After being fired for an Instagram post condemning homosexuality, Australian rugby player Israel Folau has reached a settlement with Rugby Australia.

Faithwire reported that he and Rugby Australia agreed on an undisclosed sum, but both parties released a joint statement to end the public, bitter lawsuit.

“While it was not Rugby Australia’s intention, Rugby Australia acknowledges and apologizes for any hurt or harm caused to the Folaus,” it said. “Similarly, Mr. Folau did not intend to hurt or harm the game of rugby and acknowledges and apologizes for any hurt or harm caused.

“Mr. Folau wants all Australians to know that he does not condone discrimination of any kind against any person on the grounds of their sexuality and that he shares Rugby Australia’s commitment to inclusiveness and diversity.”

As Christian Headlines previously reported, Folau’s lawsuit came after Rugby Australia terminated his four-year, four million dollar contract when an independent panel ruled his Instagram post breached his employment terms. The post warned “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolaters” to repent and turn to Jesus.

After the panel’s ruling, the rugby star fought back with a $10 million lawsuit—which later became $14 million—claiming discrimination for his beliefs.

The news sparked a wider discussion in Australia and…

As the 2020 election heats up, Democrat presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg released a commercial earlier this week invoking Matthew 25 to stir up potential voters in South Carolina, according to the Christian Post.

“In our White House, you won’t have to shake your head and ask yourself: whatever happened to ‘I was hungry and you fed me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me’?” Buttigieg said, referring to Matthew 25:35.

The only gay candidate continued to lay out his plans for unification in the country.

“We have to unify the American people. It doesn’t mean pretending that we are all the same,” he said. “It means unifying around issues from wage and family leave to gun violence and immigration.”

Buttigieg hopes that his administration would encourage “an American experience defined not by exclusion but by belonging.”

The $2 million ad started airing Tuesday to spark discussion in South Carolina voters who head to the polls on Feb. 29 for the state’s primary. According to CBS News, the southern state, where black voters dominate the Democratic primary electorate, is considered “a gateway to African-American voters.”

The millennial hopeful ranks fourth in South Carolina behind Vice President Joe Biden (35 percent), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (16.3 percent) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (12.8 percent). Though Buttigieg launched a compressive plan to fight racism called the Douglass…

Kyle Guy was a sharp-shooting All-American when he led Virginia to a national championship last year, and he’s carried that skill to the Sacramento Kings’ G-League team, where he is averaging 26 points per game.

Guy also is standing boldly for his faith.

Drafted by the Kings in the second round this year, Guy told NBC Sports he has several tattoos that carry biblical meaning.   

One tattoo, reading, “I am third,” refers to his priorities in life: “God, then family, then me,” he said.

Another tattoo, reading, “In such a way,” references 1 Corinthians 9:24: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

A third tattoo shows three crosses. A fourth tattoo includes a picture of a roaring lion, with a scene of a victorious David standing over Goliath.

“I’ve always felt like David in my basketball career,” he told NBC Sports. Sports Spectrum also reported on Guy’s faith-centric tattoos.

Guy — who married his high school sweetheart this year — also has a tattoo of a rocket on his ring finger. His wife has a moon tattoo; together, the tattoos mean, “I love you to the moon and back,” he said.

Many of his tattoos are hidden by his uniform.

Guy has played nine games for the Stockton Kings, the G-League affiliate of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. He scored a career-high 42 points on Saturday.

He…

In a 45-minute meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White party chairman Benny Gantz once again seem to have failed to unify the government.

According to the Times of Israel, at the time of this writing, the two have only eight days to form a new government. To form a new government one of the lawmakers needs to garner the support of at least 61 of the 120-member Knesset – Israel’s unicameral national legislature. 

If both parties fail to do so, Israel will be forced into another election. The next election would mark the third election in one year, a first in the nation’s history.

The Times of Israel reports that both Netanyahu and Gantz are blaming each other for the failure to form a government. 

Following the Tuesday meeting, Netanyahu’s Likud party released a statement noting that Gantz’s party is simply refusing to form a unity government.

“The prime minister offered to creatively anchor in law the [premiership] rotation. In the face of far-reaching concessions, Blue and White continues to refuse to form a unity government over the veto imposed by [Blue and White No. 2 Yair] Lapid,” the statement read.

“So Lapid is dragging us to elections in order to ensure that Netanyahu remains in power,” it added.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Likud said on Sunday that their party had agreed…

Former Major League Baseball player Manny Ramirez is best known as one of the stars of the 2004 Red Sox team that broke the “Curse of the Bambino” by winning the World Series and for his on and off-the-field antics which led to the phrase “Manny being Manny.” 

Now, Ramirez sees the damage he created through many of his selfish actions, has apologized to Boston fans, and revealed that he came to faith in Jesus and has enrolled in seminary to study the Bible.

Ramirez’s comments appeared in a Boston Globe article about his being honored by the Sports Museum in Boston at its annual “Tradition” event. Ramirez said he was sorry for selfishly forcing the Red Sox to trade him to the Dodgers just before the trade deadline in 2008. 

He also apologized for taking performance-enhancing drugs and for a 2008 incident in which he pushed 64-year-old traveling secretary Jack McCormick to the ground over an issue with tickets when the club played the Astros in Houston. (He told the Boston Globe that he apologized to McCormick for pushing him down soon after the conflict in 2008.)

In explaining his faith in the article, he said he “found God” and that “What I’m doing now, I preach. That’s what I do. Go into hospitals just to preach and teach the people the Bible.” He also explained that he enrolled in seminary “because I just wanted to learn. I’ve been doing that for five…

The CEO of the Hallmark Channel’s parent company says the network is “open” to movies about same-sex couples, although he did not say anything is in the works.  

Bill Abbott, the CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, told the Hollywood Reporter’s podcast, TV’s Top 5, that the Hallmark Channel has grown more diverse in recent years with African American leads and stories about Jewish couples. 

Lesley Goldberg of The Hollywood Reporter asked Abbott: “Have you talked about incorporating stories about same-sex couples at Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Is that something that’s on your radar as you look to maybe broaden out some of what your programming is?”

“We look at a variety of different things,” Abbott responded, “so we’re always looking for the best stories that we think will resonate in the best way. And so we’re open to really any type of movie of any type of relationship in any space.”

Goldberg, who is lesbian, asked Abbott if the Hallmark Channel’s goal was “more about attracting a big audience” or about “trying to be inclusive.” 

“I would love to have a Christmas movie with a same-sex couple on there,” she said, adding that her relatives watch the Hallmark Channel.

“My wife and I are not reflected on anything that you guys are doing,” Goldberg said. 

“In terms of broadening out the demographic,” Abbott said, “it’s something…