Officials at a Louisiana high school Friday painted over a business logo because it contained a cross symbol and the word “Christ” in a move that “baffled” the business owner. 

Billy Weatherall, the owner of Christ Fit Gym, said he paid $3,500 for his business logo to be painted in the end zone at Benton High School. The end zone logo displayed a cross, the name of the business, and “1 Timothy 4:8.”

But hours prior to the Friday night football game, the logo was covered with paint. Weatherall won a temporary injunction preventing the logo from being painted over, but not before it already was covered. 

Weatherall sued the Benton Football Booster Club.

“It’s a battle over the mind of a child,” his attorney, Ryan Gatti, told KSLA-TV. Students were ordered to paint over the logo, Gatti said. 

“Just let that sink in. They were told to spray paint over the name of Christ,” Gatti said.

Weatherall said he’s been asked to withdraw the lawsuit but is refusing to do so.

“It’s a slow fade,” he told KSLA. “And I promise you, if I don’t stand up for this right now, it ain’t stopping with the logo on the field. They’ll be coming for ads next. They’ll be coming for what’s in the programs. It’s just not gonna stop right here, I promise you it will not stop with this.

“But what we need to do, we need to take a stand and just…

A United Nations official reports that more than 30,000 people have left their homes in the wake of the latest round of air and ground attacks by the Syrian government. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime began the assault to recover Idlib and surrounding areas in northwest Syria, the only areas that remain under rebel control.

David Swanson, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA,) said that 30,543 people had been displaced across Idlib since the rocket and mortar attacks, backed by Syrian allies Iran and Russia, began. Syria resumed their campaign against the rebel-held areas after the presidents of Turkey, Iran, and Russia could not come to an agreement on a ceasefire.

OCHA estimates that 2.9 million people live in the areas held by rebel forces. Half of those who live there have already been displaced from other regions in Syria. Officials on the ground are preparing for more people to leave their homes if the attacks continue. OCHA coordinator Mark Lowcock told a press conference in Geneva that an escalation in the attacks could cause “the worst humanitarian catastrophe with the biggest loss of life in the 21^stcentury.” He said, “We are very actively preparing for the possibility that civilians move in huge numbers in multiple directions.” 

While Moscow and Tehran have backed Assad’s government, Turkey sided with the rebels. They…

This weekend at Pirates Cove beach in California, author and megachurch Pastor Greg Laurie led the mass baptism of 550 people. 

According to The Christian Post, Laurie and pastors from his church, Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, were joined by pastors from nine other Southern California churches to baptize new believers on Saturday morning.

“Back over 40 years ago during the Jesus Movement, we used to do baptisms down at Pirates Cove beach. In fact, that is where I was baptized and my wife, Cathe, was baptized there as well,” Laurie told The Christian Post. “It is a significant place, historically, for the Church because that was sort of the epicenter of the Jesus Revolution, as reported on by Time magazine and others. It was a phenomenon.”

The baptism started at 10 a.m. and went on until noon.

This mass baptism comes weeks after Laurie’s 29th annual, Southern California Harvest Crusade, where nearly 10,000 people dedicated their lives to Christ, and just days after Laurie’s new book, Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today, was released. The book was co-authored by New York Times best-selling author Ellen Vaughn.

“Something that occurred to me as we were baptizing all those people is that if you want to see a revival, do revival-like things,” Laurie explained. “This is what we used to do [in my generation]. We did big,…

Influential megachurch pastor Bishop T. D. Jakes believes many pastors are focused more on preaching than they are on bringing people to Jesus.

“This is something that I think we’ve kind of gotten away from. We have gotten more into preaching than winning souls,” he told fellow Texas pastor Ed Young of Fellowship Church as they fished. 

Jakes, who founded The Potter’s House in Dallas, noted that the act of witnessing often took place off stage.

“It used to be the preachers themselves witnessed in the grocery store anywhere, didn’t need a mic, didn’t need a crowd,” he said.

“What’s important about that is people will do what you do and if you’re not a soul winner, you can teach what you know but you reproduce what you are.”

His comments come as Young launched a new sermon series featuring professional wrestlers. On Sunday, the pastor interviewed Sting, a retired wrestler, on a stage complete with lights and a wrestling ring. Young told The Christian Post earlier that he wanted to do a series on wrestling for years now given how often it appears in the Bible. 

During their fishing trip, Jakes called Young “one of the most creative preachers” he has ever seen. Young has…

Today marks the 17^th anniversary since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the wake of the anniversary of the tragedy that took the lives of almost 3,000 people, Christian leaders across the nation took to social media in remembrance. 

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence posted a series of six tweets in remembrance of the attacks. In the first tweet, the Vice President wrote, “17 years ago the world changed forever. Today we remember the victims, their families, & brave first responders. We will never forget 9-11.”

17 years ago the world changed forever. Today we remember the victims, their families, & brave first responders. We will never forget 9-11. pic.twitter.com/HQ8Wk2Jdne

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) September 11, 2018

Pence went on to say, “For the families of the fallen, the cherished final moments with your loved ones no doubt seem like just yesterday. Your Nation understands while we all suffered loss that day, we know you bear a special burden. The American people stand with you & we always will. #NeverForget”

For the families of the fallen, the cherished final moments with your loved ones no doubt seem like just yesterday. Your Nation understands while we all suffered loss that day, we know you bear a special burden. The American people stand with you & we always will. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/vLt0J5S9Ap

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) September 11,…

The Rev. Chip Andrus, the Presbyterian Church USA clergyman known among other things for his musical contributions to General Assembly meetings, has died following a lengthy battle with cancer.

South Salem Presbyterian Church in New York, where Andrus served as pastor since 2011, announced his death on their Facebook page on Sunday.

“A devoted Presbyterian scholar, he made our church a welcoming center of the community for those of all faiths,” the church said.

A professional musician originally from Arkansas, Andrus has had several songs released over the years and has performed nationwide and internationally.

A statement from the PCUSA’s Office of the General Assembly released Monday noted that some in the denomination knew him as the “Willie Nelson of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”

“In the early 2000s, Andrus…

A reluctant panel from the U.S. 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ordered a 34-foot tall, World War II-era memorial cross removed from a public park, saying it is bound by precedent. 

The current cross at Bayview Park in Pensacola, Fla., was erected in 1969, replacing a wooden cross that had been put up in 1941. The crosses have been used as sites for Veteran’s and Memorial Day events, and during World War II the site was used as a place to pray for “the divine guidance of our nation’s leaders” and for faith to “see through the present dark days of war,” according to the court’s ruling.

The judges said they want to allow the cross to remain standing, but cannot due to a binding court case from 1983 that had similar facts. 

“Our hands are tied,” the opinion read. 

 One of the judges – Kevin Newsom — even urged the full 11^thCircuit to hear the case to “correct the errors” of the earlier precedent. The lawsuit was brought by the American Humanist Foundation, an atheist organization. 

Newsom was nominated by President Trump. The other two judges, Frank M. Hull and C. Ashley Royal, were nominated by Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, respectively.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is representing the city in its fight to keep the cross. 

“The Constitution doesn’t require the government to scrub every religious symbol from the…

Evangelist Anne Graham Lotz has said she’s putting her trust in God following her breast cancer diagnosis, even if she might not find out His plan in this life.

Lotz spoke with WRAL News on Monday, days after announcing that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and emphasized the importance of being prepared in Jesus Christ.

“Prayers are pouring in from all over the world. I know I will be healed before the surgery, or because of the surgery, or because of the surgery and follow-up treatment, or the Resurrection,” she said. “I know that God is going to see me through.”

Lotz positioned that “healing is up to God. The doctors and the surgeons can cut away, but it is God that heals.”

She insisted that she trusts God, even though He has a “plan or purpose that I can’t see yet, and maybe I won’t see in this life.”

Lotz, daughter of…