A Mississippi pastor and father of eight won the 18th season of NBC’s The Voice Tuesday, one night after his rendition of MercyMe’s I Can Only Imagine moved one of the judges to tears.  

Todd Tilghman, the lead pastor of Cornerstone Church in Meridian, Miss., was named the winner over two other contestants in the final seconds of the show. He was surrounded by his family. 

Because of the pandemic, the final weeks of this year’s series were filmed in each contestant’s hometown. 

“I trusted completely in you guys, and in the goodness of God,” Tilghman said in a post-show Facebook Live video. “… It seemed like it worked out.”

Tilghman won a $100,000 cash prize and a record deal. He was coached by country singer Blake Shelton.

Tilghman sang two songs in Monday’s show: I Can Only Imagine and an original song, Long Way Home.

His performance of I Can Only Imagine — which he sang in an empty church sanctuary — stirred Kelly Clarkson, one of the show’s four coaches. 

“You’re so moving, and it’s because you’re a pastor,” said Clarkson, who added she was crying during the song. “It’s because you have such a bigger belief inside of you than just yourself. I would love to come to your church to hear you speak. … You’re very special.”

Said Shelton after the performance, “You sing with such passion, such precision. You’re just a special…

The coronavirus pandemic has sparked a change in the song choices of America’s churches, according to new data. 

The most popular church song during the lockdown was Horatio Spafford’s It is Well With My Soul, which saw a 68 percent increase in use, according to Faithlife Proclaim, a church presentation software from the company Faithlife. 

The data was gathered between March 15-31 and April 20-May 10 when most churches had halted in-person meetings and were gathering online. 

The second-most popular tune was Thomas Obadiah Chisholm’s Great is Thy Faithfulness, which saw a 64 percent increase in use. 

“It’s inspiring to see how the popular song choices and lyrics therein among churches reflect themes of trust, faith and praise, even though the world is experiencing unprecedented hardship,” said Bob Pritchett, founder and CEO of Faithlife. “The Lord is working throughout this difficult time, and it’s evident based on the worship song choices among churches that Christians in this country believe that to be true and are trusting Him to carry us through this pandemic.”

Faithlife compared the most popular songs of March 15-31 and April 20-May 10 with the most popular songs during February, just before the lockdowns took effect.

The complete list of the 10 most popular church songs during the pandemic follows:

1. It is Well With My Soul by Horatio Spafford (68 percent…

President Donald  Trump said he would permanently pull funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) if the organization did not commit to making improvements within the agency.

In April, Trump announced that he would temporarily suspend U.S. funds to WHO. Trump claimed that the organization pushed Chinese “disinformation” about coronavirus and did a “very sad job” handling the outbreak.

WHO has said those claims are untrue, but has not released a statement in response to Trump’s threat.

According to Reuters, in a letter to WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump said he would also consider removing America from WHO’s membership.

He added in the letter that China tried to hide evidence that the virus could be transmitted between people and refused to share its research and data to scientists.

“The World Health Organization consistently ignored credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal,” Trump said in the letter.

“Perhaps worse than all these failing is that we know that the World Health Organization could have done so much better,” he added.

China responded this week to the accusations.

“The U.S. leadership’s open letter is filled with phrases of suggestions, maybes, and potentialities, and is trying to mislead the public through this specious method, to achieve the goal of…

The U.S. Department of Justice warned California on Tuesday that its ban on in-person church services likely is unconstitutional because it treats houses of worship differently from secular businesses that are allowed to be open during the pandemic.

“Simply put, there is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights,” the three-page letter from Assistant Attorney General Eric S. Dreiband to California Gov. Gavin Newsom reads.

The letter acknowledges “the duty” Newsom has “to protect the health and safety of Californians in the face of a pandemic that is unprecedented in our lifetimes.”

But the letter questions why Stage 2 of the state’s Reopening Plan allows schools, restaurants, factories, offices, shopping malls and parts of the entertainment industry to be open with social distancing rules, while church buildings must remain closed.

California’s order, the letter says, “does not appear to treat religious activities and comparable non-religious activities the same” because “in-person religious services are … apparently prohibited even if they adhere to social distancing standards.”

“Laws that do not treat religious activities equally with comparable non-religious activities are subject to heightened scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” the DOJ letter reads. “… Religious gatherings may…

An American pastor is now back home with his family after being imprisoned in India for over seven months on false charges.

Bryan Nerren, a pastor from Shelbyville, Tennessee, traveled overseas last October to attend conferences in India and Nepal for 2 weeks. 

Nerren, who is at the helm of an international non-profit ministry called Asian Children’s Education Fellowship, has been training Sunday school teachers in India and Nepal for the last 17 years.

According to The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), a Christian advocacy non-profit law group which has been representing Nerren, noted that the pastor was detained and arrested upon his arrival at the airport in Bagdogra, India for allegedly “evading a duty on funds.” Nerren was carrying a sum of money that he intended to use to cover the expenses of his trip and the conference, but according to the ACLJ, the sum was not enough to make transporting it a crime.

The law group reports that Nerren had declared the funds while going through customs in New Delhi. New Delhi officials, however, failed to provide the pastor with the documentation needed so that he could travel domestically.

Additionally, customs officers reportedly asked Nerren if he was a Christian and if the funds were going to be used towards Christian efforts.

Nerren was initially let go, but after deplaning his flight to Bagdogra, Nerren was arrested….

JOS, Nigeria, May 20, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 12 Christians and kidnapped another in attacks in Benue state earlier this month, sources said.

Four Christians were killed in Tse-Haaga village on May 12, area residents said.

“The herdsmen invaded our village riding four motorbikes around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, and attacked us and killed four members of our village, injuring three others,” Tse-Haaga resident Clement Haaga told Morning Star News by phone.

Another area resident, David Terwerse, confirmed to Morning Star News by text message that four Christians were killed and three injured. He added that in Agasha village two Christians were killed while two others were killed in Yelewata village, where five were injured.

Two Christians were also killed in Tarkende village on May 6, and the herdsmen killed two Christian farmers in attacks on Saghev and Ukusu villages on May 2, he said. In Agila, a Christian was kidnapped, Terwerse said.

The predominantly Christian communities are inhabited primarily by members of the Catholic, Methodist and Reformed (NKST) churches, in addition to some Pentecostal churches, sources said.

Catherine Anene, spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, confirmed to Morning Star News by phone that four people were killed in Tse-Haaga and three others were injured.

“We have deployed our personnel to the area to…

A pastor in Cameroon died from COVID-19 after contracting the virus from laying his hands on infected believers to heal them.

According to the Christian Post, Frankline Ndifor, the founder of Kingship International Ministries, died Saturday. Ndifor was 39.

“This is a pastor that has been laying hands [on the sick] and claiming that he cures COVID-19,” said Rigobert Che, one of the pastor’s followers. “If you, the person that claims that you are curing COVID-19, you are dead, what about the fellow people that were affected by the COVID-19? Now that he is dead, I do not know how the people that he was laying hands on will be healed.”

Che says Ndifor prayed over dozens of people last Wednesday, but the Cameroon Tribune says Ndifor had been sick for weeks. Media reports say he didn’t seek medical attention until early Saturday morning. He later slipped into a coma and then died that same day.

Dr. Gaelle Nnanga, however, told Voice of America that Ndifor was sick less than a week before he died.

A government official told press that many of the pastor’s followers refused to accept a pronouncement of death and kept medical staff from taking his body from his home in Bonaberi.

The people reportedly told medical officials that their pastor was “away on a spiritual retreat with God.” Followers blocked access to his home and prayed for his resurrection.

Ndifor was buried in front of his house later…

Multiple Planned Parenthood affiliates received loans totaling $80 million in COVID-19 stimulus funds, despite being ineligible.

According to a report from Fox News, 37 affiliates of the nation’s largest abortion provider had applied and received funding from the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP).

The funds of the PPP were meant to help small businesses and their employees throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Affiliates of large organizations, defined as those exceeding 500 employees, are ineligible for the funds.

More than 600 people are employed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PFFA).

According to the report, Planned Parenthood facilities in Orange and San Bernardino Counties in California were allotted $7.5 million, the largest of the government funds.

In response, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is contacting each affiliate to address their ineligibility for the loans. Failure to return the money in accordance with SBA orders will result in possible fines and penalties.

In a statement on Tuesday, Senator Marco Rubio (R. Fla), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, asserted that there is no room for debate over the abortion giant’s eligibility.

“There is no ambiguity in the legislation that passed or public record around its passage that organizations such as Planned Parenthood, whose parent…