A magnitude 5.9 earthquake rocked Iran early Friday morning leaving at least six people dead and more than 300 injured.

According to U.S. and World Report News, some 250 miles northwest of the nation’s capital of Tehran, the seismic activity began at 2:17 am. 

Reportedly, as residents in Eastern Azerbaijan began to feel the ground below them shaking, many ran in fear. There were over 40 aftershocks felt rural Alborz Mountains region.

According to the Associated Press, so far, six people have been killed as a result of the quake, and around 312 have reported being injured. Iranian state television reports that many of the injuries were not, however, directly caused by the earthquake, but by the rush of frantic people attempting to flee to safety. Of the 312 injured, so far, only 13 had injuries substantial enough to be transported to a hospital.

Additionally, 30 homes were completely destroyed by the quake.

On average, Iran experiences one earthquake per day as it is located on “major seismic faults” the AP reports. In 2017 Iran experienced a significant earthquake that left more than 600 people dead and 9,000 injured. That earthquake was a magnitude 7. In 2003, the Middle Eastern country experienced a devastating quake that killed 26,000 people. The magnitude 6.6 earthquake leveled the city of Bam. Even worse, in 1990, the country was struck…

The National Abortion Federation just named an Episcopal priest as its new head.

In a press release from the NAF last week, it was announced that the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale has been named the pro-abortion organization’s new President and CEO.

Ragsdale was first appointed as the Interim President and CEO of the NAF in September of 2018 and after just over a year in that role, the organization decided to make her a permanent fixture.

According to the press release, Ragsdale – who is openly gay and married to a fellow Episcopal priest named Mally Lloyd – “has been outspoken about abortion rights, LGBTQ equality, and public policy issues affecting women and families throughout her career. She has testified before the U.S. Congress as well as numerous state legislatures about the importance of abortion access and was a featured speaker at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC.”

Before becoming the organization’s head, Ragsdale spent 17 years on the national board of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice where she preached that abortion was a “blessing.”

“It has been a great privilege to lead this organization for the last year and work alongside the incredible and dedicated NAF Board, staff, and membership,” Ragsdale said, according to the press release. “Abortion providers are some of my personal…

(RNS) — There are seven more months before the next annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

But the race for SBC president may already be over, following news that R. Albert Mohler Jr. will likely be nominated to run as the denomination’s next president.

H.B. Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, a predominantly African American congregation, announced last week that he planned to nominate Mohler. 

“We need the zeal to mobilize our resources to spread the gospel,” Charles said in making his announcement on Twitter. “We must do so together. I believe @albertmohler is the man to lead us forward in that unity.”

Mohler, the president of the denomination’s flagship seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, is widely regarded as one of the denomination’s most prominent public intellectuals. He writes widely, has a podcast and appears regularly on TV.

In a statement about his willingness to serve as SBC president, Mohler said he hopes to “unite Southern Baptists,” a group that has long had political and theological divisions within its fold even as it has seen a declining membership as the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

“We are facing a new era in the world and in the United States, and cultural challenges that will test our conviction,”…

(RNS) — A rare medieval Pentateuch manuscript that had been in private collections for years will go on display Friday (Nov. 8) at the Museum of the Bible.

The volume, which dates to around the year 1000, was acquired two years ago by the Green Collection, headed by billionaire Steve Green of the Hobby Lobby arts and crafts chain.

The Pentateuch, consisting of the five biblical books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, forms the first part of the 24-volume Hebrew Bible. It was written by scholars of the Masoretic tradition who codified the Hebrew Bible and added diacritical marks above and below the Hebrew letters to enable correct pronunciation.

Before the appearance of books, Jews read the Pentateuch from the Torah, a scroll made of parchment or animal skins. Torah scrolls are still read in synagogues, but because they do not contain vowels, readers sometimes consult Pentateuch collections such as the one on display at the Museum of the Bible for the authoritative pronunciation.

There are several other extant volumes of the Pentateuch from the 11th century or earlier in Russia and Israel, said Herschel A. Hepler, associate curator at the museum. The Museum of the Bible named this one the Washington Pentateuch.

The 15-by-24-inch volume, bound in leather with metal bosses, contains two sections. The main section (nearly 500 pages) was written around the year…

A Florida sheriff has rebuffed requests from an atheist group to remove “In God We Trust” decals from the county’s patrol cars.  

“They have a better chance of me waking up thin tomorrow morning than they do of me taking that motto off our cars!” Sheriff Wayne Ivey of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News. 

At issue are the county’s new fleet of patrol cars, which are emblazoned with an American flag on the side and the phrase “In God We Trust” on the back. The latter is the national motto. Ivey, in an October Facebook post, called it a “patriot theme” that was inspired by a veteran, as Christian Headlines previously reported. 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation – a coalition of atheists, agnostics and skeptics – sent Ivey a letter urging him to remove the stickers. The decals imply “a religious test for employment” and send non-religious citizens an “appearance of bias,” the letter said. 

“Spending taxpayer time placing religious messages on patrol cars is beyond the scope of secular government,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the group, wrote.

Ivey told Fox News the decals will remain.

“I personally believe that our country is at a tipping point,” he said, “and if we, as strong patriotic Americans, don’t stand for the principles of our great nation, we are going to lose…

Former megachurch pastor Francis Chan has announced he will be moving to Asia in order to become a full-time missionary.

Chan delivered the shocking news during a sermon at Azusa Pacific University on Wednesday, to the great surprise of those in attendance.

“A few months ago, we were in Myanmar and my wife and I and kids, we were just with a translator going from hut to hut in these slums, trying to explain to people who Jesus is,” he explained, according to the Christian Post. “These people had never even heard of Him. And the eagerness, the way they listened, seeing people get baptized — it was just like, wow, what do we do on a normal day that even compares to this?”

Chan went on to describe the moment that he and his wife knew they had to go. “As we got on the plane home, I was like, ‘Honey, I think it’s time to move,’” Francis explained, noting that he felt he had “been fishing in the same pond my whole life and now there’s like thousands of other fishermen at the same pond, and our lines are getting tangled and everyone’s fighting over stupid things.”

The pastor continued: “What if I heard of a lake that’s like a five-mile hike away, and no one’s fishing it. And they’re saying, ‘Man, the fish are biting — just throw a hook in there and they’ll go for it!’ Man, I’ll make that five-mile hike if I love…