Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren has praised as a “watershed moment” the release of a new pastoral letter by Catholic bishops who are calling on the wider community to care for those who are mentally ill and help end the stigma around them.

Warren told Crux in an interview this week that the “Hope and Healing” letter can serve as a “new standard for mental health ministries around the world.”

The letter comes after years of collaboration between Warren and Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, California, on the issue of mental health. The two began working closely together after Warren’s son, Matthew, committed suicide in 2013 following a lifelong struggle with mental illness.

The letter, posted in full earlier this week on the California Catholic Conference website, says that America’s pastors and bishops are “deeply concerned with the heartbreaking prevalence of mental illness in our society and are taking action to address this tragic form of misery and sorrow.” 

It warns that mental health “strikes deep within the human soul, impacting and influencing a person’s thoughts, emotions and behaviors; thereby affecting all…

A member of The Gospel Coalition’s Council has released an open letter, giving an apology to noted evangelical Bible teacher Beth Moore over the sexism she has experienced in some church leadership environments.

On Thursday, Moore, the founder of Living Proof Ministries, penned an open letter, titled “A Letter to My Brothers,” describing her experiences of misogyny within certain conservative evangelical circles.

Thabiti Anyabwile, a Reformed pastor at Anacostia River Church of Washington, D.C., and a Gospel Coalition Council member, responded later that day asking for forgiveness, explaining that he “read it with a broken heart.”

“I am broken-hearted because I recognize something of the attitude in me, and I recognize that I have had that attitude in years past toward Beth, though I didn’t know her and hadn’t spent any time reading her materials,” wrote Anyabwile. “Dear Beth, if you read this, I need to confess and ask your forgiveness.”

Anyabwile explained that while he did not know Moore personally, nor could he recall ever mistreating her, he felt he had wronged her by inactivity.

“I have let others…

The ABC family sitcom Last Man Standing, which starred Tim Allen as a man who is outnumbered by his wife and three daughters, may be coming back to television.

The series was cancelled last May despite positive viewer ratings for unspecified reasons. Controversy followed the show’s cancellation, with many viewers and critics questioning whether the show may have been cancelled due to Allen’s conservative political views.

Allen remarked months after the show’s cancellation: “There is nothing more dangerous, especially in this climate, than a funny, likable conservative character.”

Allen has also commented on how conservatives are often treated in Hollywood:

“What I find odd in Hollywood is that they didn’t like Trump because he was a bully. But if you had any kind of inkling that you were for Trump, you got bullied for doing that. And it gets a little bit hypocritical to me.”

The show is set to be resurrected by Fox for the 2018-19 TV season, according to TVLine.com.

Allen is reportedly already on board and the network is now in the process of signing other cast members from the original series.

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Publication date: May 4, 2018

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has erupted, spewing hot lava and rock into a residential area and forcing evacuations.

CNN reports that the volcano is located on Hawaii’s Big Island. The eruption occurred Thursday afternoon and particularly affected Leilani Estates, a community comprised of about 1,700 people.

Residents in the area have posted videos of rock and lava spewing into the air from the active volcano.

Drone video from above the lava outbreak in Leilani Estates on Hawaii Island shows roads, homes near the path of destruction. MORE: https://t.co/ji6WuCmylO pic.twitter.com/q41ZyD8hix

— Hawaii News Now (@HawaiiNewsNow) May 4, 2018

The Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations have opened shelters and are providing help to those under evacuation orders.

The volcanic eruption follows a series of earthquakes which shook the eastern side of the Big Island. Residents had been warned that Kilauea might become active following these quakes.

One resident of Leilani Estates said that he knew when he bought a home near a volcano that there was a danger of it becoming active one day, “But I had no idea the reality of [it],” he told Hawaii News Now. “It’s sinking in now, for sure.”

According to Fox News, officials said they are unsure how long the eruption could last, but are warning residents to take precautions and follow all…

A pastor at a Virginia megachurch expressed disagreement with Pope Francis for the way the pontiff handled a question from a crying boy who asked him whether his atheist father is in Heaven.

The exchange between Francis and the young boy, Emanuele, took place in April at the Vatican when the pope was meeting with parishioners of St. Paul of the Cross before celebrating Mass.

The crying boy whispered a question to Francis, who then repeated it before the audience: “A short time ago, my dad died. He was an atheist, but he had all four of his children baptized. He was a good man. Is Dad in heaven?”

Francis said as part of his answer that it is a “beautiful” thing for a son to call his father “good.”

The Roman Catholic Church leader then praised the unnamed father for baptizing his childen even though he himself wasn’t a believer, and added: “God is the one who decides who goes to Heaven. But how does God’s heart react to a Dad like that? How? What do you think? … A dad’s heart! God has the heart of a father.

“And faced with a dad, a nonbeliever, who was able to have his children baptized and to give them that courage, do you think that God would be…