February marks the observance of Black History Month, a time for Americans and others to reflect on the historical contributions of African Americans to United States history. This article from CP highlights five interesting facts about Black History Month, including when it became a national observance and how it is celebrated outside the U.S. Read the list now.

Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., reopened Monday, several weeks after a 6-year-old boy shot his teacher, 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner, in the chest as she taught his class. Multiple officers were present on campus, with Newport News Police Chief Steve R. Drew telling CNN, "I wanted those kids to know we support them, as well as the faculty and staff." In addition to the police presence, two metal detectors were installed at the school, and administrator Karen Lynch told parents that each student would also receive a clear backpack. Zwerner revealed that she repeatedly begged school administrators for help with the boy prior to the Jan. 6 shooting, but her complaints fell on deaf ears. Police Chief Drew previously explained that children younger than 7 are presumed unable to form the intent to carry out an illegal act under Virginia law, but someone could be charged for failing to secure the gun used in the shooting. Read more.

Pro-life church House of Prayer in Ardmore, Okla., said they were "heartbroken" after police discovered a baby was left in their dumpster. "We’re pro-life from the moment of conception. We support babies in the womb. We support our local pregnancy center. We support mothers. Our hearts have gone out to the dad, the mom, the baby. We are absolutely heartbroken," Associate Pastor Ed Skidmore told CP. Ardmore police told WLBT 3 that the baby was found around 3 p.m. Saturday and was in stable condition as of Saturday night. Skidmore told CP that investigators on the scene told him that it was the mother who alerted them to the baby's location. "We just need to bind our hearts together to pray for the mom and dad and the child. We have a wonderful congregation. We’re just heartbroken that somebody was put in a position of hopelessness like that," he added. Read more.

Sarah McDugal, an author, speaker and abuse recovery coach, discusses being raised in purity culture and how experiencing betrayal and trauma in her marriage caused her to question whether God wanted good things for her life. McDugal reflects on the importance of recognizing that people have free will and that God offers true freedom to those who want to experience total heart transformation. "I learned to embrace the knowledge that I am cared for and loved, regardless of the destructive decisions others make. I learned to accept that there might yet be happily ever after somewhere in my future, even though it wasn't likely to look anything like what I'd imagined as an innocent young girl," she writes. Read more.

Meg Brook, who spent her career as an ICU nurse, calls out the dangers of treating gender dysphoria in children via invasive and irreversible methods such as body-mutilating surgeries. Despite noninvasive options and research showing that the majority of children eventually grow out of their feelings of gender dysphoria, some in the medical community insist on so-called "gender-affirming" care. Now, many of these children are beginning to move into adulthood, detransitioning, and speaking out about the damages caused by such care. Brook details how patients received lobotomies for two decades "until the madness and danger of this surgery were widely recognized and the procedure was eventually stopped." During a March 2020 Pennsylvania House Subcommittee on Health Care hearing, the federal Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services declared, "And since doctors gave up performing lobotomies to treat psychiatric disorders many decades ago, gender dysphoria is the only psychiatric diagnosis which doctors are attempting to treat by surgery." Reflecting on the failed lobotomy approach, Brook concludes, "Those who fail to recognize history are doomed to repeat it." Read more.

Some kids wait years to be chosen by sponsors. Now it’s their turn to take action.

Kids now have the chance to choose you as their sponsor. This puts the power in the hands of our brothers and sisters in developing countries — honoring their dignity as equals and celebrating our belief in Christ by loving our neighbor no matter who they are, or where they live. Read more

Celebration Church founder Stovall Weems has launched a website to counter the narrative from current church leaders of the Jacksonville, Fla., megachurch where he and his wife, Kerri, were ousted from leadership last year amid allegations of abuse, including financial fraud. "In 2022, we were accused with salacious lies that cost us everything—our life's work, the ministry we built for God's Kingdom, our jobs, our finances, our reputations, and even many of our dearest. The problem is, the accusations that were made and the actions taken against us were lies—not to mention illegal," Weems wrote on the clearingourname.com website. The website also includes copies of his lawsuits against the church and an independent review of Celebration Church's internal report, which was produced by the Nelson Mullins law firm. In the independent review from former FBI Special Agent Tom Simon, who now works as a licensed private investigator in Florida, Simon wrote that while he believes Weems "made decisions that I believe were unwise," Weems' actions were mainly within his legal authority, and church leaders were given notice of his actions as he carried out those deals. Simon further argued that the Nelson Mullins report did not give readers sufficient context to arrive at a fair conclusion. Read more.

The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church unveiled plans to bestow nearly $100,000 in grant funding to various organizations to promote justice initiatives this year. Among those organizations is Reconciling Ministries Network, a group that is not officially part of the UMC, but has lobbied for the denomination to be more accepting of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The UMC's rules prohibit the funding of groups that promote homosexuality. According to the official body's announcement, RNM was given a grant as part of a project on intersectionality, specifically to create materials for a "'Curriculum,' or multimedia resource in a Vacation Bible School format serving whole congregations, small groups, and Children’s Sunday School classes from a variety of theological perspectives." Read more.

Jinger Duggar Vuolo rose to fame on the hit TLC series "19 Kids and Counting," which chronicled the daily lives of her 18 siblings and their parents. Their modest clothing and focus on "courting" over dating intrigued millions of viewers. However, beneath it all, Vuolo says she was struggling with feelings of inadequacy and shame, tortured by the belief that one misstep would remove her from God's favor. Now, Vuolo is speaking out about the process of "disentangling" the truth of the Gospel from her problematic upbringing, including her family following the strict teachings promoted by the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an organization established by disgraced minister Bill Gothard in 1961. "In the teachings I grew up with, everything's black and white: If you live a certain way, you'll be blessed by God, Himself," Voulo shared with CP. "I remember [Gothard] saying ... [I]f you live by my principles'—which he would say were biblical principles— 'your life will be a success ... if you don't, your life will be one disaster after another.'" In her 20s, she began to question the ideologies she was raised with, explaining, "[I]t's scary because you're told not to question it. You're told not to think for yourself ... so once you stop and say, 'Is this really what the Word of God says?' And you realize it's not, it feels like your whole foundation is shaken." Now, Vuolo is sharing her story in her book, Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear. Watch the full interview here.