(RNS) — The number of Christian refugees coming to the United States from the countries where Christians are most persecuted has dropped dramatically under President Trump’s administration.

That comes despite the president’s pledge during his first week in office that helping persecuted Christians overseas would be a priority for his administration.

According to a new analysis by Matthew Soerens of World Relief, an evangelical Christian organization with a long history of resettling refugees, the number of Christian refugees admitted to the U.S. from countries noted for their persecution dropped nearly 79 percent between fiscal years 2016 and 2018.

A total 1,215 Christian refugees were welcomed from those countries in fiscal 2018, Trump’s first full year in office, which ended Sept. 30. That’s a drop from 5,731 in fiscal 2016, former President Obama’s last full year in office, which Soerens said was a “uniquely high time for refugee resettlement.”

“This dynamic with persecuted Christians and religious minorities, in particular, does not fit the campaign rhetoric, and it’s not consistent with the focus on international religious freedom that I think is an admirable goal,” Soerens said.

Soerens based his analysis on numbers from the U.S. State Department’s Refugee Processing Center and the 11 countries where Open Doors USA…

Despite biblical warnings against the practice of witchcraft, the Rev. Valerie Love, who describes herself as a practicing Christian witch and an ordained minister of spiritual consciousness, is insisting that there is nothing wrong with Christians being witches and has recently launched a school to help Christians tap into magic.

“Stop thinking you can tell people how to worship. Stop thinking you can tell people how to connect with the divine. I could tell you how many people have told me, ‘You can’t be a Christian witch’ but here I am. See, you can’t tell me how to worship. You cannot tell me how to connect with the divine. That’s between me and God. You cannot tell me how to pray,” a defiant Love declared in a recent rant on Facebook.

She explained that she was “born a witch” but was forced to stifle her identity as a Jehovah’s Witness from age 4 to 30 when she finally left the “cult.”

“Where do we get off believing that we can actually dictate to other people how they worship. … It’s not our lane,” Love said. “I was born a witch and I love it. I’m so thankful. People are afraid of the word…

Christians shouldn’t neglect having a “theology for sadness,” said Ohio-based Pastor Alistair Begg at The Gospel Coalition’s West Coast Conference.

Begg, the Scottish senior pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bible teacher on the “Truth for Life” program, gave a speech Thursday at the conference that was focused on 2^nd Timothy 4:1–8.

Beginning his speech with the statement that “there is nothing like the prospect of death to clarify the issues of life,” Begg explained that while writing 2^nd Timothy, the Apostle Paul was “identifying the fact that he is on his way out.”

“He refers to his passing as his departure, his analusis, a favorite word in Greek at the time for the unyoking of an oxen or for the drawing of an anchor or the taking down of a tent,” explained Begg.

“He realizes that the baton of faith needs to be passed on to another generation. His gaze is on his young lieutenant, Timothy. And he is able to let him know, surely for his great encouragement, that God has sustained…

A U.S. student who was prohibited from entering Israel has been allowed to stay in the country, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

According to Reuters, Lara Alqasem will be allowed into Israel, reversing the Israeli officials’ decision to deny her from entering the country under its law against foreign activists who support boycotts of the state.

The court ruled that the decision to bar Alqasem represented “a radical and dangerous step that could lead to the crumbling of the foundations upon which Israel’s democracy is built.”      

Alqasem had flown to Israel on a study visa on Oct. 2. Officials said she could not enter the country because of her previous role as the president of a local University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

“This is a 22-year-old who definitely cannot be in support of an academic boycott,” Alqasem’s attorney Leora Bechor said before the decision. “She wants to study here.”

Alqasem appealed her denial and the Supreme Court took the case. She had planned to enroll at an Israeli university. 

Alqasem has not released a statement on the court’s ruling, except telling reporters she was “relieved” at the decision.

It’s unclear if Israel will try to appeal the ruling.

“We will examine the legal criteria in order to ensure that the original intent of the law is…