A devastating fire raged through Paris’ beloved Notre Dame Cathedral Monday afternoon, destroying hundreds of years of history, but miraculously sparing the crown of thorns believed to have been placed on Jesus’ head and a cross at the altar.

According to ABC 6 Action News, the fire – which took 12 hours to extinguish – wreaked havoc on the 850-year-old church but spared the religious relics.

Jarring photos of the standing cross illuminated by firefighters began to surface Monday evening, many calling it a “sign of hope.” According to the Associated Press, firefighters worked together to form a human chain around the relic in order to prevent it from being consumed by the massive fire. 

This picture of the cross still standing amid the ruins of Notre Dame is quite the picture of hope. pic.twitter.com/lON2eyDPda

— Kyle Beshears (@kylebeshears) April 15, 2019

Paris’ mayor, Ann Hidalgo also noted that the crown of thorns believed to have been worn by Jesus during the crucifixion was saved. 

Hidalgo wrote on Twitter in French, “As early as last night we immediately made the Salle Saint-Jean available at the Hôtel de Ville so that the works could be protected, such as the crown of thorns and the tunic of Saint-Louis.”

Dès hier soir nous avons mis à disposition immédiatement la salle Saint Jean à l’Hôtel de Ville pour…

Students opposed to a biological boy using the girls’ restroom staged a walkout at a Nebraska high school last week, chanting “we want privacy” and “he is a male.” 

The students at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Neb., gathered on a sidewalk outside the school, while students supportive of the individual’s right to use the whichever restroom they pleased climbed an adjacent hill. 

The protest April 11 was peaceful, and students were not suspended. The walkout was sparked by a female student who believes her privacy is being violated by the transgender student using the girls’ restroom, WOWT reported. Most students protesting the policy were female students impacted by the situation. 

“We felt very uncomfortable with a male who’s not doing anything to be transgender going into the female restrooms,” student Elana Owens told WOWT. 

Another student, Brandi Scherlund, said, “I believe if you have the male parts you go to the males’ bathroom and if you have the female parts you go to a ladies’ room and that’s just the way I was raised.”

The protest lasted about 15 minutes, according to the Omaha World-Herald. 

Students who want the transgender girl out of the girls’ restroom chanted, “One over all is not fair” and “We want privacy. He is a male.” The other group of…

An Australian rugby star who makes more than $1 million per year is set to be fired in the coming days for posting a Bible verse about homosexuality on social media and urging his follows to “turn to Jesus.” 

Rugby Australia said April 14 that Israel Folau was in breach of the players’ code of conduct and had 48 hours to accept the sanction or have the matter referred to a Code of Conduct hearing. The incident warranted “termination of his employment contract,” the statement said. The meeting could occur next week. 

Speaking after church Sunday, Folau said he would not apologize for the Bible-centric social media posts on Instagram and Twitter and would be content walking away from rugby. 

Folau signed a contract in 2015 that paid him nearly $1.5 million U.S. per year. He signed an undisclosed new deal last year, and made at least one list as the highest-paid rugby player in the world. 

He plays for the Wallabies Australian national rugby team and the New South Wales Waratahs in the Super Rugby League.

“First and foremost, I live for God now,” Folau told The Sydney Morning Herald Sunday. “Whatever He wants me to do, I believe His plans for me are better than whatever I can think. If that’s not to continue on playing, so be it.

“In saying that, obviously I love playing footy and if it goes down that path I’ll definitely miss…

A massive fire on Monday left the Notre Dame Cathedral smoke damaged, chard and without a roof, but the French are committed to rebuilding the Gothic masterpiece.

According to Forbes Magazine, French President Emmanuel Macron was heartened by the overwhelming response from the French people including several French billionaires who have pledged a collective amount of $680 million to help rebuild Notre Dame.

According to ABC News, French billionaire Bernard Arnault and his luxury goods company LVMH Group pledged to donate 200 million euros to rebuild the church known as the “heart of Paris.” The Arnault family also offered “the design and architectural resources” for the restoration of the church, Forbes Magazine reports. 

Another French billionaire named François-Henri Pinault – the chairman of Kering, which Forbes notes is the Parent company for designer fashion brand Gucci – offered 100 million euros to the effort.  

Another affluent French family, the Bettencourt Meyers family announced that they would be donating $226 million to the rebuilding of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Forbes reports that the Bettencourt Meyers Family owns one-third of the cosmetics and hair care company L’Oréal.

Other people and organizations who have stepped up to help rebuild the famous Cathedral include French charity Fondation du…

Bible scholars trying to retrace the route Moses took when he led the Israelites out of Egypt say they have found evidence that Mount Sinai is actually in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Ryan Mauro, of the Doubting Thomas Research Foundation (DTRF), told Daily Star Online that his team traveled to Saudi Arabia three times to gather evidence. 

“What I found there was simply mind-blowing,” Mauro said. “I couldn’t believe that there was all this evidence for the Exodus and hardly anyone outside this region was aware of it.”

Although they are still piecing together a map and timeline, the researcher believes his theory is the most “plausible” route. It starts with the Israelites leaving Egypt through Cairo and crossing into the Sinai Peninsula.

Mauro said there is evidence that Moses split the sea at the Gulf of Aqaba, at a spot now known as Nuweiba beach. There, the crossing would be just eight miles wide and 33 meters (108 feet) deep. He believes they crossed into ancient Midian and stopped at Mount Sinai, which he claims is the peak of Jabal al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia. It was at Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on stone tablets.

“I’m fully convinced that the Israelites went into the ancient land of Midian when they fled slavery in Egypt,” he told the British newspaper.

The theory that Jabal al-Lawz is the biblical Mount Sinai is…

A Christian business owner in Pennsylvania is being criticized for his policy on marriage and use of his wedding venue.

According to the site PennLive, an openly gay man posted about the Star Barn’s policy on Facebook, calling the policy discrimination.

“Discrimination is discrimination,” Steven Dinnocenti, who first posted about the policy, told PennLive. “When you get the door slammed in your face, it’s offensive. It’s wrong. You are saying our money is not as good as the next person’s.”

Star Barn’s owner, David Abel, told reporters that his faith is important to him. He said he is not discriminating.

“No persons will be discriminated against; however, we ask people to respect that we have core tenants in our faith and our beliefs and we cannot participate in any event that would be in contradiction to those core tenants – one of them being marriage, which has been biblically based for thousands of years as being between a man and a woman,” he said.

The news about the wedding venue in Pennsylvania is the latest case involving religious freedom and LGBTQ rights.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of bakery owner Jack Phillips, who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. The court also ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was “hostile” to Phillips.

Then, earlier this year,…

As a massive fire was ripping through the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, a significantly smaller fire stared in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

According to Newsweek, a small fire broke out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – famously known as the home of the Temple Mount – on Monday evening in the Marwani Prayer Room, also known as Solomon’s Stables.

Video footage of the fire posted to social media shows clouds of smoke ascending from the roof of the prayer room. According to reports, the fire at the Al-Aqsa Mosque broke out around the same time as the massive fire at Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral.

طواقم الإطفاء تخمد حريقاً اندلع على سطح المصلى المرواني في المسجد الأقصى. pic.twitter.com/CVx8X7nx4N

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) April 15, 2019

Reportedly, a guard told the Palestinian National Authority news outlet that the “fire broke out in the guard’s room outside the roof of the Marwani Prayer Room, and the fire brigade of the Islamic Waqf handled the matter successfully.”

According to the Daily Mail, the room where the fire occurred is under the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount – the third holiest site in Christianity. 

No injuries or damage have been reported at this time and there has been no…