Disney has released a new TV show, “The Owl House” that has concerned some parents with its emphasis on witchcraft and demons.

The show focuses on a teenage girl named Luz who discovers a demon world and lives with a powerful witch named Eda the Owl Lady. Luz disguises her identity as a human in order to survive in the demon world and attend witch school. Her greatest ambition is to become like Eda.

“The original pitch [for the show] was ‘girl hangs out with witch in hell,’” said voice actor Alex Hirsch, according to Newsweek.

And, the show’s art director, Ricky Cometa, shared, “We really wanted to make this demon realm feel like home, and just had to figure out how to do it.”

“The Owl House” premiered on Friday, January 10 and has already been handed a second season from Disney. The show’s creator, Dana Terrace, anticipated push back when pitching the idea to Disney for a darker show, but the media conglomerate was willing to take the risk.

“There is sometimes a concern with family networks for what is considered family friendly…because Disney is such a big company that in certain corners, they say that maybe they don’t want to take those risks,” said Hirsch. “Walt Disney took those risks, and that’s why we are sitting in this building. You have to remind yourself that Disney is the full spectrum of emotions, creatures and scary things.”

Terrace also hopes to…

Weeks after her mother’s funeral, author and actress Priscilla Shirer announced she would undergo surgery to remove a lobe in her left lung.

According to CBN News, Shirer discovered a nodule in her left lung three years ago.

“Several pulmonary specialist and I have watched it meticulously since then,” she said in a Facebook post. “This past summer, it was clear that something surgical needed to be done as the nodule had begun to grow and show signs of dangerous irregularities.”

Shirer pushed back the surgery while her family mourned the loss of her mother to a rare form of cancer. But she couldn’t delay it any longer and scheduled the surgery for Monday, January 13.

Only a few days after Christmas, Lois Evans, Shirer’s mother, passed away after a several year battle with a rare cancer at the age of 70, as previously reported by Christian Headlines.

“Just before the sun came up this morning, the love of my life, Lois Irene Evans, transitioned from earth and watched her first sunrise from heaven,” Dr. Tony Evans wrote in an Instagram post.

Lois had been diagnosed with the cancer years ago but beat it. It returned in April of last year and in October, Evans announced that chemotherapy was no longer working for his wife.

The family has also endured the loss of Tony Evans’ father in November, his sister in January, and his niece, young mom and writer Wynter Evans Pitts,…

A Virginia couple who say they were threatened with eviction for holding Bible studies in their apartment has settled their lawsuit with the apartment complex.

According to Faithwire, Kenneth and Liv Hauge can now host Bible studies in the community room or in their apartment in their Virginia senior living community.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, the couple said their apartment had threatened to evict them for hosting the Bible studies in 2018. First Liberty filed a lawsuit on behalf of the couple, saying such a ban violated their right to freedom of religion.

The couple signed a new lease as part of the settlement.

“The settlement provides that the policy that prohibited any religious activities from occurring in the community room is rescinded so that means anyone, not just the Bible study, that wants to have an event has equal access regardless of the religious content,” the couple’s lawyer, Lea Patterson, told reporters.

The apartment complex did not comment on the settlement, but previously a released statement said the eviction was “no way based on [the couple’s] religious beliefs and/or practices.”

In a notice to the couple, the apartment said the Hauges “breached the terms of your lease by engaging in conduct which has caused, and continues to cause, serious and substantial disturbances with other residents of the…

The faith-based film Breakthrough and two other faith-centric films received Oscar nominations Monday – a rare feat for a genre that rarely achieves mainstream attention.

Breakthrough (PG) was nominated for Best Original Song for I’m Standing With You, which was written by Diane Warren and sung by Chrissy Metz, who also starred in the film.

Two other faith-centric movies – Harriet (PG-13) and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (PG) – also got Oscar nominations.

Harriet received two nominations: Best Original Song (Stand Up, by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo) and Best Actress (Erivo). Erivo played the lead role of Harriet Tubman.

Tom Hanks was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. 

Although A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Harriet aren’t categorized as Christian films on some movie websites, both were marketed to Christian audiences. Breakthrough, on the other hand, was considered a faith-based film by most Hollywood websites.

Among the Top 10 grossing Christian movies of all time listed by Entertainment Weekly, only one – 2004’s The Passion of the Christ – received an Oscar nomination.  

On Monday, the cast and crew of Breakthrough celebrated the Oscar nomination on social media. It was Warren’s 11th Oscar nomination. Devon Franklin produced the movie.

“Congratulations, @warren_diane…

An obituary about an Iowa man went viral this month, not only because of its whimsical-yet-serious style but also because it was authored by the deceased man himself.

Ken Fuson, who worked as a journalist for several newspapers, died Jan. 3 of liver cirrhosis at the age of 63. He wrote his own obit before he passed away.

The obituary is filled with facts about Fuson’s life, set in a self-deprecating and humorous tone. Mainstream websites across the U.S. wrote about it, as did the BBC in the United Kingdom.

“He was diagnosed with liver disease at the beginning of 2019, which is pretty ironic given how little he drank. Eat your fruits and vegetables, kids,” the obit says. 

Of his death, Fuson wrote that he “is stunned to learn that the world is somehow able to go on without him.” 

On his education at the University of Missouri-Columbia, he joked: “He attended the university’s famous School of Journalism, which is a clever way of saying, ‘almost graduated but didn’t.’”

Fuson wrote for the Columbia Daily Tribune, the Des Moines Register and the Baltimore Sun.

He also won several writing awards. 

“No, he didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize, but he’s dead now, so get off his back,” the obit reads.

The obituary also discusses Fuson’s spiritual beliefs. He “suffered from a compulsive gambling addiction that nearly destroyed him,” the obit notes, “but his church friends, and the…

A plume of ash, steam and pebbles filled the sky near Manila, Philippines on Sunday as Taal, one of the world’s smallest active volcanoes, erupted.

According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), the cloud of gas and ash shot 10 to 15 kilometers in the air as the eruption began. 

Reports show that light to mud-thick ash has been falling over towns and cities several kilometers away from the volcano. 

Authorities have issued a “total evacuation” order for people living around Taal and near Manila, the country’s capital. So far, around 300,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, including 6,000 villagers who live on an island in the middle of the lake the volcano sits on. 

Officials are urging all other residents in affected areas to stay inside if at all possible and to wear masks and goggles for protection. Motorists have also been cautioned to stay off the roads, as wet ash can become quite slippery.

Last erupting between 1965 and 1977, Taal – which is located 60 kilometers south of Manila – has been showing signs of a possible eruption since 1991. In 2019, PHIVOLCS raised the volcano to a level one alert, as heavy volcanic activity began occurring, including 57 volcanic earthquakes between November 11 and 12. On Sunday, PHIVOLCS raised the alert level again to a level four. According to the Associated Press, a level four alert…

JOS, Nigeria, January 10, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 13 Christians in Plateau state, Nigeria on Wednesday (Jan. 8), the same day four students were kidnapped from a Catholic seminary in Kaduna state.

About 20 herdsmen attacked the predominantly Christian village of Kulben, in Plateau state’s Mangu County, at about 8 p.m., area residents told Morning Star News. The 13 dead were all members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), as were three people wounded in the assault, they said.

“They were shooting with guns in all directions, forcing the villagers to scamper into surrounding bushes,” area resident Michael Mutding, 40, told Morning Star News in a text message. “Corpses of those killed have been evacuated by soldiers and police to the mortuary of Mangu Cottage Hospital; and all the victims are members of COCIN.”

Bala Fwengje, a legislator representing the area in the Plateau State House of Assembly, said in a statement that the attacks came in spite of efforts by security agencies.

“This attack on my people by these herdsmen comes as a rude shock to us, as efforts have been made by security agencies to curtail such incessant attacks on our people,” Fwengje said. “It is a sad thing that these attacks are still being carried out by the herdsmen on our people without provocation.”

Audu Tetmut, a 60-year-old area leader of the…