For the first time, an upcoming Hallmark Channel movie will feature a same-sex wedding.

The new film, Wedding Every Weekend, debuts Aug. 15 on the Hallmark Channel and follows a couple, Nate and Brooke, who agree to tag together as “wedding buddies” to four weddings in order to avoid the singles tables and set-ups. Eventually, though, Nate and Brooke fall in love.

Although other plot details aren’t known, one of the weddings attended by Nate and Brooke involves a same-sex wedding with a lesbian couple. The trailer shows the two smiling women holding hands and facing the crowd, celebrating the day.

The LGBT-inclusive plot is in line with comments made this summer by George Zaralidis, the vice president of network program publicity at Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media Family Networks. Zaralidis told NBC News that “diversity and inclusion is a top priority for us and we look forward to making some exciting programming announcements in the coming months, including announcements about projects featuring LGBTQ storylines, characters, and actors.”

“We are committed to creating a Hallmark experience where everyone feels welcome,” Zaralidis said.

NBC News also reported on the new LGBT-inclusive film.

One Million Moms, an organization of Christian moms and social conservatives, said in a statement it is boycotting the Hallmark Channel.

“The once conservative…

Members of religious communities in China are being called on by officials to donate to coronavirus relief funds or else they cannot reopen following lockdowns over the coronavirus.

According to a report by Bitter Winter, a Three-Self church director from Heze, a prefecture-level city in the eastern province of Shandong, explained that state-run churches were urged to collect money for areas affected by COVID-19.

Additionally, officials from the local Religious Affairs Bureau threatened numerous church closures if its members failed to donate.

In February, Three-Self churches were told by officials in Zhangcun town to make donations ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 RMB (between $ 560 and $1,400). In the county of Xianju, members of Three-Self churches were ordered to donate 100 RMB (about $14) to Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Churchgoers in Zhejiang’s Hangzhou city were also forced to donate,” a Three-Self church director from the city said. “Some elderly congregation members live alone and have no sources of income, but are also forced to give money.”

It was reported by China’s official media that the Two Chinese Christian Councils of Shanghai Municipality donated $420,000 towards COVID-19 affected areas.

Buddhist temples were also subjected to forced donations to the state in order to reopen. Some of its members ended up selling food as…

A prominent socialist and former guerrilla member from Colombia gave offered an endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

According to Faithwire, CNN Español host Juan Carlos Lopez asked Gustavo Petro on Monday, “Did you endorse Joe Biden as a candidate for president of the United States?”

“Well,” Petro replied, “if I could vote, which I cannot, I’m not a citizen of the United States. But if I could vote in the United States, in the interest of my Latin-American people, I would vote for Biden, without a doubt.”

Petro formerly served as the mayor of Bogotá and had two failed presidential bids in 2010 and 2018.

American Enterprise Institute research fellow Ryan C. Berg told the Washington Free Beacon that Petro is “closely associated with the ’21st Century Socialism’ movement of Hugo Chávez and other leftist leaders in Latin America.”

Colombian-American activist Fabio Andrade did not take well to Petro’s endorsement of Biden as he found it “offensive.”

“We’re offended, it’s very simple. Knowing what we know about this terrorist, a person that has the blood of Colombians on his hands,” Andrade told the Free Beacon. “This endorsement is pathetic and very dangerous.”

Berg added that Petro’s endorsement would further add to “Trump’s rhetoric that Democrats are happy to be associated with socialists in foreign countries and thereby hurt…

A California county is asking a judge to hold a church and pastor in contempt of court after the congregation met in defiance of a court order during the pandemic. 

Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park, Calif., met indoors Sunday despite a temporary restraining order from Superior Court Judge Matthew P. Guasco that prohibits the congregation from gathering indoors through Aug. 31. Guasco, when he issued the order, said “there is no exercise of a right unless people are alive to exercise it.”

Ventura County on Tuesday asked Superior Court Judge Vincent O’Neill Jr. to hold the church and its pastor, Rob McCoy, in contempt of court. O’Neill set a hearing for Aug. 21 on the matter, according to the Ventura County Star. O’Neill replaced Guasco on the case.

The church is allowed to hold outdoor services, but McCoy said it’s not practical with a congregation of more than 1,000 members. 

“Where are we going to put 1,500 people?” he asked.

He also is afraid of meeting outside due to death threats. The county, he said, is violating the church’s guarantee of religious liberty under the First Amendment. 

The church could be fined, and McCoy or members jailed. 

“I wish it didn’t have to come to this,” McCoy said in a video last week. “But we will be violating the judge’s order. … We’re going to keep worshiping God. … Our community desperately needs this. It’s…

Most Americans oppose giving houses of worship religious exemptions from COVID-19 lockdown regulations, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center.

In findings released Friday, Pew found that 79% of respondents said religious institutions should be subject to the same social distancing guidelines as secular businesses and entities.

Respondents who identified as evangelical Protestant were more likely to support giving houses of worship more flexibility, nevertheless 62% of them also opposed exemptions.

Pew found a partisan divide, with 93% of Democrat and Democrat-leaning respondents opposing exemptions versus 65% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents agreeing.

Pew based its findings off a survey taken July 13-19 among 10,211 adults in the United States, with a margin of error for the full sample being plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

The survey also found that evangelical Protestants were less likely to believe that their churches should remain closed during the pandemic compared to other religious groups.

Eighteen percent of evangelical respondents said their churches should be closed, versus 27% of Catholics, 40% of mainline Protestants, and…

Most pastors believe church leaders who commit adultery should withdraw from the pulpit for some time, but only a small percentage believe extramarital affairs permanently disqualify pastors from the ministry. 

“Pastors’ Views on Moral Failure,” a new survey of U.S. Protestant pastors by Nashville-based LifeWay Research, finds that most pastors believe a fellow pastor who has committed adultery needs to take time away from the ministry. However, opinions vary when it comes to the duration of the sabbatical.  

The survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors found that around one in six pastors (16%) believe an offending pastor should stay gone for at least a year; 3% say for at least three months, and another 3% say at least six months.

Other pastors believe those who commit adultery should remove themselves from public ministry for a longer period of time: 10% say at least two years, 7% say at least five years, and 1% say at least 10 years.

Just 27% of pastors believe those who commit adultery should withdraw from public ministry permanently, and 2% of pastors believe a fellow pastor who has an affair does not need to take any time away. Three in 10 pastors (31%) say they aren’t sure…