NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is ramping up its courtship of Catholic voters ahead of a likely November matchup against a Catholic Democrat, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The campaign previewed its message at a Thursday night launch of a “Catholics for Trump” coalition, touting the president’s religious freedom record and anti-abortion policies. In a sign of how significantly the coronavirus has upended the presidential race, the event also featured Trump backers promoting his response to the pandemic — with one describing it as aligned with Catholic teaching about solidarity.

Ahead of a general election where Catholics could prove to be vital swing voters, particularly in the Midwest, the coalition launch indicates that Trump doesn’t plan to limit his faith-based outreach to evangelicals, who have long been a key part of his base. But Biden, who’s frequently invoked his faith on the Democratic primary trail, could bring a unique advantage with Catholic voters to this fall’s contest.

At the heart of the competition for Catholic votes in November is the question of how many in the faith view abortion as the primary driver of their political engagement. Pope Francis has urged Trump to adopt an immigration stance consistent with his “pro-life” identity, and progressive Catholics have decried Trump’s approach to issues from health care to climate change as inconsistent with their church’s teachings.

Trump’s campaign, however, billed his embrace of anti-abortion policies prominently in its materials on its Catholic outreach kickoff. The event featured the Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, a staunch anti-abortion advocate who displayed an aborted fetus in a 2016 online video that discussed his support for Trump.

Pavone said in an interview that while Trump is “trying to protect the right to life,” the president is acting on other issues in ways “completely consistent with Catholic teaching.”

“He’s protecting our people by strengthening borders, not to stop immigration but to stop crime, to protect families, to protect neighborhoods,” Pavone said.

Also joining the Thursday kickoff were Mercedes Schlapp, a senior communications adviser to the campaign, and husband Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a co-chair of the new Catholic outreach effort.

Mercedes Schlapp, a former White House communications adviser, described Biden as “an extremist” on abortion during the event. Republicans saw an opening to peel off Biden’s Catholic support last year when the former vice president, who often talks about his Catholic school upbringing, ended his decades-long support for limiting federal funding of abortion.

The campaign is poised to get outside help in its work to turn out churchgoing Catholic voters from the nonprofit CatholicVote.org, which is investing in mobilizing that bloc with a pro-Trump message.

The group’s senior political adviser, former Kansas GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp, is also a member of the Trump campaign’s Catholic outreach project. Huelskamp accused Biden of failing to live out his faith, while “you’ve got a non-Catholic in Donald Trump who’s delivering on Catholic social teaching and principles.”

Source: Religion News Service

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They live secluded lives in a stone abbey near a privately owned forest in a rural part of eastern Iowa.

But the Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey are not closed off from the world’s troubles.

Last week, in response to the coronavirus, the 22 monks living in the abbey, about 13 miles from Dubuque, decided to offer pine caskets to financially strapped families with members who have died from Covid-19.

So far they have not advertised beyond the Trappist Caskets website, and the orders have just begun to trickle in.

On Thursday (April 2), a family that lost five members to the virus asked for caskets. On Friday, five more requests came in.

The monks decided early on to close their guest house and church so as not to contribute to the spread of the disease.

But they wanted to do more. The men, who range in age from their late 30s to early 90s, had been offering free child caskets for years. Now they decided to offer adult pine caskets as well. (Shipping costs are not included.)

“Our traditional mode of showing hospitality has come to a halt,” said Abbot Mark Scott. “By offering these caskets to people in need, it’s another way to extend traditional monastic hospitality.”

The near-national shutdown has taken an especially tough toll on minorities and people with low incomes. More than 6.6 million people filed for unemployment from March 22 to 28, according to the Department of Labor.

With deaths mounting — more than 6,000 have died in the U.S. alone, and experts expect thousands more — the need is only expected to grow.

Source: Religion News Service

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Wrestling star Hulk Hogan says God is using the coronavirus pandemic to tear down the idols people have created in their lives.

According to FaithWire, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, is asking people to use their free time to strengthen their relationship with Jesus.

“God has taken away everything we worship,” he wrote on his Instagram page. “God said, ‘you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can’t go to church.’”

Hogan’s post included a photo of him praying against a wall.

“Maybe we don’t need a vaccine,” he said. “Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus.”

Hogan also included 2 Chronicles 7:14 in his post, which says, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.”

Source: Christian Headlines

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JOS, Nigeria, April 8, 2020 (Morning Star News) – People displaced by Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacks in Kaduna state, Nigeria that killed 60 Christians in March are in dire need of relief aid, a community leader said.

“We have a chronicle of the humongous losses suffered by these law-abiding Christians in the hands of herdsmen trying to forcefully eject them and occupy their lands while the government watches on,” Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), said in a statement. “These wanton cruelties on these native Christian communities have been ongoing without let-up since Jan. 6 with great casualties in human lives and material loses.”

Binniyat said the attacks have forced women, children and the elderly to run into the wilderness to escape rampaging herdsmen, adding to the thousands displaced by previous violence.

“Kugosi and Kajari communities have been deserted, with scores of Christian villagers wandering in the bush with no food or water,” he said. “We therefore, call on all well-meaning individuals, groups and corporate entities to come to the aid of these displaced persons. They are in dire need of food, medical attention and temporary shelter.”

Binniyat said the killings occurred in Chikun and Jema’a counties.

At least 25 Christians were killed in March 31 herdsmen attacks on three communities, while 11 others were killed in another village, he said. Among the slain were six Christians in Guruku village; three Chrisitans in Kuduru village – Hassana Bala, Jamilu Hassan and Halima Bala – and Haliru Nawela and Kure Dogonyaro were also injured during the attack, according to Binniyat.

The herdsmen attacked Jagindi village on March 30, killing two Christians, Musa Barde and his brother Danlami Barde, he said. On March 26, herdsmen killed three Christians in Kuduru village.

“This is aside from three others killed in Kugosi and Kajari villages,” he said.

Source: Christian Headlines

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Most Rev. Joseph D’Souza is a Christian theologian, author and human and civil rights activist. He is the founder of Dignity Freedom Network, an organization that advocates for and delivers humanitarian aid to the marginalized and outcastes of South Asia. He is Archbishop of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India and serves as the president of the All India Christian Council.

As I observe Holy Week along with billions of other believers, I have been pondering not only on how Jesus’s death and resurrection restored our relationship to God the Father, but also how they made him the conqueror of all suffering and death.

Many of us came to faith in Jesus because we were moved and convicted by the gospel story as told through the innocent Son of God dying on the cross in our place for our sins. This atonement aspect of the gospel captures the sheer scope of God’s grace, sacrificial love and mercy.

Yet I fear that sometimes when we consider the image of Christ on the cross we look at him as a passive scapegoat instead of a warrior who went to do war with sin, suffering and death willingly and joyfully.

In John 10:18, Jesus himself said, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (NIV)

Hebrews 12:2 likewise says, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It may seem like a theological technicality, but there’s a world of a difference between Jesus being carted away passively to the cross than he facing it head on. In fact, everything about Jesus’ journey to the cross was active, from him “becoming obedient to death” (Phil 2:8) to him “scorning its shame.” Jesus’ victory on the cross was neither accidental nor incidental — it was deliberate and intentional.

In light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we are living through, the message of Jesus as a servant who willfully confronted death and suffering is all the more relevant to us. We can learn from his example as we minister to those who are suffering in these two ways:

We need to ask God for faith and courage to face the weeks and months ahead.

The last thing Jesus did before his arrest, trial and eventual execution was pray. His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane dripped with passion and brutal honesty: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

We can also pray a similar prayer as we prepare for what the COVID-19 will bring in the days and weeks ahead. Already there have been over 1.4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 80,000 deaths worldwide. Tragically, those numbers will continue to rise while doctors, nurses, researchers and government officials work around the clock to care for sick patients and to stymie the progression of the virus.

Jesus’ prayer was both an act of submission and obedience. In praying “Your will be done,” he was resolving to follow the Father’s plan, all the way to the cross. While Jesus was fulfilling a unique, unrepeatable mission given to him, our current path — whether we want it or not — also leads us to confront evil, suffering and death. And like Jesus, we have the choice whether we will do so with faith, believing we can trust that God will be with us as we minister to those who are suffering.

Source: Christian Headlines

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Two weeks ago, a professional football player in Dr. David Jeremiah’s Shadow Mountain Community Church congregation asked about the significance of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis in light of biblical prophecies about the End Times. In response, Dr. David Jeremiah wrote two sermons that have been viewed close to 2 million times and have been shared more than 4,000 times.

We spoke with Dr. David Jeremiah to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on his life, his church and on people around the world.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length:

1. How do we go deeper in prayer — maybe more than we’ve ever gone before — through this time?

Prayer should be the first thing. I got a call from my daughter late last night. She was feeling a little bit cut off and afraid, and I reminded her that God is available to us. We don’t have to go anywhere. God is a breath away, and I told her that when I have moments when I feel a little bit disconnected, I hear God’s voice in my heart and I think I hear him saying, “I’ve got this,” and God is in control. And when you pray, you become so much aware of that. You become aware of the presence of God in your life and the fact that there aren’t any surprises for God. He didn’t get surprised by all of this.

2. Tell us some principles that we can use to calm our minds as we face isolation and hear news about what is going on around us.

We should open our Bibles instead of turning on the television, because that’s what will help us more than anything else. There’s so much in the Word of God to comfort our hearts and strengthen us.

And I’ll just give you a little nugget that I shared the other night: The Bible says that “in the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” God didn’t say, “In the world you will have tribulation but I have overcome tribulation.” No, he said, “in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world.” God doesn’t just overcome the event, he overcomes the environment in which the event occurs. So God’s not just in charge of what’s going on; he’s in charge of everything. He is still on the throne, and we’re gonna look back on this and see that in spite of all of the difficulty that this has created for everyone, God got glory to his name.

3. Can you give us some principles and techniques from Scripture that we can focus on when we really feel anxious?

Well, in the book of Philippians it says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.” Be anxious for nothing, but be prayerful in everything. What Paul was saying there is, if you want to be anxious, you can have anxiety, but you don’t have to be anxious for anything, but you have to replace that with prayer. Be anxious for nothing, but be prayerful in everything.

There’s two circles. One is anxiety — you don’t want to be in there. If you’re in the prayer circle, you won’t be in the anxiety circle. But so often what happens is we let our anxiety run crazy with us and today I’m just seeing that in talking to some people. They’re just saying “but what if and what if” and before you know it they’ve spun this thing out and I just want to say to them, “This is not the end of the world.” So step back, take a deep breath, and get into the Word of God and be reminded that God is in control.

Source: Christian Headlines

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The UK’s coronavirus lockdown will be extended indefinitely, it was confirmed today.

Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he remains in intensive care, told media at Thursday’s press briefing that it’s too early to consider relaxing the rules that have seen Brits remaining indoors for almost three weeks.

“We are not done yet,” he announced. “We must keep going.”

The Government will not have enough information for more updates on the lockdown’s length until the end of next week.

He thanked everyone “who has gone the extra mile” and followed the safety rules so far, and says the data indicates it’s working so far.

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said social distancing is breaking coronavirus transmission and we’re beginning to see a “flattening off” in the number of new cases.

Mr Raab announced an extension to the social distancing measures put in place on March 23.

The Government said it would review the lockdown policy after three weeks, and did so at today’s emergency Cobra meeting at 10 Downing Street.

Mr Raab stressed that the lockdown cannot be relaxed until the UK has the coronavirus outbreak “firmly under control”.

“We mustn’t give the coronavirus a second chance to kill more people and further hurt our country,” he said.

Ahead of an Easter weekend that promises scorching temperatures and blazing sunshine, Brits have been urged to stay inside and not jeopardise the progress made by the lockdown so far.

SOURCE: Daily Star, Sophie Bateman

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