing! Conference has grown into an international gathering of pastors, theologians, musicians and believers focused on strengthening the singing life of the Church.

This year, the conference will return to Nashville on Sept. 7–9 with the theme “Symphony of Scripture,” marking the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale’s English New Testament and examining the influence of the Bible on worship, theology, language, culture and the arts.

For Keith Getty, the Grammy-nominated hymn writer behind worship classics including “In Christ Alone,” “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” and “The Lord Is My Salvation,” the focus reflects what he says has always been at the heart of the Sing! movement: helping Christians sing the truth of the Scriptures.

“There are many goals with the Sing! Conference: congregational singing, to improve high artistry, but I think at the heart of it is helping people sing the Bible,” the Irish artist told The Christian Post.

Getty, who shares four daughters with his wife, said the timing of the anniversary was particularly meaningful because the first Sing! Conference was deliberately postponed until 2017 so it could coincide with the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Now, its 10th gathering falls 500 years after Tyndale’s English New Testament helped make Scripture accessible to ordinary English-speaking Christians. The conference will also coincide with the 25th anniversary of the English Standard Version Bible.

According to Getty, this year’s conference will highlight not only how Scripture has shaped Christianity but also how singing biblical truth has shaped American life and the global Church.

The event, held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, will feature speakers alongside large-scale hymn sings, theological discussions, instructional sessions and orchestral performances. Crossway is also launching its “Symphony of Scripture” project, Getty said, and a full symphony orchestra will accompany the opening day’s programming before the Getty band takes a larger role beginning on the second day.

“We’re excited about all the potential this has to touch people, to bring the Bible to people in a fresh way and to a wider audience. It’s a really amazing missional opportunity,” he said.

Music and poetry are embedded throughout Scripture itself, Getty contended, and have historically functioned as a way of teaching and preserving biblical truth.

“Scripture itself is about 20 percent poems and songs,” Getty said. “The Bible is more biased towards songs and poetry than any Christian book written since. … Singing is exhilarating. It’s a holy privilege. It is doxological worship to our God and Heavenly Father. But it’s never less than instructional.”

What Christians sing, Getty said, helps shape what they believe and remember. He pointed to Martin Luther’s vision for the Reformation: Scripture should be opened in the language of ordinary people, pastors should faithfully explain it, and believers should carry biblical truths through song.

Luther, who Getty said is his “hero,” envisioned Scripture being opened “in the language of the people” so ordinary Christians could read the Bible while pastors explained and applied its truths. But Luther’s vision didn’t stop at biblical literacy, he said.

“People would carry the Bible out of church by being able to sing the Bible in their own tongue,” Getty said. “In other words, he thought the singing of the Bible had more to do with Monday to Saturday than the preaching or the reading of the Bible.”

For that reason, the hymn writer said strengthening congregational singing is “hugely important to our Christian health.”

He also sees that mission increasingly extending beyond the Western Church. The songwriter noted that much of Christianity’s growth is now occurring outside the English-speaking West, often in places without centuries-old traditions of hymnody. Part of Sing!’s mission, he said, is to “be a supporter” and “help stimulate” the singing life of churches around the world.

“The goal is, number one, to really reform it in the Western Church, and then to go out and be a supporter and someone who could help stimulate and contribute to the singing life of the Church around the world,” he said.

And that emphasis on theology and the power of worship is reflected in the speakers selected for this year’s conference, among them John Piper, John Lennox, Wes Huff, Sinclair Ferguson, Malcolm Guite and Os Guinness, among others.

“We take a theme each year and we share the platform with many people who we believe are wiser and more holy than we are,” he said. “The Sing Conference every year is, to some degree, what Kristyn and I have been learning in the last year, what we’ve been doing, what we’ve been writing, what we’ve been sharing.”

Unlike previous years, Piper won’t deliver expository Bible teaching at the conference, but will instead tell the story of Tyndale and the extraordinary personal cost of his determination to give English-speaking Christians access to Scripture.

“I think a lot of how grace is taught today is just way too casual. It’s way too easy,” Getty said, adding that for Tyndale, faithfulness meant being “turned down 100 times” and ultimately being killed for his work. “I think Piper has a great way of telling that.”

Huff, a Canadian Christian apologist who has gained a significant following, will focus on the credibility of Scripture. Getty said Huff is “appealing to a new generation” that churches and Christian conferences have not always successfully reached.

Meanwhile, Guite, an Anglican priest, poet and longtime Cambridge educator, will examine Tyndale’s influence on the English language and subsequent literature, while Guinness will address Christianity’s engagement with culture. Ferguson, a prolific author and speaker, will focus on theology and worship.

The conference will also address a decidedly 21st-century issue: artificial intelligence. Getty revealed that Huff and Oxford mathematician and Christian apologist John Lennox will participate in what he described as a first-of-its-kind conversation between the two on “biblical intelligence versus artificial intelligence and the future.”

“As we enter the AI age, both the confusing disparity of what people have known to be true in the past and what is the new reality that they’re going to discover in the next one to 10 years will be so dislocating,” Getty said. “With the internet … rose depression, and then social media rose anxiety. And I think what AI is going to do for loneliness and just the lack of any sense of friendship is so crazy.”

The response, according to Getty, shouldn’t be fear, but be to root Christians more deeply in eternal truths and in the physical community of the Church.

“I think all the more important that we sing of Heaven, that we think of Heaven, that our trust is [in] eternal things. Ultimately … our hope has to be in Heaven,” he said, adding that throughout Christian history, movements of renewal have consistently produced new songs.

“All great movements result in doxology,” Getty said. “They result in people singing because, as the hymn writer says, how can we keep from singing? We just can’t. That’s how we’re made.”

“The world was sung into being,” he added. “Heaven is a picture of God’s people singing, and we want to help equip the Church to engage more fully in worship.”
Sources:Christianpost

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‘I Was Empty Without Him’: Singer and TV Star Donnie Wahlberg Gets Deep About Finding Christ

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This past year, award-winning singer and actor, Donnie Wahlberg publicly proclaimed Christ as his savior, and lately he’s been opening up more and more about his faith journey.

In early May of 2026, the 56-year-old went viral for collaborating online with Christian music artist Forrest Frank. They soon released an official remix track together called, “JESUS IS ALIVE (feat. Donnie Wahlberg).” Then in June, Wahlberg went viral again while acknowledging Christ during one of Frank’s concerts – MORE HERE.

As he was taking bold steps to put his faith in practice, Wahlberg also connected with the podcast host George Janko on the George Janko Show and shared some of what he has learned.

Being raised in an Irish-Catholic background as one of nine children, Wahlberg described himself as a “peacemaker” amid chaotic and strained family relations.

“I come from a very co-dependent family. When my parents broke up, I was around 11 and I immediately became like the peacekeeper and the peacemaker,” Wahlberg shared. “The struggle for me was discerning between – and at that age I wasn’t discerning – being a people pleaser and just trying to fix everyone else’s problems.”

The multi-talented star continuously poured into others as the pressure to fix others’ problems built up over time.

“Everybody, people that I used to look up to, grown-ups, be like, ‘Hey how do I fix this?’ I’m like, ‘What do I know? I’m in a boy band’,” the New Kids on the Block star recalled. “But then, I am also a people pleaser. I want to fix everyone’s problems inherently. So, now I’m like, ‘Well I got to have all the answers’, and I literally have walked around for the last 30-something, 38 years thinking I have all the answers.”

After his boy band music success with NKOTB, he then shifted to an acting career, starring in Band of Brothers, Blue Bloods, Boston Blue, and more.

But as he struggled through the years, trying to figure it out on his own, Wahlberg finally admitted that something was missing and surrendered to God’s helping hand.

“It’s been so difficult in the last year to realize I don’t… I don’t have them all. I can try and I know God’s doing all the work, but I finally got to a point where I was like, I can’t do it anymore without Him. I’m missing something in my life.”

For Wahlberg, this powerful admission did not come out of a place of lack or despair, but out of a deep realization that, regardless of all he had achieved, he was empty without God.

“And I have a wonderful wife, wonderful kids. I have everything. So, as I am testifying right now, I don’t have a story of having everything and losing it. I don’t have a story of being a drug addict and recovery. God bless all those people who find their way,” Wahlberg told Janko. “Everything to the outside, to everyone, looks perfect and I was empty. I was empty without Him.”

Along with emptiness, Wahlberg struggled with loneliness and shared how Jesus Christ was the only remedy.

Despite the challenges he faced, Wahlberg recognizes God’s hand and plan through it all. He acknowledges his past as the preparation to properly pour into others today.

“I look back now and I know without a doubt, He built me into that life to do what I am doing now. I literally spent my childhood in that house trying to make nine kids, my grandma, our dog, our cat, and everyone happy and bring us together and everyone unified as we were fracturing and falling apart,” Wahlberg explained. “And that’s what I do for a living. I get on stage in front of 20,000 people and their suffering, their struggling and they’re going through all these things.”

As he continues to live out his faith, he celebrated his birthday today, August 17, with another post about Jesus, declaring, “Looking back over the past year of my life, the Lord has been renewing my mind, rebuilding my spirit, rearranging my priorities, recentering my focus, recharging my energy, reshaping my heart, refining my faith, restoring my joy and redeeming my life! I don’t know where I would be without Jesus, but I know where I will be with Him! All the glory is His! Thank you again and God bless you all!”
Sources:CBN News

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‘No Limbs, No Limits: The NickV Story’ Coming to Theaters Next Month

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“No Limbs, No Limits” captures the powerful story of inspirational speaker Nick Vujicic’s early life, revealing how Christ trades beauty for ashes.

As a top three speaker worldwide, Vujicic inspires billions of people, declaring Christ’s ability to use any willing heart no matter the circumstances.

Coming to theaters September 25, 2026, “No Limbs, No Limits: The NickV Story” will follow how Vujicic’s life became one of extraordinary resilience, hope, and Kingdom influence despite being born with no arms or legs.

The film features deeply personal home videos revealing intimate moments Vujicic and his family experienced. However, all of them proclaim one final message of hope.

“It was humbling. Revisiting some of the darkest seasons of my life hasn’t been easy, but neither was watching my family relive it with me. At the same time, we celebrate the lives that have been changed and the people who have come to Christ along the way,” Vujicic told CBN News’ Studio 5. “It’s amazing to have footage my mom had the foresight to capture when I was little, and I’m so grateful she did. Every frame of this film points back to one thing—what God can do with your broken pieces when you place them in His hands.”

While the film takes the viewers through Vujicic’s “real” and “raw” life, it is not meant to glorify him or his accomplishments but rather acknowledge the God who spoke a better word when his physical condition declared defeat.

“People can expect the real deal. It’s raw. The highs, the lows, and stuff I’ve never shared publicly before. This film isn’t about what “Nick” has done. It’s about what God has done with a guy born without arms and legs,” Vujicic shared.

“I want folks to walk away inspired and knowing they’re not too broken, too forgotten, or too far gone; everyone’s life has purpose,” Vujicic told CBN News’ Studio 5.

For Vujicic, the film’s overall success is not measured in ticket sales or reviews, but on the millions of people who may leave the theater inspired and transformed by the name of Jesus Christ.

“I want people to walk away knowing their limitations don’t define their potential when they’re in God’s hands. If He can use a man with no arms and no legs to reach the nations, He can absolutely use you. You just have to say yes. My hope is that folks leave inspired to trust Him and live boldly for Him. At the end of the day, the real win isn’t ticket sales or reviews; it’s about a million people watching ‘No Limbs, No Limits’ and walking out changed forever in Jesus’ name,” Vujicic concluded.
Sources:CBN News

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