Vice President Mike Pence visited Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia on Wednesday and asked the students to pray for America.

While at an event to show support to Republican US Representative Scott Taylor, Pence called for unity among people despite political and social discrepancies.

According to CBN News, the Vice President started his speech by condemning the suspicious packages that were sent out to top Democratic leaders including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama this week. Pence said, “As the president said, acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”

He asserted, “We will get to the bottom of this. Those responsible will be brought to justice.”

The evangelical Vice President went on to remind the crowd about how important it is to pray for America and the nation’s leaders.

He said, “The sweetest thing the president and I ever hear is when people grab a hand and say, ‘I’m praying for you.’”

He then asked the crowd to do just that. Noting how divided the nation has become, Pence said, “I actually just encourage you, if you bow the head and bend the knee in the next 13 days, just pray for America.”

Photo courtesy: Getty Image/Ethan Miller/Staff

A film company and a charitable organization are under fire for an Australian television ad that depicts two Roman soldiers asking Jesus if he’d like to donate his organs. At the end of the ad, they pose for a selfie.

The television ad for the pro-organ donation Dying to Life initiative shows Jesus hanging on the cross, with two soldiers at his feet. 

“Have you thought about maybe becoming an organ donor?” one soldier asks.

“Is this really the best time to bring this up?” Jesus responds.

The other soldier answers, “Your organs could save the lives of up to six people.”

“Seven,” the first soldier says.

Jesus responds with a smile, “Obviously, I would do it. I’m Jesus.”

The soldiers ask him if he’s gone online and signed the organ donor registry. When it becomes obvious he has not done so, the soldiers raise a smartphone to his hand – nailed to the cross – so he can press a button and give permission. 

They then tell Jesus that his family also must agree to the organ donation. The soldiers present Mary and Joseph, who give approval.

The two-minute ad ends with the soldiers getting selfies with a smiling Jesus.

Ad director Richard Bullock said he chose Jesus as the subject for the ad because he “wanted to deliberately provoke a conversation in homes around the subject.” The creative agency Revolver made the…

NAIROBI, Kenya, October 25, 2018 (Morning Star News) – Pastor Umar Mulinde, a highly effective evangelist in Uganda who survived a horrific acid attack in 2011, said he recently escaped another attempted assault by Islamic extremists.

Following a one-week evangelistic event in Mubende, Pastor Mulinde on Sept. 25 was driving the 90 miles back to the Ugandan capital of Kampala when a band of men blocked a road. He told Morning Star News he managed to maneuver around them.

They followed him to his home in such a way that he did not detect them, he said, and broke in later that night.

“They entered my house dressed in Islamic attire,” he told Morning Star News. “Muslim extremists forcefully broke into my home in the middle of the night, but after realizing the danger, I sought God, and he gave me some wisdom to pray, which confused them, and they could not trace my whereabouts.”

He and other family members slipped out the back door, he said.

“We narrowly survived – I only lost a number of my personal household goods and office items such as laptops, iPads and phones, but precious life remained intact,” Pastor Mulinde said.

The former Islamic sheikh (teacher) and grandson of a well-known imam said he believes the intruders intended to kill him following the campaign in which hundreds of people put their faith in Christ.

“This second attempted murder defeats…

The Master’s University President, Pastor John MacArthur, announced in a statement on Monday that he will be transitioning out of his role as President of the California college, officially ending his tenure as the university’s head in May 2020.

In the statement released by the university, MacArthur voiced that “the time has come” for him to leave his role as president at TMU saying, “with the growth of the University and Seminary, demanding more leadership now and in the future, the time has come for me to transition to the position of Chancellor of the University and President of the Seminary.”

MacArthur will be staying on at TMU, only instead of being the university’ president he will be the Chancellor, MacArthur will, however, maintain his role as President of The Master’s Seminary.

The pastor Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, California, and host of a syndicated radio program, has been serving as the president of TMU since 1985, marking 2018 his 33^rdyear in the position.

MacArthur’s transition will take place over the next 18 months as the institution begins to look for a new president. 

“For 33 years, since 1985, I have had the rare and enriching privilege of serving The Master’s University and Seminary as president,” MacArthur said in a statement. “I originally signed up for five years, thinking I would be able — along with my pastoral…

Rebels in Ukraine’s Luhansk region are reportedly raiding Christian churches.

According to reports, the group, which controls Luhansk, has demanded that churches re-register as a religious organization, but the rebel group is denying approvals for those registrations.

Forum 18, a Norwegian human rights organization, says neither Baptist nor Seventh-day Adventist churches have been allowed to re-register.

There are also reports that Protestant churches have been raided in the past few months. In September, rebels raided a Baptist church in Brianka and the pastor of the church is facing possible punishment for allowing worship without registration.

In another instance, police officers shut down the morning worship service at Revival Baptist Church. Pastor Dmitry Sirbu is facing legal threats for allowing the worship gathering.

In August, armed men reportedly raided Grace Church of God Pentecostal Church in Alchevsk during the church’s worship. The group forced the church to lie on the floor while the men seized church computers.

Andrei Litsoev, head of the Religious Organizations and Spirituality Department of the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry in Luhansk, hasn’t commented on why the churches are being denied registration.

According to The Christian Post, Catholic churches in the area are waiting to hear on their own applications for registration.

Luhansk authorities say…

Four years after becoming the first major CEO to come out as gay, Apple’s Tim Cook says he has no regrets.

“I’m very proud of it – yes, absolutely. To me, it is God’s greatest gift to me,” Cook told CNN in a new interview. 

Cook further said he came out as gay to support children who are being bullied.  

“I am a private person,” Cook said, describing his struggle to make his sexuality public. He added he wanted to show children that “you can be gay and still go on and do some big jobs in life – that there’s a path there. That is the reason I did it.”

Asked his thoughts on the Trump administration’s debate over the definition of gender, Cook said, “My strong view is that everybody should be treated with dignity and respect, and that’s the way I look at everyone.”

Cook’s comments about God sparked a debate on social media.

“I love Tim Cook and Apple but that’s a stupid comment,” Holly Elizabeth wrote on CNN International’s Facebook page. “God didn’t make you gay. It was a personal choice.”

Another person, Marcia N. Smith, wrote, “I wonder which God is that because it isn’t the God of the Bible.”

Others, though, applauded Cook. 

“I for one am happy to hear he gives Glory to God for his happiness,” Marlon Wilson wrote.

Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog,