At least three members of the White House’s informal  board of evangelical advisers have distanced themselves from President Trump’s alleged reference to “shithole countries” during talks about immigration reform.

In the past, when Trump’s critics have pressed board members to repudiate language of the president that was widely deemed offensive, the advisers have demurred, arguing that it’s not their role to publicly chastise the president.

But this particular comment, allegedly made Thursday (Jan. 11) in response to lawmakers who asked about protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa, has seemingly left at least some of these advisers uncomfortable enough to counter with their own words on the topic.

And other board members, usually quick to jump to the president’s defense, have declined to answer questions about the remark, which caused a firestorm overnight — with many commentators describing it as racist.

That was not the take of the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a member of the unofficial evangelical advisory board and the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. But he noted that “every single person is created in the image of God” and spoke of welcoming people equally from Nigeria and Norway, albeit after “a rigorous vetting process.”

Later in the day, he said more: “In…

A conservative Christian actor has been banned from a Comicon convention due to his political leanings.

The Daily Caller reports that the founder and promoter of East Coast Comicon, Cliff Galbraith, announced that he will not be inviting actor Kevin Sorbo to the convention. Galbraith explained his reasoning for not inviting Sorbo:

“I turned down Kevin Sorbo for East Coast Comicon. He’s pals with Sean Hannity. I just can’t do it.”

Some who saw Galbraith’s post and also have liberal leanings urged him to also ban other actors such as Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, James Wood, Jon Voight, and Chuck Norris who are known to have conservative viewpoints.

Others, however, decried Galbraith’s decision. Sorbo himself previously acknowledged that there is a clear bias toward conservative Christians in Hollywood:

“There’s a negativity towards Christians in Hollywood. And a negativity towards people who believe in God,” he said in 2013.

Sorbo would have been a candidate for East Coast Comicon due to his role as Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and as the main character is the sci-fi series Andromeda.

Sorbo has also starred in faith films such as Soul Surfer and God’s Not Dead.

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Publication date: January 15, 2018

Religious groups are planning more than the annual holiday celebrations that note the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. today.

The holiday honoring the Baptist civil rights leader falls on his actual birthday — Jan. 15, 1929. But King also will be remembered in the spring, five decades after his April 4 assassination in Memphis, Tenn.

Here are a few ways faith groups and their partners are marking that date:

Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

The ERLC and The Gospel Coalition, two evangelical Christian groups, plan to co-host “MLK50: Gospel Reflections from the Mountaintop,” an April 3-4 discussion in Memphis on the state of racial unity in the church and the culture.

“The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., should remind us of what can happen when one speaks to the conscience of the culture and to the conscience of the church,” said Russell Moore, president of the ERLC, when he announced the plans in 2017.

“Fifty years after Dr. King’s assassination, it is shameful that the church often lags behind the culture around us when it comes to issues of racial justice, unity and reconciliation. We should be leading the way.”

Topics at the event will include viewing racial justice as a “gospel issue,” overcoming “the most segregated hour in America,” and discussing racial tensions around…