Legislators in at least five states have introduced bills in recent weeks that would require athletes in high school and lower grades to compete on teams that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate. 

The bills in Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, New Hampshire and Washington are intended to prevent what has happened in Connecticut, where two biological boys who identify as girls have won multiple girls’ state championship track titles. 

Tennessee state Rep. Bruce Griffey introduced the bill in his state.

“There’s no ill will intended toward anyone regarding this legislation,” Griffey, a Republican, told WTVF. “What it’s simply trying to do is, I think science and experience and just society – we all know that traditionally males generally have bigger hearts, bigger upper body strength, and that can give them a genetic advantage when competing against women in a number of sports.”

Georgia state Rep. Philip Singleton, a Republican, said his bill would prevent biological males from having an “unfair advantage” if they choose to compete as females. His bill would not impact team sports such as football and basketball.

“The Student Athlete Protection Act is designed to ensure that biological boys will only compete in sports against other biological boys and vice-versa for girls,” Singleton told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The intent of…

A complaint has been lodged with the University of Southern Maine after a defaced Bible was used as part of an art display.

Riley Harris was the USM student behind the installation, which featured a Bible with torn pages and Satanic images splashed across the face of Christ.

It was a Christian man, Charlie Flynn, who said he couldn’t help but be disturbed by the display after being informed about it by his young daughter – she had noticed the bizarre piece on show outside a classroom after the family had attended a church gathering at the Wishcamper Center.

The Casco Bay Church of Christ is one of several religious groups that rent various spaces on USM campus grounds.

“This is someone’s sacred text being desecrated, destroyed and displayed in a public place,” Flynn said, according to Central Maine. “I couldn’t help but feel no one’s sacred text should be treated that way… I think it’s very inappropriate and repugnant.”

Harris defended his piece, titled “Unholy Bible: Very Revised Standard Edition,” insisting that it was part of an art assignment that challenged students to “repurpose a book into something new.”

“I was thinking a lot about questioning authority in general,” Harris explained. “People question different types of authority, but for some reason, religious authority seems too taboo to question, so I thought I would give…

JOS, Nigeria, January 7, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A leader of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) pleaded for help on a video released on Sunday (Jan. 5) after Islamic extremists with Boko Haram kidnapped him last week.

The Rev. Lawan Andimi was abducted by terrorists of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP, known as Boko Haram before affiliating with the Islamic State) on Thursday (Jan. 2) in attacks on Michika County and a nearby area in northeast Nigeria’s Adamawa state, sources said.

Pastor Andimi, area EYN district chairman and chairman of the local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, pleads with church leaders to ask Adamawa Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri to intervene for his release in the video.

“I have never been discouraged, because all conditions that one finds himself is in the hands of God – God who made them to take care of me and to leave [me with] my life,” Pastor Andimi says. “I am appealing to my colleagues, reverends, particularly my president, Rev. Joel Billy, who is a strong man, a man of compassion and man of love. He can do all his best to speak to our governor, Umaru Jibrilla [Fintiri] and other necessary agents for my release here.”

Pastor Andimi says he has been treated well with food and a comfortable place to sleep.

“I believe that He who made them to act in such a way is still alive and will make all arrangements,” he…

As promised, Iran fired back at the United States Wednesday, striking two Iraqi military bases that house American soldiers.

According to the Associated Press, Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at the military bases. No casualties have been reported.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the strike was in response to a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The General was popular with some Iranians but widely regarded as a terrorist on the international stage.

“Last night they received a slap,” Khamenei said in a speech after the missile strikes. “These military actions are not sufficient (for revenge). What is important is that the corrupt presence of America in this region comes to an end.”

Iran’s foreign minster also tweeted that Tehran had taken and “concluded proportionate measures in self-defense,” and said Tehran did “not seek escalation.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard also released a statement about the missile attack: “We are warning all American allies, who gave their bases to its terrorist army, that any territory that is the starting point of aggressive acts against Iran will be targeted.”

Trump, however, said there were no casualties in the attack on the U.S. troop housing.

“All is well!” President Donald Trump tweeted after the missile attacks, adding, “So far, so good.”

Iraqi Prime…

A South Carolina man in hospice care was granted his final wish last month when he was baptized in a 60-gallon hospital tub to shouts of “hallelujah” and “amen.” 

Jenis James Grindstaff, a cancer patient who has few days left on Earth, was in at-home hospice care last year when he grew a desire to be baptized before he died.  

“I’ve always loved Jesus,” he told KMBC-TV.

Grindstaff, though, did not want to be sprinkled. He wanted to be immersed.

Due to his medical issues, he couldn’t be lowered into a traditional baptismal and he couldn’t be baptized in a traditional tub, either, because he wouldn’t be able to get back up, WHNS-TV reported. Thus, a local hospital and chaplain came up with an alternative plan: baptize Grindstaff in a specially designed 60-gallon hospital tub that would permit him to walk in and sit down before it is filled.   

“The rest of his family – his brothers or sisters – have been baptized,” said his son, Craig. “And for some reason or another, he just never got around to getting it done.”

Said another son, Jim, “He’s always read the Bible, but he had never been baptized. He wanted to show he believed more than anything else.”

Grindstaff was an air traffic controller for 25 years and also served in the military. 

He was transported to Spartanburg Regional Hospice, where, in December, chaplain Terrell Jones baptized Grindstaff in…

More than 200 members of Congress have signed a legal brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, arguing it set up an unworkable and “haphazard” standard for lower courts.

The brief was signed by 207 Senators and Representatives, including a dozen female members. Most who signed the brief are Republicans, although two (Reps. Daniel Lipinski of Illinois and Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota) are Democrats.

The Jan. 2 brief asks the Supreme Court to uphold a 2014 Louisiana law that requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. The court will hear oral arguments March 2. 

The Fifth Circuit upheld the law in a 2-1 decision. 

“The Fifth Circuit labored to do the best it could with the vague and opaque ‘undue burden’ standard on which the Court has relied since Casey,” the brief says, referencing a 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that declared abortion restrictions unconstitutional if they placed an “undue burden” on a woman.

“[The members of Congress] respectfully suggest that the court’s struggle – similar to dozens of other courts’ herculean struggles in this area – illustrates the unworkability of the ‘right to abortion’ found in Roe and the need for the Court to take up the issue of whether Roe and Casey should be…

Over the Christmas holiday, an Atlanta megachurch donated nearly $500,000 to five charities benefitting women and children.

“I pray that you also don’t miss the lesson that the real meaning of Christmas is that it is more blessed to give than to receive,” said Bishop Van Moody of the Worship Center Christian Church to his congregation, according to the Christian Post.

The five organizations joined Moody on the stage with $95,000 checks during the Christmas Eve service. The organizations that benefitted are The Children’s Village, a group home for siblings; the Lovelady Center, a prison reentry and drug rehabilitation program; Maranatha Academy, a private school for at-risk kids; Einstein’s Playground, an early childhood summer program; and the United Negro College Fund.

“It brings me great joy to know that The Worship Center Christian Church is blessing them with a combined financial gift of almost $500,000 to help them start or complete projects that will enhance the lives of those they serve,” Moody continued.

The church planned on giving the gifts at the end of the year and started to set aside 10 percent of tithes, donations, and offerings made to the church in March. Moody and his staff have worked with each of these organizations for years, and he considered it an honor to partner with them in the new year.

Moody has long advocated for prison reform, meeting with…

Questions about unwanted sexual dreams have flowed into John Piper’s inbox for years. Listeners who struggle with these illicit dreams often wake up feeling guilty or confused.

“These dreams bother me intensely even after I wake up because I can’t help but feel that I have sinned, and even worse, I feel as if I had no control over it as with most of my dreams,” said one reader.

The Christian Post summarized a recent episode of Piper’s podcast “Ask Pastor John” where he addressed the topic, citing four biblical reasons why God might use those dreams: as false messages, a test, to reveal desires, and a warning.

“There is such a thing as false dreams,” he said. “There are false meanings. Dreams come, and they deliver false messages to us.

“My first exhortation is, say to the Lord and to the dream and to the devil, ‘That was a false dream. It does not mean I am unfaithful. I mean to be faithful to my wife. I am not unfaithful to her. Those dreams are a lie.’”

He used Zechariah 10:2 to cite this reason, which states, “For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore, the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.”

Dreams also act as a test. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 reads, “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a…