The off-Broadway play “The Gospel of John” is being called one of the “best Christmas shows” in New York City this Christmas season.

According to the Christian Post, the play was created by award-winning Broadway actor Ken Jennings. Jennings, who starred in “Sweeney Todd,” “Grand Hotel” and “Side Show,” also stars in “The Gospel of John.”

The show is a 90-minute solo performance of the book of John.

“I memorized this first as a prayer, not as a play,” Jennings said in a statement shared with The Christian Post. “I started memorizing ‘The Gospel of John’ as a spiritual practice during a difficult time in my life. I’ve always had an affinity for John, which has always seemed to truly be a firsthand narrative by a man who was actually there.”

Since its opening night at the end of the November, the play has drawn praises.

“Plays can bring spiritual solace,” the New York Times said in its review. “On the unadorned stage, two flights below Bleecker Street, the actor Ken Jennings had only a single prop: a compact Bible. When theater is a religious experience, faith has a powerful role.”

Time Out New York said it was “one of the best Christmas shows in NYC this holiday season.”

“‘The Gospel of John,’ directed by John Pietrowski, tells the eyewitness account of the Apostle John and his life with Jesus,” the review said. “Jennings performs John’s…

A Montana high school violated federal law and practiced religious discrimination last month when it revoked the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ status as a school-sponsored club, a religious liberty legal group says.

Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Dec. 11 to Bozeman High School, threatening a lawsuit if the school does not reinstate FCA as a school-sponsored club by Dec. 18. 

The school revoked FCA’s official status in November after several students raised concerns over the national organization’s stance on the definition of marriage. FCA’s statement of faith says “God instituted marriage between one man and one woman as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society.” FCA’s adult leaders are required to support the statement and a code of conduct that affirms a biblical definition of sexuality.

“Your actions violate federal law under the Equal Access Act and ignore 30-year Supreme Court precedent protecting the rights of religious student clubs to be treated equally with other student clubs,” the ADF letter says. “Refusing to recognize FCA as a school-sponsored club because of its religious mission and denying it the same privileges as other non-curricular clubs is illegal.”

The high school currently recognizes 34 clubs, including the Environmental Awareness Club, the Sexuality and Gender Alliance,…

Kanye West debuted his opera show, Mary, this weekend at the Marine Stadium in Miami as a follow up to “Nebuchadnezzar,” his first opera production in Los Angeles, according to the Christian Post.

Clad in silver, West’s Sunday Service Choir members graced the stage, singing while Kanye told the story of Jesus. The opera detailed the traditional nativity story, highlighting Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in a manger in 12 scenes. The choir also sang the Christmas songs “Gloria in Excelsis Deo,” “Little Drummer Boy,” and “O Holy Night.” The Miami Stadium stage perches on a Virginia Key inlet while the audience watches from dry ground.

“Over 300 prophecies in the Scripture described the coming of the Savior,” West said. “Jesus Christ fulfilled them all. One prophecy, in particular, declared the sign of His coming to be marked by a voice, a voice that would prepare the hearts of the people of Israel for the Messiah.” The rapper-turned-Christian also read from Luke 1:5 and Matthew 1:20. He was only on the stage for a few moments before jumping onto a speedboat at the end of the performance.

According to Vanity Fair, tickets for the one-time show sold out within 24 hours at $200 each. Kanye announced the show on Twitter Thursday evening for the Sunday afternoon show on the final day of Art Basel, a gathering of artists.

Chance the Rapper, a musician who has professed to a relationship with…

The Hallmark Channel on Sunday stood by commercials depicting same-sex couples and said it would work with a gay media group to “better represent the LGBTQ community” in its programs – although one day earlier, the network had pledged to pull the ads.

On Saturday, a Hallmark spokesperson said the channel would pull Zola commercials depicting two women kissing, telling a reporter, “We don’t want to generate controversy; we’ve tried very hard to stay out of it.” Hallmark was responding to a petition from One Million Moms opposing the ad. It garnered 30,000 signatures. 

But the decision to pull the ad sparked its own controversy, including opposition from talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who tweeted, “Isn’t it almost 2020? @hallmarkchannel, @billabbottHC … what are you thinking? Please explain. We’re all ears.” DeGeneres is lesbian.

Isn’t it almost 2020? @hallmarkchannel, @billabbottHC… what are you thinking? Please explain. We’re all ears.

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) December 15, 2019

Actor William Shatner also got involved, tweeting that his “2.5 million” followers “and my friends” would oppose Hallmark’s move. One Million Moms, he said, was “NOT a majority here.” 

“Both me and my followers watch your shows … Do the right thing,” he wrote.

Shame on @hallmarkchannel! 😤Put the commercials back! @1milmoms has 4K…

Militants are believed to have killed a group of Christians in Kenya.

According to Faithwire, International Christian Concern, a persecution watchdog group, says the group of Christians were traveling in a passenger bus when they were stopped.

 “A passenger bus belonging to Medina Bus Company, traveling between Wajir and Mandera was attacked by a criminal gang at around 1730 hours this evening,” a local Kenyan police officer told ICC. “The attack happened at Maadathe area, five kilometers to Kotulo. Lives are believed to have been lost.”

Militants stopped the group while they were heading to the northeastern city of Mandera when militants stopped the bus and separated the passengers into locals and non-locals. The nine passengers who could not recite the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith, were taken off the bus and shot at point-blank range. Two passengers are missing.

“I am deeply saddened to learn of the heinous bus attack near Kotulo, Wajir today around 5:00 p.m. where 10 passengers were killed [or are missing],” said the governor of Mandera, Ali Roba, on Facebook. “I am informed that the suspected al-Shabaab fighters cowardly segregated non-locals heading to Mandera from Nairobi. It is extremely sad and humanly disturbing to learn that, yet again, they segregated locals from non-locals before killing those they believed to be non-locals.”

Police…

(RNS) — On Tuesday (Dec. 10), two individuals opened fire on a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey. The violent attack — which occurred shortly after the assailants allegedly killed a police officer in a nearby cemetery — ultimately left three bystanders dead and three people wounded, including two police officers.

Law enforcement authorities later announced they are treating the incident as a case of domestic terrorism and said the suspects — both of whom were killed in a shootout with police — were “fueled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs.”

Officials also noted that one of the suspects had posted anti-Semitic comments online and had ties with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a category that includes organizations labeled as hate groups and members who have voiced beliefs widely seen as anti-Semitic.

But just who are the Black Hebrew Israelites, and where did they come from?

According to Judith Weisenfeld, religion professor at Princeton University, the short answer is: It depends.

“There’s no such thing as ‘the’ Black Hebrew Israelites,” Weisenfeld, author of New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration, told Religion News Service. “There are lots of different theological and political orientations within that broader umbrella.”

The movement, which typically does not associate itself with mainstream Judaism, has a long…