The Trump administration’s Labor Department proposed a new rule Wednesday it says will broaden the religious freedom of federal contractors, but that critics claim will permit discrimination against LGBT employees.

At issue are 1960s-era regulations (Executive Order 11246) that government organizations and companies that contract with the federal government – and, specifically, those that receive a religious exemption.

The proposed Trump rule clarifies that the religious exemption within Executive Order 11246 covers not just churches but also “employers that are organized for a religious purpose, hold themselves out to the public as carrying out a religious purpose, and engage in exercise of religion consistent with, and in furtherance of, a religious purpose.”

President Obama had amended Executive Order 11246 to ban the federal government from contracting with any company or organization that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

The proposed rule would impact faith-based organizations – such as a Christian foster care service or a homeless shelter – that only hire employees who affirm Scripture, including what the Bible teaches on sexuality. Under the Obama rule, they would be prohibited from contracting with the federal government. Under the new Trump rule, they would be allowed to do so. 

The proposed rule…

Six officers were wounded in an 8-hour standoff in Philadelphia where a gunman shot at the officers from inside his home.

The six officers have been released from the hospital, but Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said the situation “could have been far worse.”

“This was a very dynamic situation, one that I hope we never see again,” he said Thursday.

Ross also served as the negotiator in the standoff, talking by phone to the gunman. 

The suspect, Maurice Hill, barricaded himself in his home about 4:30 p.m. when officers went to his home in north Philadelphia to serve a narcotics warrant.

Hill opened fire and Ross said officers “had to escape through windows and doors to get (away) from a barrage of bullets.”

Two officers were trapped inside the house for about five hours after Hill started shooting. A SWAT team rescued them.

Ross said he wanted to be the negotiator in the standoff because he was “so worried” about the trapped officers.

“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I was 200 feet away,” he said.

Police also patched through Hill’s former lawyer to try to convince him to surrender, but he eventually came outside after police deployed tear gas into the home. 

“I gave his attorney, Shaka Johnson, a lot of credit that he came and he was able to certainly engage him in conversation much…

Columbian evangelical Pastor Plinio Rafael Salcedo was found shot dead in his home earlier this week in what many believe to be a targeted assassination.

Salcedo lived in Taraza, Bajo Cauca Antioquia with his wife and two children, Faithwire reports.

The motive for the attack is still unknown, but experts in Columbia believe it was linked to a recent protest held just two days prior to the pastor’s death. Nearly 1,000 people from Protest and Catholic churches gathered to petition for peace in their region.

Columbia has experienced raging violence as illegal armed groups attempt to take control across the country. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a religious persecution watchdog group, says Christian leaders have been targeted for assassination for years. Groups hope to intimidate leaders in order to bring communities under their authority.

In an effort to restore peace to the South American country, President Juan Manuel Santos signed a peace agreement with a far-left rebel organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia in 2016. But years later, the country has felt little of its effects.

According to a report from the New York Times, nearly 3,000 militants have resumed fighting and at least 500 activists and community leaders have been killed in that time.

Faithwire reported that in July of last year, the government launched…

You’ve likely heard the conventional wisdom: The U.S. church is shrinking. Teenagers and young adults are leaving in droves. Atheism and unbelief are growing rapidly.

But a new book challenges those assumptions – and even says the truth is exactly the opposite.

The book, Myth of the Dying Church: How Christianity Is Actually Thriving in America and the World by author Glenn T. Stanton, asserts that church attendance in the United States is at an all-time high, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of the population. That includes the colonial days. 

Stanton also says Americans are more attracted to Bible-believing churches that discuss sin and salvation than to liberal churches that avoid both topics.

Stanton – the director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family – examined multiple studies and bodies of research for the book.

Christian Headlines recently spoke to him. Following is a transcript: 

We hear so often that the church is shrinking today – that young people are leaving the faith, and Christianity is disappearing. You say this is not so. Why? 

First, as I got into the research while writing the book, I was really surprised how much stronger the data on this topic actually is. It tells this story: The best forms of Christianity, faithful, Bible-teaching churches calling its members to real discipleship and…

Recording artist Lauren Daigle has received six nominations from the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards.

The 27-year-old Christian singer was nominated for Songwriter of the Year, Contemporary Christian Artist of the Year, and Artist of the Year, the Associated Press reports.

Her third studio album, Look Up Child, released in September 2018, was also nominated for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year. Her song “You Say” on that album is in the running for Song of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year.

Other musicians nominated for Artist of the Year were for KING & COUNTRY, Hillsong UNITED, MercyMe, and TobyMac.

The song “You Say” was written shortly after Daigle’s first Dove awards. According to CCM Magazine, she began to feel disconnected from her identity, wondering where to go next.

“So when writing ‘You Say,’ I just remember feeling for the first time pretty conflicted,” she shared. “It was definitely the first moment in just being an artist that I was like, ‘Okay, where is all this going exactly?’”

She hopes the song helps others who find themselves in a similar place.

“[This song] brought up the issue of identity and trying to figure out how to exist when I felt like so many things were pulling me in so many different directions. I think a lot of times we build these complexes based on insecurity, based on fear, based on…