Chynna Phillips, the well-known singer who is also one of the music industry’s most outspoken Christians, says her niece and nephew-in-law — Hailey Baldwin and Justin Bieber — can make a difference for the kingdom of God.

“They are awesome examples of what it is to be a Christian and I feel like they’re going to help pave the way for other young people to see it in a new light and see that Christianity is cool,” Phillips told the New York Post’s Page Six.

Phillips, 51, is a member of the group Wilson Phillips and the daughter of John and Michelle Phillips of the 1960s group Mamas and the Papas. Her husband is William Baldwin, whose brother, Stephen, is Hailey’s father.

Phillips holds a Bible study in her Los Angeles home. Bieber and Hailey Baldwin don’t attend the Bible study, but Phillips said it “would be really fun” if they did.

She told Page Six she became a Christian at the age of 12 when classmates offered to pray for her.

“I knew in that moment,” she said, “that I had been touched by God and that Jesus was real and Jesus truly was the son of God and that I needed to come to terms with that reality because it was the truth. Ever since that moment I’ve known that Jesus is Lord.”

Her teen years, though, included alcohol and drug use, which she now says were a “Band-Aid to cover up all of my abandonment issues with my father and grief surrounding his drug use.”

Source: Christian Headlines

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HYDERABAD, India, February 4, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Hindu extremists in southern India who beat Christian children during worship on Jan. 19 and then filed a police complaint against the congregation left them with a warning.

“If we hear that you stepped out of your homes and told anybody about this, we will set your homes on fire and will burn you alive,’” some of the 20 assailants told Christians gathered for worship on the terrace of a home in Malasamudra village, Karnataka state, according to those present.

The Christians had begun worship at 7 a.m. when the radical Hindus came up the stairs to the terrace, unnoticed. Soon the small congregation saw the intruders taking photos and videotaping them, said Mary Bellary, who along with her husband Hanumanthappa Bellary was hosting the worship.

“They flashed camera lights at children, and we requested them to please go and not disturb the prayers,” Mary Bellary said. “But they continued taking pictures, videotaping us and passed comments, saying, ‘Look! Christians gathered here on the terrace to carry out conversions.”’

When Bellary and other women tried to stop them from taking video of the 12 children present, the intruders pushed them away, she said. The Christians asked them to leave, and the intruders put their hands on the women’s chests and pulled their sarees, tearing them, she said.

“They punched my 15-year-old son in his stomach, and other kids also got hurt,” she told Morning Star News. “They were kicked to the floor and were beaten up on their backs. My uncle and husband tried hard to protect the women and children, but those men were very aggressive and physically stronger than us.”

The neighbors only watched, the 32-year-old mother of three said.

“The children just kept looking at us crying for help,” Bellary said.

The attack and threat so terrified them, she said, that they did not leave their homes in Gadag District for the rest of the day. At about 7 p.m., officers from Gadag Town Police Station showed up with word that a complaint had been filed against them, she said.

“The police officer told us that we had attacked some people during Christian prayers that morning, and that they were injured and hospitalized,” Bellary said. “After attacking us on Jan. 19 morning, the Hindu extremists got themselves admitted in a hospital and filed a false complaint against us.”

When police summoned the Christians to the police station the next morning, they did not know what to do, she said.

“Our people were injured, yet we didn’t step out of our homes fearing for our lives, and there at the police station our attackers were influencing the police to frame us in cases,” Bellary told Morning Star News.

Michael Rosario, a lawyer with legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom-India, along with Christian volunteer Johnson David, set out to Gadag to accompany the victims to the police station.

“We ensured that the injured received treatment at the nearest government hospital,” Rosario told Morning Star News. “Basavanappa Malingpur [Bellary’s uncle] had injuries on his head and leg and had to remain hospitalized for three days. The rest, the injured children and women, received first aid.”

By the time Rosario and David reached the police station on Jan. 20, the Hindu extremists and their supporters were already there. The inspector informed the Christians’ counsel that since police had already received a complaint from the village president – who had led the attack – and his cohorts the previous day, he had no option but to book cases against the Christians, David said.

Rosario said their discussion with police continued for some time.

Source: Christian Headlines

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An atheist organization is calling for an investigation after 26 Alabama high school football players were baptized at midfield in the team’s football stadium, saying the event ostracized non-religious students and gave the appearance of school endorsement.

The superintendent, though, says the school followed the law.

At issue is a Nov. 21 event in which 26 members of the Reeltown High School football team who had made professions of faith were baptized in a trough at the 50-yard-line on a day the team didn’t play. The players had accepted Christ at an assembly held outside school hours and wanted to be baptized together, on the field where they play, AL.com reported.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), though, says the event was improper and possibly illegal. It sent a letter to Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Joe Windle asserting that “reasonable” students would have perceived “it was endorsed by the school.”

“The District should take the appropriate steps to ensure there will be no further religious rituals, including baptisms, during school-sponsored activities,” the FFRF letter said.

Further, the letter said, the event “ostracizes those students and families who identify as nonreligious.” FFRF calls itself an organization of “atheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree.”

Family members were present, as was head football coach Matt Johnson.

Windle says he investigated the matter and found no wrongdoing. He also says he signed off on the baptisms. Players weren’t required to attend, and local pastors performed the baptisms, Windle said.

Source: Christian Headlines

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Jim Denison is the founder and CEO of the Denison Forum, a nonprofit Christian media organization that comments on current issues through a biblical lens. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of BCNN1.

Iowa held its first-in-the-nation caucuses last night. President Trump won on the Republican side, as expected. However, we still don’t know the winner on the Democratic Party side.

The Iowa Democratic Party said the results were delayed due to “inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.” They stressed that there was not a “hack or intrusion,” but announced around 2 a.m. that the results would be provided “later today.” Officials are now hand counting the results.

There are two very different ways to see this unusual delay.

One is that Democrats in Iowa are working to provide results in as trustworthy a manner as possible. After the razor-close 2016 race in Iowa between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, Mr. Sanders’ allies pushed the Democratic National Committee to require caucus states to track and report the raw numbers of support for each candidate. In Iowa, the new reporting standards slowed the gathering of data to a crawl. Technical issues contributed to the delays.

The other is to view the Democratic Party’s delayed reporting as indicative of its suitability to lead. GOP Congressman Mark Meadows of North Carolina tweeted: “Folks—this is the party that wants to run your healthcare, control your employment, decide what kind of car you can drive, and more.”

These conflicting perspectives reflect the larger conflicts in our culture.

For example, Bernie Sanders was favored by oddsmakers to win the Iowa caucuses. His campaign is fueled principally by his appeal to millennials. His focus on wealth inequality, universal health care, student loan debt, and climate change resonate with many of them. The fact that he is “quite substantially not religious,” in the words of his brother, is not a detriment to a generation noted for its lack of religious commitment.

Consider that college graduates are less likely than non-graduates to agree that “religion is very important.” They are also less likely to say they “believe in God with absolute certainty” or that they “pray daily.” In fact, 11 percent identify as atheist or agnostic, compared with 4 percent of those with high school education or less.

(Lest these facts suggest that religion is irrational, note that Christians who graduated from college are more likely to attend weekly worship services than those with less education.)

To many of Mr. Sanders’ millennial supporters, his lack of religious commitment mirrors their own. They view his irreligiosity as a positive rather than a negative.

Consider another fact: Democratic professors outnumber Republicans nine to one at America’s highest-ranking colleges and universities.

The ratio varies by discipline: while economics professors who are Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one, professors of anthropology who are Democrats outnumber Republicans forty-two to one.

This pattern is less surprising when we look behind it to note that the college administrators who hire the professors identify as liberal rather than conservative by a ratio of twelve to one.

Source: Christian Headlines

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To the attendees of the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday (Feb. 6),

Today, you gather in prayer for our nation and for our world — for the health of our democracy, for the good of our neighbors, for the extension of Christ’s kingdom of justice and peace to the ends of the earth.

This is right and good.

Many of you in attendance today are gathered in our name. You are pastors, leaders of denominations, and elders in the faith. Your generation has taught us to take the authority of Scripture seriously, to proclaim the Lordship of Christ in all things, and to passionately pursue the Church’s mission in the world. For this heritage of faith, we are truly grateful.

It is in this spirit of gratitude that we write you today, as young Christians, to implore you to engage the climate crisis with the full and faithful urgency that it requires.

It is no secret that public dialogue around climate change has been bitterly polarized and divisive, and that Christians have been as guilty as anyone of perpetuating this reality. Yet the gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to do better than to parrot partisan half-truths and retreat to tribal foxholes.

It calls us to pursue truth and to announce it with hope.

It calls us to proclaim its good news to all, especially to the poor and the oppressed (Luke 4:18-19).

It calls us to love God with everything we’ve got and to love our neighbors as if their current circumstances and future prospects are our own (Matt. 22:34-40).

Taking bold and faithful climate action is an opportunity to get better at each of these commands, to get better at announcing the good news of Jesus Christ in a warming world.

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 2, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Accepting the findings of the rigorous study of creation and believing the firsthand accounts of climate impacts from our Christian brothers and sisters around the world is not controversial or partisan, it is Christian. For us, it is about defending human life and health, pursuing justice and compassion, and caring for all God’s creation.

As people of love, courage, transformation, and hope, climate action is not something to avoid or fear. Rather, it is a powerful and prophetic opportunity for us to be the salt and light that Jesus calls us to be.

As young people raised by many of you to be just these kinds of people, here is what we ask: As you pray today, pray for God’s groaning creation and for our vulnerable neighbors who are being harmed. As you go back tomorrow to the communities that you lead, live out these prayers with courage and conviction.

Introduce your followers to the richness of Scripture’s teaching about God’s love for God’s world and our call to care for it.

Defend life by supporting policies that will transition our economy away from dirty, toxic fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy.

Love your God by acting to protect the good works of his hands.

Love your neighbors by fighting for a world where they have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and a stable climate for generations to come.

As you pray and act, we stand alongside you in the power and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, that together we might become the answer to our prayers.

In the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
National Organizer and Spokesperson
Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

Katelyn Beaty
Author and Speaker

Christina Edmondson
Dean of Intercultural Student Development
Calvin University

Mika Edmondson
Pastor
New City Fellowship

Andre Henry
Program Manager
Evangelicals for Social Action

Rachel Lamb
Flagship Fellow and PhD Candidate
University of Maryland, College Park

Ben Lowe
Author, Activist

Jonathan Merritt
Author

Jessica Moerman
AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow
Co-Founder, Grace Capital City Church

Melissa Moore
Living Proof Ministries

Adam Taylor
Executive Director
Sojourners

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Director
School for Conversion

(Titles and organizations are listed for identification purposes only)

Source: Religion News Service

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The Rev. Tim Schenck serves as rector of the Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist in Hingham, Massachusetts. His latest book is “Holy Grounds: The Surprising Connection Between Coffee and Faith.” Follow him on Twitter @FatherTim. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1.

“The ancient Greeks had four words for love,” the narrator intoned.

I froze, with a guacamole-laden tortilla chip perched inches from my watering mouth, wondering if one of my kids had inadvertently changed the channel away from the Super Bowl. What could ancient Greek, and words I learned my first semester of seminary, possibly be doing amid the most expensive ad buy of the year?

As the 60-second spot for New York Life unfolded before my eyes, I was amazed to hear an explanation of these four aspects of love.

The insurance company’s ad continued: “The first is philia — philia is affection that grows from friendship. Next, there’s storge – the kind you have for a grandparent or a brother. The third is eros, the uncontrollable urge to say ‘I love you.’ The fourth kind of love is different. It’s the most admirable. It’s called agape – love as an action. It takes courage. Sacrifice. Strength.”

If those sound familiar, chances are it’s because of C.S. Lewis, the 20th-century Anglican academic, Christian and author of the beloved “Chronicles of Narnia,” who wrote about them in a book titled “The Four Loves.” In it, he highlighted the same four types of love delineated by New York Life: storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (romantic) and agape (charity).

Now, at one level, I should be grateful that an insurance company with deep enough pockets to afford a Super Bowl ad has added a nuanced definition of love to the public conversation. In between brain-rattling tackles and blatant consumerism was planted a seed of beauty and joy, inspiration and hope.

Yet it was New York Life’s definition of agape that caused my initial excitement to morph into “Stay in your lane, you behemoth, soulless insurance company!”

Because for Lewis and for Christians more broadly, agape, that greatest of all loves, is the unconditional, all-encompassing, selfless, divine love embodied in Jesus Christ. Christ’s love is freely given with no expectation of return. And while Jesus makes a claim upon his followers, it has nothing to do with filing an insurance claim, and everything to do with baptismal identity.

If love is “an action” as the ad claims, “strength” is not a part of the equation — at least not for a faith where “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). As Lewis writes in “Mere Christianity”: “If you want to get warm then you have to stand near the fire; if you want to get wet, then you have to get into the water.”

Source: Religion News Service

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — A nondenominational Christian university in Nashville says it will consider hiring non-Christian faculty from an art college it recently merged with.

Thomas Burns,  the provost from Belmont University, had previously told students from Watkins College of Art that the university only hires Christians to teach. Non-Christian faculty at Watkins, a small, struggling art school, would not be hired at Belmont after the merger.

His comments, which were recorded and posted on YouTube, caused controversy on campus and made national headlines.

A spokesperson for Belmont said Tuesday (Feb. 4) that no decisions have been made about faculty hirings post-merger. The school won’t decide how many staff or faculty it will hire until it knows more details, including how many students will transfer.

If there are openings, Watkins staff will be able to apply.

“Because we recognize current Watkins employees could not control nor anticipate merging with a faith-based institution, it has been determined that special consideration will be given to current Watkins employees regardless of their position of faith,” the school said in a statement. “This exception to our hiring policy is only being made due to the nature of merging institutions and out of Belmont’s commitment to care for the Watkins community.”

Belmont’s nondiscrimination policy forbids discrimination based on “race, sex, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, military service, or sexual orientation” but does say the school “seeks employees of Christian faith who are committed to the mission of the University.”

Source: Religion News Service

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