A video showing Chinese Christians shouting for joy and even crying after receiving their first Bibles has sparked a range of emotions from believers in the United States.

International Christian Concern posted the video on its website and on social media this month as part of its new campaign to raise money for Bibles to be sent to countries where Christianity is either outlawed or severely restricted. 

“In the West, we often take the Bible for granted, but I recently saw a video … of underground Chinese seminary students receiving their first Bible,” wrote Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern. “When the boxes were opened, they all converged on the box to make sure they got their own copy. Each one then held their Bible, kissed it, and wept. They had finally received the book that gives life!”

The video is at least five years old and shows several dozen Christians in a building opening the box. International Christian Concern said none of the Christians are in danger because of its release.

On Facebook, Christians in the U.S. said the video is convicting.  

“If only we had the same zeal as these students,” Susan Elise Pearson wrote on International Christian Concern’s Facebook page. 

Added another person, Charity Meyer, “How beautiful. It made me realize how much I take reading and holding my Bible for granted and that my life is…

President Donald Trump declared Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights in a simple, but direct tweet Thursday.

“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” the president said in the tweet.

After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2019

According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted in kind, using the social media platform to announce that “at a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Thank you, President Trump!”

The president’s tweet came as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Israel, just weeks before Netanyahu’s contentious re-election bid. During his visit, Pompeo and Netanyahu took aim at Iranian aggression in the region.

“The Ayatollah has declared that the annihilation and destruction of Israel is his primary goal. With such threats a daily reality of Israeli life, we maintain our unparalleled commitment to…

Kentucky’s governor Matt Bevin signed two bills in recent weeks banning abortions on the basis of race, sex or a disability diagnoses and after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Motions for injunctions have already been filed against both of the bills – HB5 and SB9 respectively.

The National Review reports that the HB5 “reasons” bill – which Bevin signed into law on Tuesday – contains an “emergency clause” which would have allowed it to go into effect immediately after it was signed.

According to the Associated Press, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion on March 15 requesting a preliminary injunction or “temporary restraining order” against the bills, anticipating that Bevin would sign them once they reached his desk.

In the suit filed by the ACLU on behalf of EMW Women’s Surgical Center – Kentucky’s only abortion clinic – the group claims that the bills are “blatantly unconstitutional bans on abortion.”

The suit asserts that the “Plaintiffs will prevail on their claim that the Bans are unconstitutional under 46 years of Supreme Court precedent, beginning with Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), which unequivocally holds that the State may not ban abortion before the point of fetal viability, regardless of the woman’s reason for her decision.”

“The Bans will cause immediate irreparable harm…

An attorney filed a Title IX complaint last week on behalf of a 15-year-old female high school student who says her rights were violated when the school allowed a biological male to dress and undress in the girls’ locker room.

The girl is a student at Honesdale High School in Pennsylvania, within the Wayne Highlands School District.

“By permitting a male to enter girls’ locker rooms, restrooms, and other privacy areas, the Wayne Highlands School District deprived all female students of the constitutionally protected right of bodily privacy, created a harassing and hostile environment for girls, and discriminated against girls,” reads the complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Education.

Further, it says, by “forcing girls to undress in front of a male student,” the school district “created an environment where sexual harassment occurred and continues to occur daily.”

The district policy of allowing biological boys to dress in a locker room for girls is “in violation of the Wayne Highlands School District’s obligations under Title IX,” the complaint says. The policy permits transgender teens to use locker rooms and bathrooms that correspond with their preferred gender.

Attorney Andrea L. Shaw says in the complaint that the teen girl was “changing in the girls’ locker room before her gym class” on Sept. 17, 2018, when she “heard a…