A day after the Franklin Graham-led Samaritan’s Purse revealed they were stepping back from work on a second field hospital to be housed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Mount Sinai Hospital, which was leading the effort, informed the cathedral Thursday that they will no longer be using the church’s space.

“We were notified this morning that Mount Sinai will not be pursuing its plans to build a field hospital at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at this moment. Our commitment to Mount Sinai and to the city, our longtime partners, stands firm, and we will do whatever is in our power to aid the medical workers heroically putting themselves on the front line to help the sick,” a statement from the cathedral to The Christian Post said Thursday.

“As we continue to stand ready to support all in this crisis, we reaffirm our core mission and staunch belief in the worth and dignity of all people, and open our virtual doors to all those who want to participate in Holy Week services,” the church added.

The decision comes as Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that New York state was continuing to see a slowdown in the rate of hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions as social distancing efforts being taken to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus continued to work. Thursday saw the state’s lowest hospitalization rate yet with a 200-patient net increase in hospitalizations and 64-patient net increase in ICU admissions.

The state, however, also saw its highest number of deaths in a single day. A total of 799 people died of complications from the coronavirus in 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 7,067. More than 149,000 infections have been confirmed in the state and nearly half of those are in New York City.

In an interview with CP on Wednesday, Melissa Strickland, Samaritan’s Purse’s senior director of communications, said they would be pausing work on the field hospital as they were not sure if it would be needed.

“At this point we have taken a pause on the work as we assess whether this is a needed site or not,” Strickland said. “We are looking at very large tents that we would be putting up and so that would be a lot of manpower and a lot of work if we have to take it back down. And so we’ve taken a pause at this point in doing that. And that’s not for any reason except that we’re wanting to make sure this is even a needed expansion before we move forward.”

Prior to this development, there had been concerns about possible tensions in the proposed partnership between Mount Sinai and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine stemming from Samaritan’s Purse being introduced as a partner on the project.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, which is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The Episcopal Church, which has about 1.6 million members nationwide, is an LGBT inclusive denomination. Samaritan’s Purse is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization whose staff adhere to biblically based Christian beliefs and values.

SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair

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Last week, together with my Orthodox Jewish colleague Jonathan Feldstein, I addressed the vile claims of evangelical newscaster Rick Wiles, namely, that COVID-19 was a divine judgment against Jews who do not believe in Jesus. But that’s not the only group Wiles singled out. He also claims that the virus was sent as a divine plague on the LGBT community. I kid you not.

Pointing to the virus-related death of attorney Richard E. Weber, Wiles said, “He was a senior lawyer for the LGBT Bar Association of New York. The lawyers who sue churches, the lawyers who sue ministries … one of their senior lawyers for the gay rights movement died today in New York City of the coronavirus. There is a judgment, I’m telling you, a plague is underway.”

I wonder if Wiles would point to the fact that the first COVID-19 fatality in Miami was a gay man who apparently was infected at a dance party on the beach. Would this “prove” his theory about the coronavirus being a divine judgment on gays?

But what would Wiles say about pastors, elders and bishops who have died of the virus? Or infants who have died? Was this divine judgment on them?

The first coronavirus casualty in Oklahoma was a Pentecostal pastor, presumably a man who viewed homosexual practice as sinful and certainly a believer in Jesus. Why, then, did he die?

The first fatality in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a Baptist pastor “described as a ‘big teddy bear’ with a passion for Jesus.” Did God send a plague on him?

A pastor who attended John MacArthur’s recent leadership conference in California has apparently died of the virus. Yet he, too, presumably opposed LGBT activism and was obviously a believer in Jesus.

SOURCE: Charisma News

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NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is ramping up its courtship of Catholic voters ahead of a likely November matchup against a Catholic Democrat, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The campaign previewed its message at a Thursday night launch of a “Catholics for Trump” coalition, touting the president’s religious freedom record and anti-abortion policies. In a sign of how significantly the coronavirus has upended the presidential race, the event also featured Trump backers promoting his response to the pandemic — with one describing it as aligned with Catholic teaching about solidarity.

Ahead of a general election where Catholics could prove to be vital swing voters, particularly in the Midwest, the coalition launch indicates that Trump doesn’t plan to limit his faith-based outreach to evangelicals, who have long been a key part of his base. But Biden, who’s frequently invoked his faith on the Democratic primary trail, could bring a unique advantage with Catholic voters to this fall’s contest.

At the heart of the competition for Catholic votes in November is the question of how many in the faith view abortion as the primary driver of their political engagement. Pope Francis has urged Trump to adopt an immigration stance consistent with his “pro-life” identity, and progressive Catholics have decried Trump’s approach to issues from health care to climate change as inconsistent with their church’s teachings.

Trump’s campaign, however, billed his embrace of anti-abortion policies prominently in its materials on its Catholic outreach kickoff. The event featured the Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, a staunch anti-abortion advocate who displayed an aborted fetus in a 2016 online video that discussed his support for Trump.

Pavone said in an interview that while Trump is “trying to protect the right to life,” the president is acting on other issues in ways “completely consistent with Catholic teaching.”

“He’s protecting our people by strengthening borders, not to stop immigration but to stop crime, to protect families, to protect neighborhoods,” Pavone said.

Also joining the Thursday kickoff were Mercedes Schlapp, a senior communications adviser to the campaign, and husband Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a co-chair of the new Catholic outreach effort.

Mercedes Schlapp, a former White House communications adviser, described Biden as “an extremist” on abortion during the event. Republicans saw an opening to peel off Biden’s Catholic support last year when the former vice president, who often talks about his Catholic school upbringing, ended his decades-long support for limiting federal funding of abortion.

The campaign is poised to get outside help in its work to turn out churchgoing Catholic voters from the nonprofit CatholicVote.org, which is investing in mobilizing that bloc with a pro-Trump message.

The group’s senior political adviser, former Kansas GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp, is also a member of the Trump campaign’s Catholic outreach project. Huelskamp accused Biden of failing to live out his faith, while “you’ve got a non-Catholic in Donald Trump who’s delivering on Catholic social teaching and principles.”

Source: Religion News Service

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They live secluded lives in a stone abbey near a privately owned forest in a rural part of eastern Iowa.

But the Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey are not closed off from the world’s troubles.

Last week, in response to the coronavirus, the 22 monks living in the abbey, about 13 miles from Dubuque, decided to offer pine caskets to financially strapped families with members who have died from Covid-19.

So far they have not advertised beyond the Trappist Caskets website, and the orders have just begun to trickle in.

On Thursday (April 2), a family that lost five members to the virus asked for caskets. On Friday, five more requests came in.

The monks decided early on to close their guest house and church so as not to contribute to the spread of the disease.

But they wanted to do more. The men, who range in age from their late 30s to early 90s, had been offering free child caskets for years. Now they decided to offer adult pine caskets as well. (Shipping costs are not included.)

“Our traditional mode of showing hospitality has come to a halt,” said Abbot Mark Scott. “By offering these caskets to people in need, it’s another way to extend traditional monastic hospitality.”

The near-national shutdown has taken an especially tough toll on minorities and people with low incomes. More than 6.6 million people filed for unemployment from March 22 to 28, according to the Department of Labor.

With deaths mounting — more than 6,000 have died in the U.S. alone, and experts expect thousands more — the need is only expected to grow.

Source: Religion News Service

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Wrestling star Hulk Hogan says God is using the coronavirus pandemic to tear down the idols people have created in their lives.

According to FaithWire, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, is asking people to use their free time to strengthen their relationship with Jesus.

“God has taken away everything we worship,” he wrote on his Instagram page. “God said, ‘you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can’t go to church.’”

Hogan’s post included a photo of him praying against a wall.

“Maybe we don’t need a vaccine,” he said. “Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus.”

Hogan also included 2 Chronicles 7:14 in his post, which says, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.”

Source: Christian Headlines

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JOS, Nigeria, April 8, 2020 (Morning Star News) – People displaced by Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacks in Kaduna state, Nigeria that killed 60 Christians in March are in dire need of relief aid, a community leader said.

“We have a chronicle of the humongous losses suffered by these law-abiding Christians in the hands of herdsmen trying to forcefully eject them and occupy their lands while the government watches on,” Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), said in a statement. “These wanton cruelties on these native Christian communities have been ongoing without let-up since Jan. 6 with great casualties in human lives and material loses.”

Binniyat said the attacks have forced women, children and the elderly to run into the wilderness to escape rampaging herdsmen, adding to the thousands displaced by previous violence.

“Kugosi and Kajari communities have been deserted, with scores of Christian villagers wandering in the bush with no food or water,” he said. “We therefore, call on all well-meaning individuals, groups and corporate entities to come to the aid of these displaced persons. They are in dire need of food, medical attention and temporary shelter.”

Binniyat said the killings occurred in Chikun and Jema’a counties.

At least 25 Christians were killed in March 31 herdsmen attacks on three communities, while 11 others were killed in another village, he said. Among the slain were six Christians in Guruku village; three Chrisitans in Kuduru village – Hassana Bala, Jamilu Hassan and Halima Bala – and Haliru Nawela and Kure Dogonyaro were also injured during the attack, according to Binniyat.

The herdsmen attacked Jagindi village on March 30, killing two Christians, Musa Barde and his brother Danlami Barde, he said. On March 26, herdsmen killed three Christians in Kuduru village.

“This is aside from three others killed in Kugosi and Kajari villages,” he said.

Source: Christian Headlines

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Most Rev. Joseph D’Souza is a Christian theologian, author and human and civil rights activist. He is the founder of Dignity Freedom Network, an organization that advocates for and delivers humanitarian aid to the marginalized and outcastes of South Asia. He is Archbishop of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India and serves as the president of the All India Christian Council.

As I observe Holy Week along with billions of other believers, I have been pondering not only on how Jesus’s death and resurrection restored our relationship to God the Father, but also how they made him the conqueror of all suffering and death.

Many of us came to faith in Jesus because we were moved and convicted by the gospel story as told through the innocent Son of God dying on the cross in our place for our sins. This atonement aspect of the gospel captures the sheer scope of God’s grace, sacrificial love and mercy.

Yet I fear that sometimes when we consider the image of Christ on the cross we look at him as a passive scapegoat instead of a warrior who went to do war with sin, suffering and death willingly and joyfully.

In John 10:18, Jesus himself said, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (NIV)

Hebrews 12:2 likewise says, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It may seem like a theological technicality, but there’s a world of a difference between Jesus being carted away passively to the cross than he facing it head on. In fact, everything about Jesus’ journey to the cross was active, from him “becoming obedient to death” (Phil 2:8) to him “scorning its shame.” Jesus’ victory on the cross was neither accidental nor incidental — it was deliberate and intentional.

In light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we are living through, the message of Jesus as a servant who willfully confronted death and suffering is all the more relevant to us. We can learn from his example as we minister to those who are suffering in these two ways:

We need to ask God for faith and courage to face the weeks and months ahead.

The last thing Jesus did before his arrest, trial and eventual execution was pray. His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane dripped with passion and brutal honesty: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

We can also pray a similar prayer as we prepare for what the COVID-19 will bring in the days and weeks ahead. Already there have been over 1.4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 80,000 deaths worldwide. Tragically, those numbers will continue to rise while doctors, nurses, researchers and government officials work around the clock to care for sick patients and to stymie the progression of the virus.

Jesus’ prayer was both an act of submission and obedience. In praying “Your will be done,” he was resolving to follow the Father’s plan, all the way to the cross. While Jesus was fulfilling a unique, unrepeatable mission given to him, our current path — whether we want it or not — also leads us to confront evil, suffering and death. And like Jesus, we have the choice whether we will do so with faith, believing we can trust that God will be with us as we minister to those who are suffering.

Source: Christian Headlines

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