Newsmakers

Actor and lawman Dean Cain is making headlines once again—this time for joining forces with ICE.

In this candid conversation with Billy Hallowell, Cain opens up about why he decided to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with immigration officers, the online hate and “fake Christian” attacks he’s faced, and his unwavering belief in law and order.

From Hollywood to the border, Cain shares his heart for protecting families, defending truth, and pushing back against fear.

On today's Newsmakers: an actress finds Jesus, Steve Deace, and real-life miracles.

Is artificial intelligence (AI) ethical? That's the question secular and Christian leaders alike are contending with as technology quickly evolves. Andre Echevarria, leader of U.S. digital strategies at Cru, a large Christian ministry formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ, is among those contending with how to use AI. Rather than shun the burgeoning tech, he believes it's a tool that can be used to spread the Gospel. Echevarria offered up an intriguing response when asked if AI is moral.

"Rather than debating that part, I would say, 'Can we redeem it for the glory of God?'" he said. "And that's actually what we're doing here. We're using a lot of that technology to be able to actually help people discover a relationship with Jesus, go deeper in their relationship with Jesus, or maybe even share their current relationship with Jesus with their neighbors." He said the ethics of the matter really depends on a key factor: how people choose to use AI. Echevarria said Cru is using AI and other tools in virtual and online spaces to help bring people closer to God.

"So let's say that our friend here has certain characteristics, like maybe they like certain brands and certain types of posts," he explained. "So, we're able to use AI to find more people like her and then be able to put our offers and messages of hope in front of them. So we're using the AI built into some of our advertising platforms to be able to find more people that we can actually share the gospel with." Echevarria said they're also using the technology to help equip people and let them know, based on certain "aptitudes," about available resources to help them share their faith with neighbors. "And whether that resource is in a certain language or certain context ... we're able to actually provide that for you," he said. "So, we're using AI in a lot of different spaces like this to ... help us be able to contextualize a lot of this."

Echevarria is fully aware of the critiques and worries surrounding AI, but warned of what could happen if Christians decide to fully disengage or ignore it. "We just lose an opportunity," he said. "We should take every opportunity to share ... the eternal hope we have. And we just miss an opportunity." He tries to encourage people to see AI as an "advanced intern" — a useful tool that can help make tasks easier, not totally overtake people's processes. "In turn, you obviously wouldn't let [an intern] run your radio show daily, right?" he said. "You'd have them maybe do some research and maybe bring up some topics, ideas, and some things that you can then fine-tune for the effort and the outcome that you want for the show." Hear him explain.

In this powerful episode of Newsmakers, we dive deep into three gripping stories where faith intersects with fame, freedom, and fear:

It's been 10 years since ISIS terrorists brutally murdered journalist James Foley, releasing a gruesome video of the killing that absolutely shocked the world. Diane Foley, the late reporter's mother, has spent much of the last decade devoting her life to helping other hostage families who have faced the same terror she experienced.

Foley's family first realized something was wrong when he didn't call them on Thanksgiving Day in 2012. "Jim always called on holidays," Diane told CBN News. "He always was in touch. He was very good about that, always reassuring us he was fine and asking how we were. So when we did not hear from him that Thanksgiving, [it] was kind of an ominous silence." The next day, Diane, who has a new book "American Mother" that details the full story, learned from two of her son's colleagues that he had been kidnapped near the border of Turkey while attempting to head home.

"He was en route to meet these colleagues on the border," she said. "It was a shock and it was very different because this kidnapping was only witnessed by his fixer, who couldn't figure out who the captors were." Even more disturbing was the fact Foley suddenly vanished for months, leaving Diane and her family with no information about Foley's whereabouts or even whether he was dead or alive.

Diane, intent on saving her son, reached out to the U.S. government in hopes of getting an answer. With little knowledge about the political scene and American hostage policy, she was reaching out in the dark in hopes she'd receive assistance. "When I reached out to our government and people told me Jim was their highest priority, I really believed it too long," she said. After nearly two years of pleading and working diligently for Foley's return, Diane faced every mother's worst nightmare — only her horror was elevated by the tragic fact that the video of Jim's beheading made international headlines.

She joins CBN News to reflect on what happened, how her faith sustained her, and why she's now helping other families avoid the same pitfalls.

Author Randy Kay says he’s seen heaven — and it’s an experience he still gets emotional recounting. It all happened years ago when Kay experienced a medical emergency. He recalled waking up in the middle of the night with a swollen calf after a business trip — something he initially ignored.

“I could barely walk, went for a bike ride of all things, which I should not have done because that exacerbated the problem,” he told Billy Hallowell and Jen Lilley on their “Into the Supernatural” podcast. “I went up the coast of San Diego ... on the bicycle and could barely breathe. My calf was about one and a half times its size.”

“Immediately, my body went still, and, initially, it felt like a tugging at my hospital gown,” he said. “And, later, I would come to realize that that was my spirit leaving my body, and then I became a third party to my body. So, I was looking down this still body I knew that was my body, but that wasn't me.”

Dylan Novak is on a mission to help save celebrities' souls, intentionally bringing the Gospel to some of the biggest names in entertainment. Novak, founder of Celebrity Evangelist, routinely attends autograph signings and other events to present the salvation message to well-known performers. Most recently, he made headlines for his 2023 interaction with singer Ozzy Osbourne, who died July 22 after a battle with Parkinson's disease.

Actor Neal McDonough is on a mission to tell stories of faith and inspiration. McDonough's latest film, "Guns & Moses," in theaters now, is about a rabbi who runs a small synagogue in California alongside his wife and five kids. The faith leader "becomes an unlikely gunslinger after his community is violently attacked," according to an official description.

The actor, who portrays Mayor Donovan Kirk in the film, said the movie is "about honoring God and loving your neighbors." It's a mission of kindness and understanding that relates to McDonough's own struggles of losing out on Hollywood jobs after standing by his own Christian faith. "I had this great career and then it kind of got taken away from me for a little bit because of my faith and my love of my wife," McDonough said. "I didn't wanna do kissing scenes because I didn't wanna put [my wife], Ruve, through that kind of stuff 'cause it's just odd."

McDonough previously shared his journey with CBN News. He made a media splash a few years ago for his longstanding policy of declining to kiss castmates, something that caught attention during his time on the TV show "Desperate Housewives." "I wouldn't kiss a woman on that show years ago," McDonough said. "And then I got blackballed." He continued, "I lost my house, and I lost everything — cars, you name it. I went bankrupt."

McDonough said he ended up with a "massive drinking problem," spending two years consuming alcohol to cope with not being able to land a job. Eventually, he overcame those struggles and has since been making powerful movies with redemptive storylines.

In his most recent interview with CBN News, McDonough offered advice for those who have faced similar struggles after standing up for their ideals. "For people who have gone through what I went through, you gotta keep having your faith," he said. "You gotta believe that if you have a God-given talent like I have, I know that if I have faith in Him, He's gonna get me through anything."

Ex-witch Sarah Anne Sumpolec once found herself enraptured by incantations, Tarot cards, and casting spells — until an encounter with Jesus transformed her perspective. Decades later, she’s now a devout Christian who shares her experience as a former real-life teenage witch to help people see God’s power to change lives and perspectives.

Her harrowing story of engaging the spirit world and nearly losing her life is nothing short of deeply compelling. In this interview, Sumpolec recalls being plagued by scary dreams, and a feeling like the spiritual experiences she had so fervently embraced were starting to turn negative. At first, she assumed she was doing something wrong that made the spirits angry and attempted to remedy it.

“I was aware of the shift, but I didn’t know why the shift had happened,” Sumpolec said. “And I assumed I was doing something wrong, and so I kind of doubled down with all of it, because it was the only place I had to go.” That plan left her even more destitute, as she felt prompted by these spirits to embrace the idea that the only way she could heal herself was to end her life. After nearly losing her life, she found Jesus. 

Singer Ben Fuller is experiencing a meteoric rise in the music industry, but his life wasn't always so illustrious. The Vermont native was once a drug user who looked for pleasure in all the wrong places, leaving him totally unfulfilled. But, as he likes to recount, he went from seeing "Jesus as a swear to Jesus as a Savior," ultimately putting the Lord at the center of his life.