HYDERABAD, India, August 20, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Municipal officials in Nepal ordered a church to stop construction of a worship hall after local Hindus objected to it, sources said.

Some of the area Hindus had threatened relatives who became Christians after pastor Manish Bohra began proclaiming Christ in Galkot in January. When a small church began that outgrew its rented room for worship, in March he leased land on which to build a temporary structure for worship.

The novel coronavirus pandemic halted construction, and after authorities lifted the lockdown on July 21, members of the church in western Nepal’s Baglung District renewed construction on a structure to accommodate 50 people, Pastor Bohra said.

“On July 26, I received a phone call from officials at Galkot Municipality warning us not to construct a church in the area, and that they had received a petition from the local residents opposing Christian activities in the area,” Pastor Bohra told Morning Star News. “When we tried to reason with the officials, they told us that we have gone against the Nepalese laws, and that we must stop all activities in the area and vacate the premises with immediate effect.”

All religious groups except Buddhist monasteries must register as nonprofit organizations to own land or other property, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2019 Report on International Religious…

(RNS) — Pam Schulz has never seen anything like it.

Just about every home in the Cedar Rapids area has been impacted by the storms that swept across the Midwest last week with hurricane-force winds, according to Schulz, the executive director of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, a congregation in Marion, Iowa, affiliated with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.

Some have trees downed in their lawns. Some have trees through their houses and on their cars.

Some, more than a week later, still don’t have electricity.

And unlike the flooding that swept Cedar Rapids about a decade ago, the damage is too widespread to escape.

“It’s going to be a long recovery,” Schulz said.

“When we had the flood here in 2008, most people who went to serve could come home to a house with air conditioning and what looked normal. Well, you can’t even drive down the street without seeing damage now anywhere in the entire community.”

In Iowa, churches are working together and partnering with faith-based organizations from across the country to offer aid after the unusual windstorm, called a derecho, left a trail of devastation from South Dakota to Ohio on Aug. 10.

“I feel really blessed that we have the ability to talk to one another and work together in this,” Schulz said.

President Donald Trump surveyed the damage from Air Force One on Tuesday (Aug. 18) after signing…

Television commentator and NFL analyst Tony Dungy, who has not shied away from hot-button issues on social media in recent months, dove into the subject of abortion Thursday and made clear he believes the Bible’s teachings are pro-life.

The Super Bowl-winning coach was referencing a tweet from radio host Tim Bryant, who said in a tweet he had interviewed a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who also is a minister and believes that abortion is “healthcare” and that – in Bryant’s words – “God is cool with it.” 

Bryant didn’t mention the candidate by name, but he had interviewed Raphael Warnock, a Democrat in Georgia who is running to replace Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Warnock is senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He also told Bryant that abortion is a form of “reproductive justice.”

“When you say ‘a minister’ does that mean they represent a church? I’d like to know what book the candidate uses as their foundation for truth and their guiding principles? It couldn’t be the Bible,” Dungy tweeted. 

When you say “a minister” does that mean they represent a church? I’d like to know what book the candidate uses as their foundation for truth and their guiding principles? It couldn’t be the Bible. https://t.co/UF3f7D5pFj

— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) August 21, 2020

Dungy defended his pro-life position when others pushed back…

John MacArthur’s California church won another legal round Thursday and with it, potentially the right to gather Sunday without government interference.  

At issue was a request by Los Angeles County to hold Grace Community Church and MacArthur in contempt of court and to order it to pay thousands of dollars in fines for meeting indoors Sunday, one day after the church lost at the California appeals court. State and city restrictions prohibit such gatherings inside, although outdoor services are allowed. 

On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff ruled that the church and pastor cannot be held in contempt of court because there is no court order prohibiting the congregation from gathering.

It isn’t clear if Los Angeles County will file an appeal with an appellate court, which it did last Saturday when a lower court judge initially sided with the church. Last weekend, the church entered the weekend believing it would be allowed to gather following the judge’s order, only to lose at the appeals court at the last hour. 

Jenna Ellis, special counsel for Thomas More Society, said she “was pleased” with Beckloff’s ruling. The society is representing the church. The judge “correctly found there is no court order prohibiting Grace Community Church from holding indoor services,” she said. 

“LA County continues to harass and target Pastor MacArthur. Having…

Warren Throckmorton, a Psychology Professor from Grove City College, has noticed an increase in positive coronavirus cases in Georgia as houses of worship conduct in-person services.

Throckmorton, who has been tracking the spread of COVID-19 in churches across the U.S., asked the Georgia Department of Public Health for insight on a number of recent church-related outbreaks.

As of Aug. 18, public information representative Nancy Nydam told Throckmorton, “there have been 49 COVID-19 church/place of worship outbreak investigations reported to DPH.”

In light of the investigations, Nydam stated that there have been 517 reported cases as well as 91 hospitalizations and 15 deaths.

As of the time of this writing, Georgia has reported 241,677 cases, 4,794 deaths and 927 recoveries. The fatality rate is at 2 percent.

While Throckmorton says that outbreaks in Georgia-based churches have been a “small fraction”, he cautioned that new cases “may be accelerating.”

A report by the Georgia Department of Public Health found that out of the 110 outbreaks in Georgia between August 6 and August 12, 8 churches were among the locations where outbreaks occurred.

“These outbreaks are occurring in settings where people are physically congregating and underscore the need for distancing and source control,” the report said.

“As churches have come together in person, outbreaks have increased,” Throckmorton noted.”…

Priests in Santa Fe, New Mexico, have allegedly been threatened with suspension from preaching during Mass if they presented homilies longer than five minutes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Damian Thompson, associate editor of The Spectator and presenter of the publication’s Holy Smoke religion podcast, first highlighted the allegation in a tweet Monday, with what appears to be a partial screenshot from a document with the name of Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s vicar general, the Very Rev. Glenn Jones, attached.

“I got this from a good source but it’s so ridiculous that could it be a hoax? @ASFOfficial needless to say aren’t taking calls. Which if it’s a hoax is massively stupid because @ABJohnCWester’s reputation is on the line,” Thompson noted.

The Christian Post reached out to Rev. Jones’ office for comment Thursday and was directed to the archdiocese’s communications office which did not immediately respond to questions about the document.

The directive outlined in the document warned priests of the repercussion should they continuing scaring away parishioners with homilies longer than five…

The city of Pasadena, Calif., is threatening a local church with fines, jail and even closure for violating government restrictions prohibiting indoor worship services. 

The congregation, Harvest Church, filed a lawsuit in July against the state of California over the restrictions and has continued to meet indoors. The suit said the attendees are required to wear masks and that seats are configured so people are socially distanced. Temperatures also are taken when individuals enter the building, according to the suit.

Last week, Pasadena’s chief assistant city prosecutor sent Harvest Church Pastor Che Ahn a letter, threatening fines and up to one year in jail for anyone who attends a future service. The letter also threatens “potential closure of your Church.”

Churches in most of California are permitted only to meet outdoors, provided they social distance. 

“We have information that your Church was conducting live indoor church services at the location where anywhere from 50 to 100 people or more attended,” the letter, dated Aug. 13, reads. “It was also noted that the people who attended the services, as well as church staff, were not complying with the relevant governmental orders concerning social distancing or the wearing of protective masks. All of these are violations of the law.

“… This letter is to remind you that violations of these orders…

(RNS) — The vehicle of a Kansas pastor’s wife who has been missing for more than two weeks was found Tuesday (Aug. 18) in rural Arkansas with a woman’s body inside.

The Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office did not confirm the body belonged to Marilane Carter but said her purse and credit cards were inside the car, according to local news reports.

Carter was last seen Aug. 2 in a video at a hotel in West Plains, Missouri, and her phone last pinged near Memphis, Tennessee.

The evening before, Carter had left her home in the Kansas City area, where her husband, the Rev. Adam Carter, is pastor of Leawood Baptist Church.

Marilane Carter, 36, was on her way to visit family in Birmingham, Alabama, and had made “concerning statements to her family,” according to the Overland Park Police Department in Kansas. The Carters’ family told Fox 4 Kansas City at the time the mother of three may have planned to get mental health counseling at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, where she previously had worked as a chaplain.

Carter’s disappearance caught attention on social media, where many have used the hashtag #FindMarilane.

A Facebook page titled “Find Marilane,” set up to share information about Carter’s disappearance, shared in a post this week that her vehicle was found, according to the Baptist Press.

“The family asks for your thoughts and prayers right now…