West
Government tries to force Christian ministry servicing at-risk youth to remove its Christian character: suit
A Christian youth ministry group is experiencing financial woes causing “irreparable injury” after an Oregon government agency conditioned critical funding on whether it would hire people who do not conform to the nonprofit’s deeply held religious beliefs, according to the allegations in court.
The Oregon-based Christian ministry group – 71Five Ministries – is currently grappling with a large deficit in its annual budget after the state’s education department allegedly stripped its funding due to its religious character, the lawsuit, originally filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom in March, alleged. The case wrapped up oral arguments last week and is awaiting a decision from a judge in the case.
“It felt very much like a punch in the gut,” Bud Amundsen, the executive director of the Christian youth-mentoring nonprofit, told Fox News Digital.
“We were actually kind of one of their favorite programs,” he added.
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A Christian ministry in Oregon services at-risk youth had its funding cut from the department of education over its religious character, according to a lawsuit. (Fox News Digital)
71Five Ministries serves at-risk youth of all faiths and backgrounds, including those who are incarcerated and expectant and parenting teens. It had been granted funds for six years before it was abruptly denied over a “statement of faith” expected of its staff.
The ministry required all board members, employees, and volunteers “to be authentic followers of Christ.” The ADF argued that as a religious organization, it has the legally protected right to prefer members of its own faith as employees and volunteers. The ADF based it on Supreme Court rulings, including one which said the government cannot interfere with a religious organization’s “selection of those who will personify its beliefs.”
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“When we were awarded the funding, we were happy to continue on with the partnership. And then to have it pulled and to have it pulled for that reason, I mean … [I was] like, how in the world could that happen?” Amundsen said.
Amundsen added he still doesn’t know how he’s going to fill the financial gap going into the next fiscal year.
“My hope and goal is to not reduce staff, which will reduce access for young people,” he said. “I’ve had a variety of emotions related to that. And probably the best thing I could say is, now it feels like we’re very unappreciated, that our hard work has been basically tossed into the trash can simply because they disagree with our faith perspective.”
71Five Executive Director Bud Amundsen (71Five)
Amundsen said he is dipping into the nonprofit’s reserves to ensure that his staffers aren’t laid off and the local youth are not turned away due to lack of resources.
“We’re in the middle of [dealing with this] right now. The amount of the grants was over 10% of our budget. And so to have that pulled obviously we have to go about … funding in a different way,” he said. “We’ve had to spend $187,000 in reserves to keep the programming at present.”
“Defendants for the first time decided to prohibit faith-based organizations from participating in the program if they prefer members of their own faith as employees and volunteers,” the lawsuit said. “This New Rule led to Defendants stripping 71Five Ministries of over $400,000 in grant awards just because the Christian ministry expects its employees and volunteers to share its religious beliefs and mission.”
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Jeremiah Galus, senior counsel at the ADF, said, “The Supreme Court three times in a period of seven years had to tell state officials, you cannot exclude religious organizations from your programs just because they’re religious.”
“But unfortunately, we see officials like the officials here in the state of Oregon who continue to push back and test those boundaries and try and find other ways to exclude religious organizations. It’s wrong.”
“This is a situation where the state of Oregon did partner with 71Five for six consecutive years. No one disputes that 71Five admirably fulfilled the purposes of the grant program, that they’re doing good work for the youth. And so to just say, because you’re religious, because you have a religious staff somehow that keeps you from helping kids – the First Amendment doesn’t allow that. Our Constitution doesn’t permit that.”
Jeremiah Galus serves as senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, where he is a key member of the Center for Christian Ministries. (Fox News Digital)
“At the end of the day, this isn’t just a violation of 71Five constitutional rights, which is bad enough, but it’s actually hurting youth in Southern Oregon who are not able to access these services. 71Five is not able to expand its programs to help more kids, and that’s a tragedy,” Galus added. “We [at ADF] want to make sure that 71Five is not excluded from any future grant programs and that no other religious organization suffers the same religious discrimination and 71Five has.”
Oregon’s Department of Education was contacted for comment and said, “The agency does not comment on pending legal cases.”
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San Francisco, CA
Watch Bob Weir Perform ‘Touch of Grey’ with Dead and Co. at His Final Live Appearance
The music world was busy mourning David Bowie on the 10-year anniversary of his death on Saturday when the devastating word hit that we lost another icon of almost indescribable significance to rock history: Bob Weir.
“He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could,” the Weir family wrote in a public statement. “Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.”
The road was Weir’s home from the moment the Grateful Dead formed in 1965 all the way through last summer. His projects outside the Grateful Dead included RatDog, Furthur, Bob Weir and Wolf Bros, and Dead & Company. At almost any given time, he had shows on the books with at least one of them.
“The interesting thing is, I’ve never made plans,” he told Rolling Stone‘s Angie Martoccio last March. “And I’m not about to, because I’m too damn busy doing other stuff, trying to get the sound right, trying to get the right chords, trying to get the right words, trying to get all that stuff together for the storytelling. And really, making plans seems like a waste of time. Because nothing ever works out like you expected it to, no matter who you are. So why bother?”
Dead & Co. wrapped up a farewell tour in July 2023, but they continued to play residencies at Sphere in Las Vegas throughout 2024 and 2025. And they came together one last time in August 2025 for three shows in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to celebrate the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary. Throughout the three evenings, they were joined by Billy Strings, Trey Anastasio, Grahame Lesh, and Sturgill Simpson.
These were joyous concerts filled with Deadheads from around the globe, but Weir was holding a secret: He was diagnosed with cancer weeks earlier, and had just started treatment. “Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts,” the Weir family wrote. “Another act of resilience. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design.”
The final night wrapped up with “Touch of Grey,” perhaps the most famous tune in the Dead songbook. Weir sang lead, and the band stretched it out for nearly eight minutes. At the end, Weir took a group bow with the full band, waved to the crowd, and then took a special bow with Mickey Hart, the only other original member of the Dead in Dead & Co., before they walked off together. It was his final live appearance.
“There is no final curtain here, not really,” wrote the Weir family. “Only the sense of someone setting off again. He often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him. May that dream live on through future generations of Dead Heads. And so we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin’.”
It’s way too early to seriously contemplate the future of Dead & Co., but it’s somewhat hard to imagine them continuing outside of a tribute concert to Weir. He was the heart and soul of the group.
That said, Weir himself once said he hoped to see the band outlive him. “I had a little flash while we were playing one night,” Weir told Rolling Stone‘s David Fricke in 2016. “It was toward the end of the tour. I don’t remember what city it was in. We were getting into the second set, setting up a tune. We were all playing, but the tune hadn’t begun yet. We were all feeling out the groove, just playing with it. Suddenly I was 20 feet behind my own head, looking at this and kind of happy with the way the song was shaping up. I started looking around, and it was 20 years later. John’s hair had turned gray. Oteil’s had turned white. I looked back at the drummers, and it was a couple of new guys. I looked back at myself, the back of my head, and it was a new guy. It changed my entire perception of what it is we’re up to.”
The members of Dead & Co. will ultimately make the call. And no matter what happens, Grateful Dead music will continue to live on concert stages for decades and decades to come. They are responsible for a significant chapter of the Great American Songbook.
Forgotten. Absent. Inconsistently healthy. Weights of expectation.
These heroes offered glimpses and scenes of their greatness in 2025.
Paul Arriola, X Man
Paul Arriola gave us a glimpse of his former greatness before his injury. Once a DP, once the highest value transfer within MLS, once recruited to skip MLS entirely for what was at the time a much better league, Arriola’s all comps contributions per 90 would compare to wingback style players Jordi Alba and the now-gone Ali Ahmed.
Arriola slides right in that space, with his 0.57. Now, a discerning reader such as yourself will imagine small sample sizes and opponent quality. You would be correct. But Paul also put up similar numbers in MLS in 2018, 2021 and 2022. His time in MLS as a whole is .40/90 (in the realm of last season’s Christian Espinoza).
Defining Arriola’s role is always going to be hard. He’s played as many wide roles as exist in the modern game. With Seattle, he could be a left or right winger in a four-front if they choose to run a 3-2-4-1, or a wingback in a 3-4-2-1 or a conventional winger in a 4-2-3-1. No matter his role, he’s been strong. His calls to the US National Team ran every year from age 20-27, when he put up better numbers there than he did in league play. He’s now 30.
Pedro de la Vega, the injury saga
Sounders fans know how bright Pedro can burn. So do, Lanus fans, Argentina fans, Cruz Azul fans, Santos Laguna fans, Tijuana fans, Puebla, Galaxy, Inter Messi and a smattering of other MLS teams. The Leagues Cup player of the year and wonder goal nominee is absolutely thrilling, when available.
Lanus, Argentina and Seattle also know his history of injuries. Injuries are why he’s in Seattle.
PdlV only played 41% of available minutes in all competitions. A healthy winger of his quality should be around 66% or so. His absolutely stellar all comps performance of 0.72 is on par with Hany Mukhtar, at 20th in MLS play. Pedro is ahead of Diego Rossi, Djordje Mihailovic, and Dejan Joveljić.
When you think about how the Seattle Sounders will make up ground for the inevitable decline of Danny Musovski the names Arriola and de la Vega should be bandied about.
They weren’t merely better than the people who replaced them on the Sounders – they’re better than the majority of high-profile players in the league.
In 2025 Craig Waibel raised the floor and the peak. Injuries gave us only a few glimpses of that peak.
2026 is when the multi-competition heroic Sounders can once again show their prowess and why their presence as a top tier club is eternal.
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Catching up on Sounder at Heart
Here’s what you missed on the site this week.
Sounders
Next match: Sunday, February 22, 2026 v. the Colorado Rapids | 6 p.m. PT | Apple TV/FS1
Reign
Schedule to come next week.
Defiance
Schedule to come.
Looking back at the news
Everything else you need to know
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- Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay to take West Brom job (Twin Cities)
- Meghann Burke on why the NWSLPA opposes the High Impact Player rule (Full times on Spotify)
- KC Current hire ex-USMNT star Armas as coach (ESPN)
- USWNT to face Argentina, Canada, Columbia in 2026 SheBelieves Cup (Stars & Stripes FC)
- Suwon FC Women Re-Sign South Korea’s Top Female Footballer Ji So-yun (Chosun Daily)
- Man admits racist abuse of footballer Jess Carter (BBC)
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