The White House is using two new Supreme Court decisions favoring religious liberty to draw a distinction with the previous administration, implying if Democrat Joe Biden is elected, people of faith will have their freedoms assaulted.

The Supreme Court handed down a pair of decisions Wednesday favoring religious liberty. In one case, the justices broadened the so-called ministerial exception and ruled that religious organizations could hire and fire based on what they believe, free of oversight by anti-discrimination laws. In the other case, the justices upheld a Trump administration rule that exempts faith-based organizations from the Obama-era abortion/contraceptive mandate.

In both decisions, President Trump’s two Supreme Court nominees, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, voted with the majority.

“Two Big WINS for Religious Freedom at SCOTUS today,” Vice President Mike Pence tweeted. “All Americans of faith can be assured that under President @realDonaldTrump, the Obama-Biden assault on religious liberty is over! We will always stand with every American of every Faith!”

Two Big WINS for Religious Freedom at SCOTUS today. All Americans of faith can be assured that under President @realDonaldTrump, the Obama-Biden assault on religious liberty is over! We will always stand with every American of every Faith! 🇺🇸

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) July 8, 2020

The…

Even though the year is only halfway through, for many, 2020 is a year they would like to leave behind. For Karen Clark Sheard, however, it’s been one to embrace.

Sheard is a part of the Gospel music group, The Clark Sisters.

This year has been one to remember for The Clark Sisters as they watched their lives onscreen in the new Lifetime movie, The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel and participated in numerous virtual music and award shows.

Sheard, recently sat down with Christian Headlines to discuss the ups and downs of being a part of what many would call Black Gospel music royalty.

“We grew up playing in the Black church and having our mother take the role of being our director and manager,” Sheard shared.

To the singer, her Gospel and Black church roots are precious and inform who she is as a person and who the Sisters are as artists.

When asked about her thoughts on the movie, Sheard noted, “I enjoyed the movie, however, I remember watching it thinking, how did we survive that?”

Despite rising to great success, the members of the group had to endure an abundance of sacrifice.

“My mother sacrificed in getting us to where we are today as a group,” Sheard shared with a spark of gratitude in her voice.

Even still, Sheard speaks lovingly about the journey that God has put her and her sisters on. “It’s all about who God has surrounded you with, which for me has been…

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 9, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Hard-line Muslims in Isiolo, Kenya last month beat unconscious a 21-year-old Christian woman, a member of a family from Somalia that fled persecution in Nairobi in 2019, sources said.

In the June 4 attack on Fozia (surname withheld), seven assailants also broke two teeth of her 19-year-old sister, Asha, and also injured their 18-year-old brother, Aden, the victims said.

“They began hitting me with sticks and a blunt object, which injured my back and my right hand,” Fozia told Morning Star News. “There I fainted for five hours and regained consciousness at the hospital.”

She was hospitalized for two days.

“At the moment I am having nose bleeding, and all my body still hurts,” she said.

The siblings had gone outside their home to try to restore water supply at about 7 p.m. when the assailants approached, Fozia said.

“There were noisy shouts calling us infidels,” she told Morning Star News. “They said, ‘We know you do not belong to us. We have got hold of you today – we have no mercy on you people. You need to return to where you came from.”

Asha said her brother sustained injuries to his hand and ribs from a blunt object, she said.

“The attackers injured me by hitting my head against the wall,” Asha told Morning Star News. “My two front teeth got broken, and the attack caused the left side of my body to swell,…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Vatican-owned hospital Bambino Gesú made history on Tuesday (July 7) when it announced it had successfully separated conjoined twins brought to Rome from the Central African Republic.

“Ervina and Prefina have been born twice,” said the teary-eyed mother, Ermine, during the press conference on Tuesday.

“If we had stayed in Africa I don’t know what destiny would have awaited them. Now that they are separate and well, I would like for them to be baptized by Pope Francis, who has always cared for the children of Bangui. My little ones can now grow up, study and become doctors to save other children,” she said.

The twins were born in the town of Mbaiki, in the Central African Republic, joined at the back of the head. In July 2018, Mariella Enoc, the president of the pediatric hospital Bambino Gesú, met the twins as infants while on a mission to the country and decided to bring the girls back to Rome.

“They had no chance at survival,” Enoc told local reporters, “even a cold could have been enough to kill them.

“When you encounter lives that can be saved, it must be done. We cannot and we must not turn our gaze away,” she said during the press conference.

Ervina and Prefina were brought to Rome with their mother on September 10, 2018, as part of the humanitarian efforts conducted by the hospital and sponsored by the Vatican. They were…

Police were called in after a clash on Sunday between Black Lives Matter protesters and churchgoers at a church in Troy, New York.

It’s unclear why protesters targeted Grace Baptist Church for demonstrations, but activists reportedly harassed church members.

According to the Washington Sentinel, videos shared to social media show protesters trying to block congregants from accessing the church. Many also shouted as the church members tried to take their children inside.

In one video, a female protester tells a black parishioner, “You should be ashamed, sister.”

attendees to
Grace Baptist Church
in TROY. NY had to be
escorted in and out of
church today as they were
berated by #BLM protestors:
take a hard look at this ——> pic.twitter.com/zWwpilWDy8

— Kevin McCashion 🇺🇸 (@Kevin_McCashion) June 29, 2020

In another, the Daily Wire reports, one of the protesters yells at a churchgoer, “f*** you.” The church member responds by saying “Jesus loves you,” but the protester replies by telling the man Jesus doesn’t love him.

“Stop hiding behind your godd*mn religion,” another protester shouted.

“This church is racist,” another said.

Grace Baptist, however, has said they will not be threatened. The church has asked male church members to help escort congregants inside when needed.

“We will never apologize to the mob,” a pastor with the church says in a…

(RNS) — Kanye West is running for president, and he believes God told him to do it.

That’s according to an interview West conducted with Forbes magazine this week, in which he discussed his newly announced bid to win the White House as an independent candidate.

It may be the first time the multiple Grammy-winning rapper has run for office, but it’s hardly his first foray into presidential politics. West made headlines in 2005 when he criticized then-President George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina by declaring that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people,” a moment Bush himself later categorized as a low point of his presidency. Although West performed at one of President Barack Obama’s inaugural balls, Obama was caught on a hot mic criticizing the performer and calling him a “jackass,” sparking low-grade tensions between the two. And more recently, West has garnered widespread attention for his persistent support of President Donald Trump.

West is also no stranger to matters of faith: In addition to releasing the religion-themed album “Jesus Is King” in October 2019, West staged several “Sunday Services” throughout the country last year that featured gospel hymns alongside rap music.

“I love Jesus Christ. I love Christianity,” West said last year.

But in his interview with Forbes, West — who said that he has never…

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro spent months downplaying the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as his country had one of the world’s worst outbreaks. Now, Bolsonaro has announced to the world that he has also been infected with the virus, the Associated Press reports.

Before displaying symptoms, he attended an Independence Day luncheon at the home of American Ambassador Todd Chapman. A photo posted to Twitter showed the President and some of his ministers sitting close to each other and not wearing masks. The U.S. Embassy announced that Ambassador Chapman and his wife have both tested negative. However, they will quarantine at home for the next two weeks.

President Bolsonaro told reporters that he started running a fever accompanied by muscle pain and fatigue, which led him to take a test on Monday. He told them he was feeling “very well” as he spoke to them outside the presidential residence in Brasilia. He attributed his recovery to taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

Despite his diagnosis, he remained steadfast in his conviction that the coronavirus does not pose a serious threat to healthy people. He has repeatedly appealed to his having been an athlete in his youth as a reason he did not feat the virus and said his contracting the virus is a result of his leadership style, which often has him amongst his fellow citizens.

According to the New York Times, he…

A popular new Netflix series available on children’s platforms includes a young transgender character and promotes the idea that gender can change.

The live-action original series, The Baby-Sitters Club, is rated TV-G and follows the story of five middle-school girls who launch a babysitting business. It is based on a collection of Scholastic books.

In episode 4, Mary Anne – one of the five sitters – is asked by a child’s mother to keep a little girl named Bailey. 

Mary Anne and Bailey hold a tea party in Bailey’s room, and when Bailey spills water on her pink dress, Mary Anne opens the little girl’s closet to get a change of clothes. But she only finds boys’ clothes.

“Those are my old clothes,” Bailey tells a surprised Mary Anne.

Mary Anne then tells the viewer: “That’s when I understood: Bailey was a little girl and her new clothes help people see it.”

The series, which was listed in Netflix’s 10-most popular titles Thursday, is available on children’s profiles. The transgender angle forms the core of episode 4. Bailey was played by actor Kai Shappley, a 9-year-old biological boy who identifies as a girl. 

Seconds after Mary Anne discovers Bailey is a biological boy, the episode switches scenes, and viewers see Mary Anne talking about the situation to her new friend, Dawn, whose father is gay. Dawn helps Mary Anne understand Bailey.

“It’s like this:…