As COVID-19 restrictions continue to be lifted in China, churches across the country are starting to plan their reopening.

It appears, however, some churches are not being allowed to reconvene until congregants sing the national anthem and the national flag is raised under the instruction of the Chinese Communist Party, Bitter Winter reports.

On June 14, The Lishiting Catholic Church in the Shunhe district of Kaifeng reopened for the first time in five months.

In a gathering of around 20 people, a priest rang in the church’s reopening with a flag-raising ceremony. According to Bitter Winter, government officials attended the ceremony in a supervisory capacity.

“We solemnly raise the national flag here today after the epidemic, witnessing the fruits of all people working together under the leadership of Xi Jinping who directs the government and the Party,” the priest said.

Also on that day, in the Shunhe district, the Gangxi Christian Church reopened under the aforementioned conditions. According to one congregant, Church leaders were also instructed to commend Chinese leaders’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The church finally reopened after five months, 147 days, or 21 Sundays, but instead of singing hymns to praise God, the government required us to raise the national flag and sing the national anthem, praising Xi Jinping’s ‘victory in fighting the…

States are allowed to enforce sanctions against “faithless electors” who do not vote for the popular winner, according to a new ruling from the Supreme Court.

Fox News reports that the justices upheld state laws that require “faithless electors” to back the popular vote. The case was sparked by the “Hamilton Electors” in 2016 who chose moderate Republicans instead of Hillary Clinton in an attempt to push votes away from Donald Trump.

The court ruled unanimously, 9-0, that the sanctions imposed on the electors in Washington and Colorado were constitutional.  Michael Baca of Colorado was removed and replaced while Bret Chiafalo of Washington received a fine.

“We’re trying to be that ‘break in case of emergency’ fire hose that’s gotten dusty over the last 200 years,” Chiafalo told The Atlantic  in 2016. “This is an emergency.”

Electors cast the final official ballot for the presidential election based off of the popular vote in the state. In rare cases, the electors will break off from the popular vote and instead cast a vote for a different candidate.

“Among the devices States have long used to achieve their object are pledge laws, designed to impress on electors their role as agents of others,” said Justice Elena Kagan. “That direction accords with the Constitution—as well as with the trust of a Nation that here, We the People rule.”

Washington…

British independent film producer Cassian Cary Elwes is addressing protests by Christian organizations over his upcoming film Habit.

The film features Paris Jackson, the daughter of pop icon Michael Jackson, who news outlets initially alleged would be playing the part of Jesus as a lesbian woman.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, multiple Christian organizations such as Movieguide and One Million Moms started petitions calling for the film’s cancellation. Both petitions have garnered thousands of signatures.

According to the film’s official description, the movie follows a “party girl with a Jesus fetish who gets mixed up in a violent drug deal and finds a possible way out by masquerading as a nun.”

Elwes, who leads the independent film production company Elevated Films, dismissed claims that Jackson would be playing a lesbian Jesus calling the notion “absolute nonsense.”

That’s absolute nonsense https://t.co/VoIpxPRx8F

— cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) July 2, 2020

When a reporter asked Elwes about the petitions made against Habit, he asserted that the controversy was overblown.

“Of course the story has been completely blown out of proportion.” Elwes wrote last week on Twitter. “In fact, Paris appears in a fantasy moment that Bella [Thorne] has in the film where Bella has a vision of her mother (played by Paris) dressed as Jesus.”

Of course…

HYDERABAD, India, July 3, 2020 (Morning Star News) – When Kande Munda heard a knock on his door one night last month, the Christian father of two knew it was likely the same thugs and their colleagues in his area of Jharkhand, India who had harassed him for nearly four years.

They were particularly upset that Munda had reported them to police for a 2018 assault on his mother-in-law. The assailants, followers of tribal Adivasi religion, had opposed her conversion to Christianity by labelling her Christian prayers as “witchcraft” and gang-raping her.

Munda and his family were already in bed after a hard day of work on the night of June 7 when they heard the knock on the door. Munda told his wife not to answer it.

“He was suspicious that they must have come for him,” his wife, Bindi Munda, told Morning Star News.

Three men forced the door open and entered, while four or five remained outside, she said. Darkness obscured their faces.

“One of them pointed a gun at my husband and told the other two men that they should first rape me and then kill my husband,” Munda said.

Their children, ages 1 and 3, were asleep. The armed assailants seized her husband by the neck as he knelt and pleaded with them not to kill him, she said.

“I have done nothing wrong – please don’t kill me,” he cried repeatedly, according to his wife, who picked up their children, holding one in each arm, and fled into…

A 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were among a long list of gun violence victims in Chicago over the weekend.

The Chicago-Sun Times reports, as of Monday morning, 79 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, including nine minors. Of those shot, at the time of this writing, 15 people have died.

According to the Associated Press, the 14-year-old boy, identified by the Chicago-Sun Times as Vernado Jones Jr., was one of eight victims shot in the Englewood neighborhood Saturday before midnight. Police spokesperson Tom Ahern told the AP that two males died on the scene and two more, including Jones, died later at the hospital after four men opened fire on a large street gathering. Four others, including an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old boy, were injured and taken to the hospital. One victim is still in critical condition while the other three are likely to survive.

At the time of this writing, no arrests have been made.

In Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, while standing outside of her grandmother’s house around 7:00 pm, a 7-year-old girl was also fatally shot. The child, identified as Natalia Wallace, was reportedly outside with other children during a Fourth of July party, when three men fired at least 20 shots at bystanders.

A 32-year-old man was also shot during the attack but is in fair condition.

Arrests have yet to be made, but Police are believed to…

(RNS) — Megachurch pastor Darrin Patrick’s cause of death has officially been ruled a suicide, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

Patrick died May 7 in Pacific, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis. The cause of death was a gunshot wound and the medical examiner ruled it a suicide, Franklin County Sheriff Steve Pelton told Religion News Service.

Patrick was a teaching pastor at Seacoast Church, a multisite megachurch based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and the founding pastor of the Journey Church in St. Louis, where he lived.

Seacoast Church announced in a May 8 statement that Patrick had died of what appeared to be a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

His death came as a shock to friends and colleagues.

Patrick, who was known for helping people grow and overcome adversity, was remembered as being “passionate about the Lord.”

He had been a rising star in Reformed evangelical circles and served as vice president of the Acts 29 church planting network. He was later fired from Journey for what church elders called misconduct, including “inappropriate meetings, conversations, and phone calls with two women” and an abuse of power.

Patrick received counseling and went through a restoration process that lasted 26 months, according to a 2019 blog interview posted at Christianity Today. He returned to the ministry as a preacher but not as a senior pastor of…

A Pew Research Center survey says that among white evangelicals, President Donald Trump holds a 72 percent approval rating.

The rating is a drop of six percent since April, but the survey also found that 82 percent of white evangelicals say they are leaning toward voting for Trump’s re-election.

Just 17 percent of white evangelicals say they will support the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden.

“Donald Trump has to be north of 81 percent (to win),” CBN News Chief Political Analyst David Brody said. “82 percent is a little too close for comfort. He’s probably got to be up close to 83, 84 or 85 percent.”

If Trump earns 84 or 85 percent, “it’s over – he wins a second term,” Brody said.

“The road to the White House goes through evangelicals – the Trump administration knows it,” Brody said.

In the 2016 election, Trump won with 81 percent of the white evangelical vote.

The new survey also found that non-evangelical white Protestants gave Trump a 56 percent approval rating and white Catholics gave the president a 54 percent approval rating.

Trump may have lost some support following the death and subsequent protests from the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer. Trump was also criticized for staging a photo with him holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church near the White House.

Also in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a…

Wheaton College said Friday it had dismissed its chaplain due to “inappropriate comments and actions of a racial and sexual nature.”

Wheaton College President Philip Ryken said in a Friday email to the college community that chaplain Timothy Blackmon had been dismissed following a four-month investigation, the Daily Herald reported. 

Although Blackmon “did not engage in sexually immoral relationships or physical sexual misconduct,” the investigation “revealed conduct inconsistent with Wheaton’s policies and commitments,” Ryken said.

“Following this investigation and adjudication, as well as a trustee review process, Tim Blackmon is no longer employed at Wheaton College,” Ryken said in the email. “Because of the unique role of the Chaplain as one of Wheaton’s primary spiritual leaders, we believe it is important to share this information with the campus community. 

“In deference to the confidentiality of multiple parties in a personnel process, though, we do not plan to provide additional information beyond this message and encourage our community to respect the privacy of the individuals involved.”

Ryken said he recognized it was “painful news” for the Wheaton College community.

“As our community experiences brokenness, we also recognize our ongoing need of restoration and reconciliation,” Ryken wrote. “We lament this situation and pray for…