President Trump on Tuesday met with families of black individuals who have died from police violence and then signed an executive order banning most chokeholds while establishing a database to track police officers who have used excessive force.

“Your loved ones will not have died in vain,” Trump said in a Rose Garden speech.

Trump stood alongside law enforcement officials at the speech and said reform is needed yet criticized efforts to defund the police. Prior to the speech, he met with the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Antwon Rose, Atatiana Jefferson, Michael Dean, Darius Tarver, Cameron Lamb and Everett Palmer.

“Many of these families lost their loved ones in deadly interactions with police,” Trump said. “To all the hurting families I want you to know [that] all Americans mourn by your side.”

Americans, he said, want to support police but also “believe we must improve accountability, increase transparency, and invest more resources in police training, recruiting and community engagement.”

“Today is about pursuing common sense and fighting for a cause like we seldom get the chance to fight for,” Trump said. “We have to find common ground. But I strongly oppose the radical and dangerous efforts to defend, dismantle and dissolve our police departments.”

“… Without police, there is chaos.Without law, there is anarchy,” Trump said….

Evangelist Franklin Graham says the U.S. Supreme Court exceeded its authority and may have infringed on religious liberty with its decision Monday expanding the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The high court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled employers cannot fire someone merely for being gay or transgender under federal law. 

In comments on social media, Graham said he’s concerned how the decision will impact Christian ministries. 

“As Justice Alito has pointed out, the majority went too far – he called it a ‘brazen abuse of our authority.’ The Supreme Court exists to interpret the law, not to make new laws – making laws is the job of our Representatives in Congress, elected by the people,’ Graham wrote. “I believe this decision erodes religious freedoms across this country. 

“People of sincere faith who stand on God’s Word as their foundation for life should never be forced by the government to compromise their religious beliefs. Christian organizations should never be forced to hire people who do not align with their biblical beliefs and should not be prevented from terminating a person whose lifestyle and beliefs undermine the ministry’s purpose and goals.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, acknowledged the justices were “deeply concerned with preserving the promise of the free exercise of…

A mighty move of God has been evident in Minneapolis near the site where George Floyd was killed. A place that was full of rioting and violence is now a place of peace and revival.

The spiritual awakening is being led by Dr. Charles Karuku and Pastors Lindsey Karuku from International Outreach Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, CBN News reports.

Talking with CBN’s “The Prayer Link,” Dr. Karuku and Pastor Karuku shared that God was calling for them to be a part of facilitating healing and racial unity.

Dr. Karuku said, “I was on a 40-day fast that ended the day after George Floyd was killed. When we started the fast, the Lord told us that, on the day of Pentecost, He would do a big thing. We did not know what it would be, so we kept praying and fasting.”

He added, “The day we ended the fast, the riots broke out.”

Dr. Karuku also noted that he felt called to be boots on the ground at the place were George Floyd – a Black man who was killed while in police custody – died and on the day of Pentecost “proclaim[ing] the name of Jesus Christ and bring[ing] a message of unity.”

Pastor Karuku then noted the significant transformation that has occurred since their arrival to the memorial site.

“Buildings were still burning, there was smoke and the National Guard had been called in,” she explained. “But now there is a lot of peace in the area where George Floyd’s memorial is. It’s been declared…

A majority of Americans believe the government should stay out of a faith-based organization’s internal religious disputes, according to a new survey that showed widespread support for the religious liberty of churches protected by the First Amendment.

The poll, conducted as part of CARAVAN’s weekly omnibus survey among 1,004 U.S. adults, found that by a margin of 68-23 percent Americans believe that “an important facet of separation of church and state is that the government cannot get involved in a religious organization’s internal religious disputes.”

The survey was released Tuesday and conducted April 20-22 for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

“When it comes to important decisions about who can pass on a religious organization’s faith to the next generation, Americans agree that the buck stops well before Uncle Sam,” said Montse Alvarado, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “Leaving important decisions about a religion’s future in that religion’s hands is a commonsense application of the First Amendment.”

The survey also found that:

• 66 percent of Americans believe a “religious organization should be able to make decisions about who it hires to teach its faith to the next generation, free from government control.”
• 59 percent believe the “government should never be allowed to resolve disputes about a…

A Barna Group study says that more than three-quarters of American pastors support peaceful protests like the ones taking place all across the country.

The demonstrations come after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck.

The study surveyed some 400 pastors, the Christian Post reports.

The survey showed that 76 percent believe churches should support the protest. Fifteen percent disagreed, and 8 percent said they had no opinion on the issue.

“Church leaders are actively leaning in on conversations about racism in America in a way that they haven’t in the past,” Barna President David Kinnaman told The Christian Post.

“It may surprise some, but it did not surprise me that 76% of church leaders believe the church should support peaceful protests or demonstrations happening across the nation,” Kinnaman said.

About 62 percent also said they believe the churches had addressed the protests. A staggering 94 percent said they believe the church has a responsibility to publicly denounce racism.

“We saw in The Mercy Journey two years ago that 70% of pastors believed that the church should respond in some way – lament, repent, repair the damage – to the historic mistreatment of African Americans, and this moment has given them more clarity about how to engage.

“What the church seems to have been convinced of in…

In a recent interview, New York’s first openly gay congressman, Sean Maloney, referred to religious liberty as a ‘bogus term’ to discriminate those in the LGBTQ community.

Maloney made denounced religious liberty in a Monday interview with MSNBC in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to ensure LGBTQ+ protections in the workplace, The Blaze reported.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, the landmark decision came in a 6-3 ruling after three LGBTQ individuals filed suits for being fired due to their sexual orientation.

Conservative justices Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled in favor, alongside their liberals leaning counterparts, of including sexual orientation and gender identity in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Maloney, however, remains skeptical of Justice Gorsuch noting that he believes advocates for religious liberty will want to alter the decision’s application in future cases.

“We know that Neil Gorsuch is a supporter of so-called religious liberty, which is a bogus term — it is actually some sort of pretext for discrimination hiding behind the guise of religion,” the congressman said. “So, I’m still on the lookout for that from the author of this opinion.”

Identical comments were stated by Maloney at a Congressional Hearing back in February over the Trump Administration’s “Religious Liberty Assault on…

A 24-year-old British woman with Down syndrome is urging the government to change the current law so that unborn children with her genetic condition can’t be targeted with abortion.

Heidi Crowter, a political activist with Down syndrome, joined forces earlier this year with British mom Cheryl Bilsborrow in a lawsuit against the government over the abortion law in England, Wales and Scotland. (Bilsborrow has a child with Down syndrome.)

Although British abortion law is generally more restrictive than that in the U.S. – there is a 24-week-limit in the U.K. – it allows abortions up to the moment of birth if the baby has a disability, including Down syndrome, cleft lip or club foot.

Crowter and Bilsborrow have raised more than $50,000 USD on a crowdfunding website for their legal fees.

“Babies can be aborted right up to birth if they are considered to be ‘seriously handicapped,” Crowter said in a press release. “They include me in that definition of being seriously handicapped – just because I have an extra chromosome! Can you believe that? What it says to me is that my life just isn’t as valuable as others, and I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s downright discrimination.”

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, she noted, has criticized nations that allow abortion on the basis of disabilities.

Crowter’s campaign…

(RNS) — The Rev. Rolland Slade, senior pastor of Meridian Baptist Church in El Cajon, California, has been elected as the first African American chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, the group that runs the business of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination outside its annual meetings.

He was elected unanimously.

Slade was previously vice chairman of the Executive Committee and chair of its Cooperative Program Committee, which handles the denomination’s central funding mechanism.

He was nominated by Pastor Jared Wellman of Tates Spring Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.

“He’s next in line, you could argue, as the vice chair, but that’s not why I’m placing his name into nomination,” said Wellman during an online meeting of the committee on Tuesday (June 16). “I’m nominating him because he’s the first in line when it comes to following Jesus. Whether it’s serving his family, the needs of his community, the people of his church, or the SBC and its Cooperative Program, Pastor Rolland has always been first in line.”

The 61-year-old Slade is a San Diego native who was ordained in 1987. Prior to 2014 when he began his current pastorate, he helped start a church in an apartment complex, served as a missionary and started a Southern Baptist mentoring program for men. More recently he has been recognized for promoting…