Attacks by armed gunmen on motorcycles left 27 dead in attacks on three villages in central Mali last week. Many of the deceased were shot or burned alive, the New York Times reports.

The attacks took place over a 24-hour period last week as mainly Islamic Fulani herders killed the predominately Christian Dogon farmers In Bamako. In the first village, Tille, they killed seven people. Then they killed the other 20 civilians the next day in the villages of Bankass and Koro.

The attacks continue a pattern of violence and reprisals after jihadists linked with al-Qaeda siezed the northern 2/3 of the nation in 2012.  French forces pushed back the Islamic militants in 2013, but they have since regained the territory and pushed their influence into Niger and Burkina Faso.

The Mali army fell under heavy criticism for their inability to protect civilians as instances of violence have been on the rise during the last two years. One group that keeps statistics on political violence, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, reported a 90% increase in civilian fatalities in Mali in the first quarter of 2020. This came after Dogon gunmen allegedly killed over 150 civilians last March.

The Barnabas Fund also reported that over 100 men, women, and children died in an attack on a mainly Christian village in central Mali last June.

According to Al Jazeera, 125 peacekeepers with the United Nations mission in…

Contemporary Christian and pop singer Amy Grant underwent open-heart surgery to fix a rare heart condition on Wednesday.

After going in for a regular checkup, Grant discovered earlier this year she has had a heart condition called partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (PAPVR) all of her life, TODAY reports.

Then in February, she took to Twitter to share the news.

“Since February is heart health awareness month, I want to send out a shout out to my doctor, John Bright Cage,” Grant wrote on Twitter. “He suggested I have a checkup because of my Dad’s heart history.”

“As always, I am feeling great, but the battery of tests he put me through show that I have had a heart condition since birth,” she shared.

“The first good news is that I am completely asymptomatic. The second good news is that it’s fixable, so instead of concerts and camping trips this summer, I am going to take care of my heart.

“Are you taking care of yours?! Please do,” she added.

Since February is heart health awareness month, I want to send a shout out to my doctor, John Bright Cage.

He suggested I have a check up because of my Dad’s heart history… (look to image for full message from Amy)#HeartHealth #PAPVR #EveryHeartbeat pic.twitter.com/5bXt17qXQX

— Amy Grant (@amygrant) February 13, 2020

Grant went in for open-heart surgery on Wednesday, and according to a statement on her official Facebook page, the…

The president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee said George Floyd, who died after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck, was “murdered” and asserted that Jesus is “the only answer” to racial inequality in America.

“We have witnessed with our own eyes, in the streets of one of our major cities, a black man being murdered slowly and cruelly,” Ronnie Floyd said. Over the course of a long eight minutes, George Floyd cried out for help and mercy while a white police officer continued to place his knee over this black man’s neck as his face was forced onto the pavement.

“The end result: George Floyd died in a cruel, demeaning, and needless way,” Floyd wrote in an op-ed for Baptist Press Tuesday.

George Floyd lost consciousness and later died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled into the man’s neck. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

SBC president and CEO Floyd said he encourages Christians to “oppose racism.”

“Southern Baptists must not only be known to stand for the sanctity of human life, but we must also be known to stand for the dignity of all human life regardless of the color of skin.”

He also said politics wouldn’t be enough to eliminate racism.

“Jesus Christ is the only answer to this problem, and we must start with ourselves….

The American Bible Society on Tuesday launched a free Bible giveaway and said God’s Word was “more than a symbol” or a “prop in a noisy news cycle,” one day after President Trump walked to St. John’s Episcopal Church and held up a Bible.

The article on the ministry’s website doesn’t mention Trump or even St. John’s, but it uses language that many on social media interpreted to reference Trump’s church visit. It was posted one day after the controversy.

“In this time of pandemic fear and social isolation, in this time of racial injustice and senseless violence, in this time of economic uncertainty and generational pain, we should be careful not to use the Bible as a political symbol, one more prop in a noisy news cycle,” wrote Whitney T. Kuniholm, a member of the senior leadership team at the American Bible Society.

“Because, more than ever,” he wrote, “we need to hear what’s true. ‘Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!’ (Amos 5:24 NIV). ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me …’ Psalm 23:4 KJV). 

It’s not the first time the American Bible Society has given Bibles away during a news cycle. Last year, the American Bible Society gave away more than 10,000 free Bibles following the release of Kanye West’s faith-centric…

The Slavic Gospel Association has helped churches in the former Soviet Union provide some 750,000 meals to families impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Slavic Gospel Association, which serves over 6,350 churches in Asia and Eastern Europe, was able to raise thousands of dollars for the meals, according to The Christian Post.

“The churches recognize that while this pandemic is a very difficult situation where many people are suffering, it probably represents the greatest opportunity for the proclamation of the Gospel since the [Berlin] Wall came down,” SGA President Michael Johnson told the Christian Post. “The churches and the church workers are highly motivated to do what they can to minister to the people in those communities, both in word and deed.”

“These people are already doing the work,” Johnson added. “What we are trying to do is connect people here with the churches over there and help them to purchase resources locally so they can distribute food, medicine, and other items.” SGA President

Johnson said volunteers are feeding people who are in desperate need, including some who say they haven’t eaten in days.

“Those church workers have such compassion in their countries and they meet these people at their point of need,” Johnson said. “And many of these people are at the end of their ropes.

“They are really meeting those needs. Many…

Retired St. Louis police captain, David Dorn, was killed by violent looters on Tuesday while he tried to defend his friend’s pawn shop, according to the Christian Post.

Dorn regularly checked in on Lee’s Pawn Shop when alarms were set off. He was killed on a riotous night of looting in St. Louis following the death of George Floyd.

The Ethical Society of Police, a group representing black officers in St. Louis, confirmed his death: “One of the people murdered last night was a retired St. Louis City Captain. He was murdered by looters at a pawnshop. He was the type of brother that would’ve given his life to save them if he had to. Violence is not the answer, whether it’s a citizen or officer. RIP Captain!”

A poster, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was hung outside of the shop that read, “Y’all killed a black man because ‘they’ killed a black man??? Rest in peace.”

CBN News reported that the 77-year-old Dorn served his community for 38 years. He joined the police academy in 1969 and retired in October 2007. He was a joyful civil servant and mentored young people.

“A true public servant,” said former St Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch. “Protecting & serving all the way to the end. None of us who knew you are surprised you went out fighting at Lee’s Pawn this morning. God speed my friend.”

President Trump also voiced his…