Public school officials in one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities are being accused of violating the separation of church and state.

The controversy has been simmering in this once-tiny cotton-farming community, about 30 miles north of Dallas, since last summer when Rick McDaniel, superintendent of the McKinney Independent School District, prayed at a pulpit adorned with a Christian cross — during a mandatory school employee meeting at a church.

Last month, under pressure from concerned parents, the 24,500-student school district decided to end a decade-plus practice of conducting high school commencement ceremonies at the same church, Prestonwood Baptist, a Southern Baptist megachurch in nearby Plano.

The change outraged Prestonwood Pastor Jack Graham, one of President Trump’s evangelical advisers and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“It appears religious freedom is under attack at the McKinney Public Schools,” Graham said in a Twitter post. “It was our refusal to remove the cross from view that created this cowardly decision.”

In a follow-up post, Graham added, “Just wondering on what planet a church,synagogue, or mosque would be expected to cover its religious symbols to host a public school graduation.”

And in another tweet, the pastor alleged that school administrators had “yielded to the pressure of atheist groups and…

Arizona teachers can now post “God enriches” in their classrooms after the state Senate passed a bill 17-13 allowing them to do so.

The Christian Post reports that the state legislature passed Senate Bill 1289 along party lines. It now goes to the House for approval.

Arizona teachers already have the freedom to read founding documents which make mention of God, as well as to post and read the national motto “In God We Trust,” but Bill 1289, which was sponsored by Republican Sen. Gail Griffin, would add the phrase “Ditat Deus” to that list. This phrase is the Arizona state motto and means “God enriches.”

The bill’s detractors claim that it is part of an “ideological push” to “chip away at secular government,” but the bill’s supporters believe exactly the opposite. Griffin stated that allowing teachers to post the state motto in English would “be a good history lesson for students to learn where this came from.”

The state of Florida also recently passed a bill which would mandate that all public school classrooms display the national motto “In God We Trust.” This bill passed the state’s House of Representatives and now goes on to the Senate for approval.

Unlike the Arizona bill, the Florida bill had bipartisan support.

“[God is] not a Republican and he’s not a Democrat,” the bill’s sponsor, Democrat Rep. Kimberly Daniels,…

Jerushah Armfield, a granddaughter of Billy Graham’s, who died last week, has accused evangelicals of making God in their own “ivory image,” and losing the moral and spiritual authority in the United States.

“They see that all you’re really interested in doing is making a God in your own ivory image and demanding that the world bow down to it,” Armfield, who has criticized evangelicals on a number of occasions in the past, posted on Twitter Monday, reiterating comments made by Pastor John Pavlovitz of North Raleigh Community Church Downtown in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

“You’ve lost any moral high ground or spiritual authority with a generation. You’ve lost the plot,” she added.

Armfield’s statement echoes an article about evangelicals that she linked to by Pavlovitz — who advocates for same-sex marriage, transgender issues and is opposed to state bathroom bills barring men who identify as female from entering women’s bathrooms — on his website in January.

In it, Pavlovitz challenges believers for supporting President Donald Trump despite the many accusations of moral failings surrounding him, such as adultery.

Pavlovitz argues that the reason people…

Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California, one the largest megachurches in America, has praised Billy Graham’s inclusive ministry and said that it has inspired him to preach before various groups of people, despite controversy.

“Billy’s message was simple and clear, and it never varied: No matter who you are or what you’ve done God has never stopped loving you and he has a good plan and purpose for your life. Because none of us are perfect, we all need a Savior to in order to have our sins forgiven, understand our purpose for living, and gain a home in heaven,” Warren wrote in a Facebook post last week dedicated to all the things he learned from Graham, who died at the age of 99 at his home in North Carolina.

“That’s why God sent Jesus to die for our sins. God’s offer of forgiveness and freedom is available to anyone who humbly repents and accepts the grace of God through Jesus, regardless of your ethnic or religious background,” he added.

Warren chronicled his long history of interactions with Graham, starting from first hearing him speak at the age of 17; to Graham’s support and encouragement of his writing; to Graham’s advice for him when delivering presidential…