It’s Friday, January 23rd, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. ([email protected])
Iran makes large sums of money off the backs of persecuted Christians
Persecuting Christians is a booming business in the Muslim-majority nation, and the country is earning large sums of money from arresting Christ followers, reports International Christian Concern.
Fines and bail amounts imposed by Iranian courts have reached hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years, financially crippling poor Christian families trying to keep their loved ones out of prison.
For years, the Middle Eastern nation has targeted Christians for their faith in Christ through intimidation, physical abuse, and imprisonment. But what’s often overlooked are the exorbitant bail amounts doled out to Christ followers simply to keep themselves out of jail.
Joseph Shahbazian, leader of a Christian house church, was arrested in June 2020 for his Christian activities and given a bail amount of $163,000. After pleading with the court and handing over the deeds to his and his mother’s apartments, the court accepted $109,000 on Shahbazian’s behalf.
Proverbs 22:22-23 says, "Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate; For the LORD will plead their cause, and plunder the soul of those who plunder them."
Shahbazian was released from prison in 2023 after serving a little more than a year in jail, but was rearrested in 2025 for his continued Christian activities and sentenced to an additional 10 years in jail.
According to Open Doors, Iran is the sixth most difficult country worldwide for Christians.
Trump ends all tax-funded research with aborted baby parts
On January 22nd, the 53rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, President Donald Trump ended federal funding for research involving the use of aborted baby parts. It’s a major victory for pro-life advocates that halts taxpayer support for such studies effective immediately, reports The Daily Wire.
The National Institutes of Health announced the policy change on Thursday. The move prohibits the use of funds for research involving aborted baby parts obtained from elective abortions, while allowing ethical fetal tissue from sources such as miscarriages when donors consent.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said, “Someone who has had a miscarriage and wants to do a meaningful thing and they donate the tissue from the miscarriage to science, that’s still allowed. The only ban is on, you have an abortion specifically to terminate the baby, and then the tissue then gets sold, that’s what’s being banned,” something he described as “morally abhorrent.”
Rescue Resurrection protesters plead with Trump to ban abortion pill
People from as far away as California and Georgia came to the nation’s capital Thursday morning to plead with the Trump administration to ban the abortion kill pill, which is now easily available by mail and has led to a shocking increase of abortions following the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, reports LifeSiteNews.com.
In the shadow of the U.S. Capitol dome, 20 people with Rescue Resurrection were arrested by United States Capitol Police outside the Health and Human Services headquarters as they sat down in the middle of the street.
RESCUE RESURRECTION: “Help us tell the nation we want a pro-life revolution. Help us tell the nation we want a pro-life revolution”
POLICEMAN: “Everyone is now under arrest. You will be placed in handcuffs.”
RESCUE RESURRECTION: “Ban the abortion pill!”
POLICEMAN: “If you don’t plan on being arrested, leave the street. If you don’t plan on being arrested, you need to go onto the sidewalk.”
Some of the members of Rescue Resurrection had been incarcerated under the F.A.C.E. Act by the Biden Justice Department and then pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Elderly pro-life icon Joan Andrews Bell was kneeling before a group of police carried her off of the street and cuffed her. (Watch the video of the arrest through a special link in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com).
Emily Berning, president of Let Them Live, said, “The chemical abortion pill has become the chemical coat hanger, and the bathroom has become the new back alley. The abortion pill is twenty-two times more dangerous than the FDA told the American people. When the truth is buried, women are the ones who bleed in silence.
“And that is why we’re standing here outside HHS. HHS is not a bystander in this. HHS has the authority to regulate and the power to act, [yet] they still have allowed a dangerous drug to remain on the market.”
JD Vance & Second Lady announce they’re expecting fourth child
Second Lady Usha Vance announced she is pregnant and will deliver a boy in late July, according to a Tuesday statement on social media.
This will be the fourth child for Vice President J.D. Vance and Usha, and their third son.
U.S. to gain “total access” to Greenland without payment
On January 22nd, President Donald Trump said that the United States is negotiating an arrangement to secure full access to Greenland with no payment in return and unconstrained by any time limit, reports the Epoch Times.
He appeared on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo.
BARTIROMO: “So, what are we talking about? An acquisition of Greenland? Are you going to pay for it?”
TRUMP: “Essentially, it's total access. There's no end. There's no time limit. We're not doing, you know, the famous ’99-year’ deals that you hear about. Countries go on longer. I noticed the stock market went up pretty substantially after we announced it.”
BARTIROMO: “The [Gross Domestic Product] of Greenland is like $3.3 billion, but people are valuing Greenland between $50 billion and almost a trillion [dollars]. So, what are you willing to pay for Greenland?”
TRUMP: “Well, I'm not going to have to pay anything.”
The president has described U.S control of the Arctic island as critical to both national and international security. Indeed, Greenland will be an essential property to facilitate the much-anticipated Golden Dome, the U.S. missile defense system that will destroy enemy missiles before they launch or while they are in flight. It will be patterned after Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
TRUMP: “We're going to have total access to Greenland. We're going to have all military access that we want. We're going to be able to put what we need on Greenland. We're talking about national security and international security. We are building the Golden Dome, and it'll be Israel times probably a hundred.”
7 Democrats voted with GOP to pass DHS/ICE spending bill
Seven Democrats voted with Republicans on Thursday to pass a Department of Homeland Security spending bill, despite opposition from their own Democratic leadership, reports Fox News.
The DHS bill will be bundled alongside three other spending bills, totaling a combined $1.2 trillion in federal spending. The entire package’s passing is a significant step toward averting a government shutdown come January 30th.
It passed in a 220-207 vote with the help of seven Democrats. Only one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted in opposition.
According to TheHill.com, the seven Democrats who sided with Republicans were Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Perez of Washington, Laura Gillen of New York, Don Davis of North Carolina, Tom Suozzi of New York and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.
Anniversary of hymnwriter deaths who wrote “Holy, holy, holy” and “Jesus Loves Me”
And finally, we recognize the anniversary of the deaths of two Christian hymnwriters, both of whom died on January 22nd.
John Dykes, who died on January 22, 1876, composed the music to the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!" sung here by Shane & Shane.
“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in Earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.”
Isaiah 6:3 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole Earth is full of His glory.”
And on January 22, 1915, Anna Bartlett Warner, the author of "Jesus Loves Me", died.
Listen to the lesser known second verse with the chorus, sung by Nathan Drake of Reawaken Hymns. (Learn more about him here).
“Jesus loves me He who died
Heaven's gate to open wide.
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.
“Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”
1 John 4:19 says, "We love because [Christ] first loved us."
And that's The Worldview on this Friday, January 23rd, in the year of our Lord 2026. Follow us on X or subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus ([email protected]). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
