Christian author Christine Caine and her publisher HarperCollins Christian Publishing (HCCP)/Zondervan have reached a settlement with her colleague Carey Scott, who accused Caine of copyright infringement. 

Caine, a Christian author and founder of anti-human trafficking organization The A21 Campaign, was accused of copyright infringement in May after Scott received a promotional video from Caine’s team for her new book Unashamed. While watching the video Scott realized that the first thirty-seconds of the video sounded like a part of her book Untangled. 

Scott told Publishers Weekly, “About two weeks before Caine’s book Unashamed was set to launch, I received a promotional email that contained a two-minute book trailer video. Some of the wording at the beginning of the video sounded very familiar, and after some digging I discovered that the first 30 seconds of her personal narration on the promo video came directly from a paragraph on page 55 of my book.” 

“There are several examples of direct copying and substantial similarities,” she added.

Scott filed the suit against Caine in early May 2018 citing copyright infringement issues between her book Untangled and Caine’s book, Unashamed (Zondervan, May 2016), which according to the publisher has sold over 150,000 copies to date.

According to court documents, Scott was made…

In observance of World Mental Health Day, Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay, shared practical advice for parents raising a child with mental illness.

In a Facebook live video, the Warrens, who in 2013 lost their 27-year-old son, Matthew, to suicide, addressed the question: “How do you as parents balance supporting a child with mental illness and at the same support your other children?”

While admitting they often handled the situation “poorly,” the Warrens explained the importance of employing “situational leadership” when it comes to parenting.

“Certain people, you draw the best out of them one way, and certain others you draw the best out of them in another way, and every one of your children of course are totally different,” Rick Warren said.

“It is a myth that you will give equal amounts of time to each of your children and to your spouse,” he continued. “You don’t want to treat your kids equally; you want to treat each kid uniquely because what works with one child doesn’t work with another. If you treat them all the same way, you’re really not a good parent.”

Oftentimes, children who suffer from a mental…

Captain Icoze Mafella, a Christian airline pilot, told a Jakarta church that he was moved by the Holy Spirit to depart from the Palu airport early on September 28, the day Indonesia was struck by an earthquake and tsunami. 

Mafella recalled feeling uneasy that day, so he decided to sing worship songs in the cockpit to calm his nerves. He said, “Usually I only hummed, but that day I wanted to praise the Lord as best I could.”

He recalled that his Muslim co-pilot joked with him saying, “I think you should make a CD of worship songs.”

As the pilots began to descend their incoming flight from Ujung Pandang to Palu they noticed that the wind was abnormally strong. This was when Mafella said he “heard a voice in his heart” telling him to circle one more time before landing the plane.

Mafella recalled that he needed to be extra careful with the landing amid the heavy wind and he decided to recite Psalm 23 for encouragement. 

Mafella and his co-pilot safely landed the plane, but Mafella still felt uneasy. He said he felt God told him that he needed to be speedy while on the ground, even encouraging him to take off earlier than scheduled. The pilot asked the crew to make their break short before the plane took off for Jakarta. 

“I didn’t even leave the cockpit and requested permission from the control tower to depart three minutes ahead of…

A Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation based in Arkansas has clarified that a message they put on their marquee sign about a stolen air conditioning unit that went viral online was just a joke.

First Presbyterian Church of Benton recently posted a message on their sign that read “Whoever stole our AC units, keep one, because it is hot where you’re going.”

A local photographed the sign and posted it to Facebook on Tuesday, with the image getting more than 1,500 shares on the social media site by Thursday.

“Meanwhile in downtown Benton,” the local stated, with the photo also getting as of Thursday morning dozens of comments, over 130 likes, and more than 100 laughs.

The church has since distanced themselves from the sign’s message, taking down the text in response to criticism and explaining in…

A federal judge in Wisconsin has ruled that Wisconsin’s Group Insurance Board and the University of Wisconsin system must provide coverage for operations related to “sex change[s]” for state workers.

Judge William Conley wrote in the decision that refusing to cover hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery for transgender employees is unconstitutional and discrimination.

The ruling comes after two male University of Wisconsin employees decided to identify as female. One of the employees, Shannon Andrews, who works as a cancer research assistant paid for the 2015 operation out of pocket after the Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation denied coverage. 

The second employee, Alina Boyden, a teaching assistant, could not afford surgery because of also being denied coverage.

They both filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming of violation of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination in employment.

“As a result of [state policies], plaintiffs’ health insurance plans single out transgender employees for unequal treatment by categorically depriving them of all medical care for gender dysphoria, a serious medical condition codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and International Classification of Diseases,” the…

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Democrats cannot afford to be civil towards Republicans until they are back in power. The former Secretary of State made the comments in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

Amanpour asked Clinton about the calls for civility to return to our political process. She responded that she would “love to see us return to civility,” but that it is not possible with “the Republican Party that exists today.”

Clinton listed a litany of offenses that she believes the GOP has committed which make civility difficult. She referred to their treatment of Merrick Garland, replying “I think they did” when asked if the GOP “stole a Supreme Court justice from the Democratic Party.” She claimed that “Republican operatives” shut down voting early in Florida in 2000, referred to the “swift-boating” of John Kerry in 2004, stated that the GOP mistreated John McCain in 2000, and referenced the way Republicans have treated her “for 25 years.”

Clinton told Amanpour that civility cannot return until the Democrats have more political power. She said, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for,” adding, “If we are fortunate enough to win back the house and/or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.” She claimed this is true because “the only thing the…