A Connecticut statewide policy that allows biological boys who identify as girls to compete in girls-only sports violates Title IX, the Trump Department of Education has ruled. 

At issue is a policy by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) – the state’s governing body for interscholastic athletic – permitting transgender girls to compete in girls-only events without taking testosterone-suppressing hormones as required on the NCAA and international levels. As a result, two biological boys have won more than a dozen Connecticut girls’ state titles.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), in a May 15 letter that became public Thursday, ruled that the policy violates Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities. OCR was responding to a complaint filed by three female track athletes.

Female athletes are treated differently under the Connecticut policy than are male athletes, OCR ruled. 

“Female student-athletes were denied the opportunity to compete in events that were exclusively female, whereas male student-athletes were able to compete in events that were exclusively male,” the letter says.

By enforcing the policy and allowing biological males to win female-only events, CIAC “denied female student-athletes athletic benefits and opportunities, including advancing to…

Christian leaders and well-known Christian celebrities are expressing sadness and calls for justice after the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis.

In an Instagram post, actress and author Candace Cameron Bure wrote that her heart was “wrecked.”

“Most of you come to my page for happy, uplifting and positive content. But tonight, my heart is wrecked over the racial injustice that has been happening for ages and continues to happen today,” she said.

The photo she posted with her message was a digital drawing of George Floyd, the man who died after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck. The picture Bure posted read #JusticeForFloyd.

“We are one race, the human race. I pray for this country and the sin in all of us. I pray for God’s mercy. I pray for justice,” she said.

CBN News reports that author and speaker Beth Moore wrote on her Twitter page, asking “fellow whites” to seek justice for all.

“Fellow whites who want Black Americans & PoC to receive equal justice & for egregious white supremacy to be dismantled, speak up. Don’t be fragile. You know what’s right,” she tweeted.

“What I’m trying to say to you is this: be brave. This is about human decency.  Dignity. Fairness. Rightness. JUSTICE.  Toughen up and accept you’re going to be disliked for something. Make it something that counts. Let’s be the generation the intimidators can’t silence or tire out.”

President Donald Trump approved an executive order this week that asks federal officials to hold social media sites accountable for censoring some political posts.

According to The Christian Post, Trump said the sites are not a “neutral platform.”

“Today, I am signing an executive order to protect and uphold the free speech and rights of the American people,” Trump said at a briefing in the Oval Office. “Currently, social media giants, like Twitter, receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they are a neutral platform, which they are not.”

The 1996 Communications Decency Act Section 230 says that social media platforms are not liable for the content that people publish, including possibly defamatory posts. Trump’s executive order revises the 1996 act.

“My executive order calls for new regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield,” Trump said. “That’s a pretty big deal.”

Trump said when social media sites decide to edit or remove postings, they are making “editorial decisions.”

“In those moments, Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and they become an editor with a viewpoint,” Trump said.

Under the order, Trump asks the Secretary of Commerce, the attorney…

Having faith in God has been instrumental in the life of Kayleigh McEnany, from her upbringing to her present role as the White House press secretary.

“I believe God put me in this place for a purpose and for a reason like he does with each and every life,” McEnany said in an interview with CBN News. “We’re all here for a reason.”

While she was raised Southern Baptist, McEnany attended an all-girls Catholic School in Florida as a child. As a teenager, McEnany decided to surrender her life to God.

Then, in her 20s, as she began her professional career in New York, she started to struggle with loneliness.

“I was going through a hard time in New York and I was going to a great church in New York. I remember feeling very lonely,” she shared.

“It was when I first started my young professional life and I remember getting a call. I never answered numbers I didn’t know, but I answered that day, and it said, ‘hey, this is the Journey Church. We feel like we need to pray for you right now, how can we pray for you?’”

McEnany said that phone call was just what she needed to remember that God is always with her.

“It was in that moment I think my faith became even more real,” she added.

Now, as a mother, McEnany hopes to be an example of faith to her daughter Blake, who was born in late 2019.

“If I give Blake the same faith upbringing and relationship with Jesus Christ that my…

The filmmakers behind the new biblical television series The Chosen have said they hope it helps strengthen the faith of viewers.

It’s already done that with one of the lead actors.

Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in all eight episodes, told Christian Headlines his faith has grown since he started working on the project.

“It’s deepened my faith very intensely,” Roumie said. “And I think part of that is because I’ve been spending so much time with the character in prayer and with Christ. It’s something that has greatly impacted it in a very positive way.”

The series, which can be viewed on The Chosen app, launched in 2019 following the largest crowdfunding media campaign in history, with more than $10 million raised for 16,000-plus individuals.

Director and writer Dallas Jenkins picked Roumie for the role because the two had worked well together on a 2014 project, The Two Thieves. Roumie also played Jesus in that short film.

“The way [Jenkins] writes the scripts and approaches the [biblical] character in a fresh way kind of gives the rest of us a little more license to bring our own humanity to it in a way that hasn’t been seen before,” Roumie said.

Roumie acknowledged the difference in playing a standard character and playing someone who is the “Son of God and also human.” He prepared for his role in The Chosen, he said, with “a lot of research” that included…

On Friday morning, Vice President Mike Pence, Tim Tebow, Louie Giglio, Matt Redman, Lecrae and others participated in a memorial service for well-known Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias. Zacharias died on May 19 and was buried in Georgia on May 21. The May 29 memorial service was intended to be a celebration of Zacharias’s life, ministry and legacy.

Vice President Pence started out by noting that Zacharias’s passing came “at a time when so many families around the world are grieving the loss of loved ones.” 

Pence then spoke of how important Zacharias’ ministry has been to him personally and to the Christian church as a whole, Fox News reports. Speaking personally of Zacharias, the Vice President said, “God put him at my side at just the right time, with a word of wisdom, kindness and encouragement that I’ll never forget.” 

Vice President Pence also put him alongside some of the most well-known Christians of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He said that “In Billy Graham, God gave us the greatest evangelist of this century. In Ravi Zacharias, God gave us the greatest Christian apologist of this century. He was the C.S. Lewis of our times.”

Some of the most moving tributes from the service, which lasted close to two hours, came from Zacharias’s own family. His brother Ramesh told the crowd that “You knew him as an apologist. To…

JOS, Nigeria, May 29, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Kaduna state, Nigeria attacked seven villages from May 19 to Monday (May 25), killing five Christians and destroying four church buildings, sources said.

In the same state, kidnappers said they will not release a pastor abducted earlier this month until he converts to Islam or a ransom is paid, church officials said.

A survivor of the Fulani attacks in southern Kaduna state, Ayuba Bako, said the five Christians killed were members of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA). Bako identified three of them as Atuna Garba, Thomas Asoja and Manager Garba.

Three of the destroyed church buildings – in Etissi, Bakin Kogi and Magunguna villages – belonged to the ECWA, and the other belonged to Roman Catholic parish in Idazau, he said. The attacks took place in Idazau, Etissi, Bakin Kogi, Dutsen Gora, Ungwan Gora, Pushu Kallah and Magunguna villages.

The Muslim Fulani assailants shot and injured 78 Christians, kidnapped 51 and destroyed 607 houses, Bako told Morning Star News.

Sen. Danjuma La’ah, who represents an area of southern Kaduna in the National Assembly, said the attacks were unprovoked.

“It is even getting worse during this period of COVID-19 lockdown, because the bandits are still moving about, killing innocent souls in my area, who obey government directive to stay indoors,” La’ah…

Illinois churches are claiming victory in a much-watched legal battle after the state on Thursday withdrew all restrictions on houses of worship.

The state issued new guidelines for churches in a nine-page document that recommends – but does not require – that churches “consider limiting attendance to 25% of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower” amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Previously, a state order limited in-person gatherings to 10 persons.

“Recognizing the centrality of worship in many people’s lives and the spiritual and emotional value of prayer, community, and faith, this guidance provides recommendations for places of worship that choose to resume or expand in-person activities, and for those that do not,” the document reads.

The guidelines were issued the same night Pritzker’s administration faced a U.S. Supreme Court deadline to respond to a lawsuit brought by a Chicago church, Elim Romanian Pentecostal, that has continued meeting despite the order. The city of Chicago threatened the congregation with closure.

Liberty Counsel, which represented the congregation in the suit, called the state’s action Thursday a “complete victory in the near term.” Liberty Counsel also represented another church, Logos Baptist Ministries.

“The unilateral actions of Gov. J.B. Pritzker is the classic example of tyranny,” said Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver….