As a majority of the United States sits at home under stay at home orders, a significant percentage of American citizens believe some of the restrictions should be lifted. Scott Rasmussen conducted a survey of 1,200 registered voters from April 9-11 to discover what Americans want to focus on opening first during re-opening efforts once the lockdown ends.

At the top of the priority list for many Americans was returning to small group gatherings with friends. Half of those surveyed said that people should be allowed to gather in each other’s homes in small groups immediately.

Churches and retail stores were tied for second on the list of priorities. Thirty-five percent said that churches, religious gatherings, and retail stores should open immediately. There were some partisan differences in these numbers, though. Forty-seven percent of Republicans believed re-opening religious services should be a top priority, compared to twenty-nine percent of Democrats.

Rasmussen believes the re-opening of retail stores is possibly related to the difficulty families are having finding items that they need. He said that many people “have experienced difficulties obtaining needed supplies during the pandemic–everything from food to health care items. Opening retail stores may be seen as a way to help address these concerns.”

Schools came in just below stores and churches. Thirty-one percent…

Baker Jack Phillips finds himself back in court over refusing to sacrifice his sincerely held religious beliefs.

Phillips, who owns Masterpiece CakeShop in Denver, has been sued by Autumn Scardina for refusing to bake a gender-transition cake, CBN News reports.

On the day that the Supreme Court announced that it was going to hear the Phillip’s case against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Scardina came into Phillips’ shop and requested a blue and pink gender-transition cake. Phillips refused to bake the cake because he believes that God created humans as male and female. A few months later, Phillips also turned down Scardina’s request for a cake which featured Satan smoking marijuana.

Scardina filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Weeks after Phillips’s win at the Supreme Court, the Civil Rights Commission found that he had violated state law. Phillips sued the Civil Rights Commission and eventually many of the state’s charges against him were dismissed.

Now Scardina, who is an attorney, is filing another lawsuit against Phillips over the incident. Instead of appealing the Commission’s decision to dismiss the charges, Scardina is asking for over $100,000 in damages, fines, and attorney’s fees.

Maureen Collins, who is the web writer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, reasserted Phillips’s rights to conduct…

It’s safe to say Jeremy Camp was invested in the new faith-based movie I Still Believe.

In his words, he had given his “blood, sweat and tears” to the project for the previous 18-24 months, re-living a time in his life – the death of his first wife – that was full of bittersweet and tragic emotions.

But he believed it was “all worth it” because of what “God’s gonna do” through the film. 

And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I Still Believe (PG) was released in theaters the weekend after President Trump addressed the nation about the coronavirus from the Oval Office. In fact, its first full day in theaters, March 13, was the same day Trump declared a national emergency. 

The film finished No. 1 on opening night and No. 3 for the weekend, yet many moviegoers stayed home. By the next weekend, theaters were closed.   

“I broke down the day it came out, to be quite honest,” Camp told Christian Headlines. “… I kind of walked in a fog [and was] kind of numb for a little while. And I got to the point, honestly, where I just said, ‘OK, Lord, you knew this was going to happen.’”

Camp then began sensing God’s purpose: With the nation in a de-facto lockdown, millions of Americans suddenly needed to be entertained – and they were looking for something new to watch.  

Lionsgate released I Still Believe on premium on-demand March 27, giving those…

Chinese officials detained multiple members of a congregation on Easter for participating in an online Zoom worship service and even shut off the electricity of one of the church members, according to a new report.

The members of Early Rain Covenant Church were gathering on Zoom on Easter morning when Chinese security officials blocked the meeting on the Internet and took six members into custody from their homes, according to International Christian Concern.

Early Rain is an illegal unregistered church that was shut down by Chinese officials in 2018. Its members have stopped gathering in-person.

Early Rain’s pastor, Wang Yi, last year was sentenced to nine years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and “illegal business operations,” although his only crime was to preach the gospel in an unregistered church, supporters say.

A church member told ICC of the Easter meeting, “At that time I was also in the Zoom call, but there was a long period of time where I did not hear a thing. I thought it’s the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt. Our coworker Wang Jun was questioning some people, [saying], ‘Who are you to do this [to us]?’”

Church members Wang, Guo Haigang, Wu Wuqing, Jia Xuewei, Zhang Jianqing and Zhang Xudong were detained and later released, ICC reported.

Zhang Jiangqing reportedly was warned by police, “Don’t…

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 20, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A young woman who told a Muslim about Christ and a pregnant, formerly Muslim woman beaten for her new faith suffered serious injuries in eastern Uganda, sources said.

Radical Muslims assaulted Lydia Nabirye, the 23-year-old daughter of a Church of God evangelist, on April 7 at about 1 p.m. near Luwooko village, Buwunga Sub-County, Bugiri District, she said.

Nabirye said she shared her faith with a young Muslim woman in early March who subsequently became a Christian. The former Muslim woman, unnamed for security reasons, received threats from her Muslim family due to her new faith, so Nabirye’s family gave her refuge in their home, where six other former Muslims are staying due to threats, she said.

“Her mother knows that her daughter is with me, because we have been close friends with her for more than four years,” Nabirye told Morning Star News by phone. “The family knows about our relationship with her.”

On April 7 Nabirye’s father, Paul Kaikiya, sent her to Bukolwa village to visit another former Muslim who was mourning the loss of a son who had died, and Muslims saw her entering their property, she said.

On her way back, Nabirye was about six miles from the bereaved mother’s home and close to the home of the woman she had recently led to faith in Christ when she was attacked by a group of radical Muslims,…

The deaths of multiple leaders from COVID-19 have taken a massive toll on the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the largest black Pentecostal denomination in America.

In an article by The Washington Post, various reports of at least a dozen to up to 30 bishops and prominent clergy have died from COVID-19 in COGIC prominent states including Michigan, New York, and Mississippi.

Prominent COGIC leaders who died include First Assistant Presiding Bishop Phillip A. Brooks of Detroit, who was No. 2 in the COGIC; Mississippi Bishop Timothy Scott, who served the denomination for almost 50 years; and two Michigan bishops, Robert E. Smith Sr. and Robert L. Harris.

Health officials report that possible causes of the outbreak in the COGIC were from conferences and funerals in the denomination.

For instance, large annual gatherings in February and March are held with COGIC representatives from more than 200 jurisdictions —or —regions, while Worker’s Meetings consist of clergy, lay leaders and church staff.

Some of the meetings include the Historical Louisiana First Jurisdiction meeting in Shreveport, La., and the Kansas East Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Ministers and Workers Conference in Kansas City, both held in mid-March.

The outbreaks have scarred the black community and the COGIC as they are more susceptible to the virus.

“This is a moment of real crisis for them,” said…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Pastor Jack Graham, of Prestonwood Baptist Church, that amid the coronavirus pandemic, Jesus is the “support you can lean on that will always be there for you.”

According to The Christian Post, Abbott met with Graham during the church’s online weekend services. He talked about how Jesus has been instrumental in his own life and how he’s learned how to rely on him.

“When I was just 26 years old, I suffered, literally, a back-breaking injury,” Abbott said, of the accident that left him paralyzed.

“It’s a test of your faith,” the governor said. “Why would God allow something like this to happen?”

“But,” he added, “very importantly, I found in the aftermath, that I continued to reach out to God. I found God reach back out to me. And my relationship with God and Jesus Christ grew even closer after that accident.”

Abbott announced last week that he will begin to reopen Texas in phases in the next few weeks. He said he would work with experts on how best to handle the reopening. As part of the announcement, Abbott also said students in Texas would not be returning to school this semester.

“One thing we know is that people really want to get engaged in the world again … it could be going to church, going to work, play activities,” Abbott said. “People are tired of being stuck at home and they want to get back…