(RNS) — Lieryn Barnett sometimes is so depressed, all she wants to do is sleep, she said. 

Other times, she’s so full of energy, she’ll be up in the middle of the night, singing or playing guitar. Or her mind will race at the same time her body won’t have the energy to do anything. 

All are symptoms of the bipolar disorder Barnett was diagnosed with when she was an adolescent.

Medication and therapy have helped her deal with the condition, the 29-year-old said.

So has her faith. 

“Christ gives your life value, purpose, hope and eternal security. Without that hope I probably would not be here today,” said Barnett, a member of Two Cities Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., who has written about her experiences with bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety.

A new study by the Christian research firm Barna Group suggests that Barnett may not be alone in her anxiety — or in finding that faith can be an asset when dealing with mental health concerns.

“The church and institutions of faith need to be emotionally connected and places that are able to handle the kinds of emotional, mental health, anxiety-oriented questions that this generation is bringing to them,” Barna President David Kinnaman said. 

The study, released Tuesday (Sept. 10), is the research firm’s largest and its first global look at what it calls “the connected…

Jarrid Wilson’s wife says she will continue telling others about the hope found in Christ in light of his suicide.

Wilson, an associate pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in California and an author and speaker, committed suicide Monday night. He and his wife, Juli, co-founded Anthem of Hope, a non-profit that assists people suffering from depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. He was a mental health advocate and spoke out about his battles with depression. 

Juli posted tributes to him on Instagram, including a video of him playing with one of their sons Monday night, about four hours before he killed himself. He left behind two young children.

“I have to say that you being gone has completely ripped my heart out of my chest,” she wrote. “You loved me and our boys relentlessly and I am forever grateful that I had YOU as a husband and a father to our boys. You are my forever and I will continue to let other people know of the hope in Jesus you found and spoke so boldly about.”

But suicide, she wrote. “doesn’t get the last word.”

“I won’t let it,” she wrote. “You always said ‘Hope Gets the last word. Jesus gets the last word’. Your life’s work has led thousands to the feet of Jesus and your boldness to tell other[s] about your struggle with anxiety and depression has helped so many other people feel…

Jerry Falwell, Jr. is facing searing accusations of corruption, manipulation, and deceit, but he’s fighting back with an FBI investigation.

A recent Politico exposé called out the Liberty University president for questionable business deals and even “racy personal photographs,” cleaned up by Michael Cohen, a controversial attorney for Donald Trump.

Former and current board members and employees of the university offered evidence against Falwell, yet none of them agreed to be named in the article. One source even purchased a burner phone to ensure prying ears would not listen.

Among the accusations are allegations of nepotism with his son Trey, who owns a company hired by Liberty University to manage the school’s newly acquired shopping center, as well as awarding university contracts to businesses owned by friends.

The unnamed sources in the article were “reluctant to speak out…but said they see it as necessary to save Liberty University and the values it once stood for.”

The sources, who all signed confidentiality agreements with the University upon employment, claim to live in fear.

“It’s a dictatorship,” one high-level employee claimed. “Nobody craps at the university without Jerry’s approval.”

Another board member commented, “There’s no accountability. Jerry’s got pretty free reign to wheel and deal professionally and personally….

Earlier this week, House Democrats voted to block the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, designed to provide medical care for babies who survived an abortion and are born alive.

The act, sponsored by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), would also create penalties and jail time for health care practitioners who did not provide medical care after an attempted, botched abortion. Mothers could also file civil lawsuits against health care practitioners who violated the act, according to FactCheck.org.

The act was introduced to the Senate by Sasse earlier this year after Virginia governor Ralph Northam claimed that infanticide still occurs when some abortion survivor babies are denied medical care after birth, according to the National Review.

But many Democrats voted against the act because similar protections are already in place.

“I voted against proceeding to Senator Sasse’s bill because the title, content, and stated motivation for the legislation are extremely misleading,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said in a statement following the vote. “Infanticide is already illegal in every state. Congress reaffirmed that fact with its passage of the bipartisan Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in 2002. I support that law, which is still in effect. There is no need for additional federal legislation on this topic.”

Many doctors also believe that the bill…

Each year, when September rolls around, the nation remembers with grief and emotion the tragedy that happened on September 11, 2001. To date, new stories continue to come to the surface about individuals’ experiences on that dreadful day. Ask just about anyone who was alive about the attack, and they will be able to tell you where they were and what they were doing. 

For Shelly Genovese Calhoun, she remembers the day like it was yesterday.

Calhoun was preparing to go into the city and live out her dream of being a model. She and her husband at the time, Steve, were living a dream life. 

The two were living outside of Manhattan and enjoying being parents to their 16-month-old baby girl. Calhoun remembers this season with joy and fondness. 

Like many Americans, Shelly and Steve went about their day as if it were just another ordinary day. In an interview with Christian Headlines, Calhoun specifically noted that “It was a normal morning.” 

That morning Steve headed off to his job. He worked as a trade investor for Cantor/Fitzgerald which was situated in the World Trade Center.

Remembering that day, Calhoun recalled that her mother – who was visiting from Dallas – came into the room where she was sitting and told her that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center. 

“At first, I thought that he was okay, Steve had survived the…

Five San Antonio citizens are suing the city over its controversial decision to block a Chick-fil-A at the local airport, claiming the move violates a new state law.

The suit by the citizens and the San Antonio Family Association was filed last week and accuses the city of discrimination against Chick-fil-A for its owners’ Christian beliefs. It also asks the court to block the city from allowing any other vendor except Chick-fil-A from opening in the space across Gate A6 at the airport. 

San Antonio’s city council voted in March to exclude Chick-fil-A from the airport, in part due to the company’s donations to the Salvation Army and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Council members claimed the restaurant has a history of “anti-LGBT discrimination.”

Chick-fil-A is the third largest restaurant in the United States by sales. 

“According to our city council,” said city and plaintiff Michael Knuffke, “strongly held Christian principles mean you can’t conduct business in our city’s airport. Perhaps soon they will decide those who adopt traditional values should not be allowed to conduct business in our city at all. We need to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

The lawsuit cites a new state law, commonly called the “Save Chick-fil-A” law, that prevents a governmental entity from taking “any adverse action against any person based…

In two tiny Texas towns, abortion is now illegal.

The cities of Omaha and Naples, both with populations hovering around 1,000 people, joined the ranks as the second and third cities in the Lone Star State to pass ordinances making it a criminal offense to abort babies at any stage in pregnancy.

“Because of the Omaha/Naples Ordinance, no abortion clinic will ever be able to move into these cities in the great State of Texas,” Mark Lee Dickson, Director of Right to Life of East Texas, said, according to Faithwire. “Everyone voted in favor of the ordinance with the exception of one.”

The ordinance is the strictest possible law, not granting any exceptions in the case of rape or incest. Emergency contraception, such as Plan B, are also illegal. The cities are calling themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn.”

Waskom, Texas, became the first sanctuary city for the unborn earlier this year.

Dickson started his pro-life campaign after becoming frustrated with Austin elected officials not passing any “meaningful legislation that protects unborn life.”

“This is why we had to take things into our own hands and take it to the grassroots level,” Dickson told Fox News. “Due to the recent pro-life legislation in Louisiana being so strong and due to the risk of an abortion clinic one day moving to Waskom, Texas, we decided to do something to…