Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is pushing back on Beto O’Rourke’s suggestion that churches should be stripped of their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage.

“I agree that anti-discrimination law ought to be applied to all institutions,” Buttigieg, who is gay, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “But the idea that you’re going to strip churches of their tax-exempt status if they haven’t found their way towards blessing same-sex marriage, I’m not sure [O’Rourke] understood the implications of what he was saying.”

O’Rourke, another Democratic party presidential candidate, was asked during a town hall last week if he thought religious institutions such as colleges, churches and charities should they lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage.

“Yes,” O’Rourke said. “There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us. So as president, we’re going to make that a priority and we’re going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.”

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said O’Rourke’s proposal would have a negative effect on the nation. 

“That means going to war not only with…

President Trump appealed to Christian leaders this weekend at the Values Voter Summit, reminding the audience of his commitment to preserving religious freedom.

“Our rights come from God Almighty, and they can never be taken away. Together we will protect those God-given rights,” he said, as reported by CBN News.

Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was held captive in Turkey for two years, opened the ceremony with a prayer:

“Father God, I ask now for an impartation of your Holy Spirit, may the fullness of the spirit of Jesus rest upon President Trump that he be anointed with wisdom and understanding with your counsel and might with knowledge and fear of the Lord and accordingly may President Trump not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears or lean on his own understanding but may he recognize your prompting and move according to your guidance,” Brunson said.

He continued to pray for discernment and strength in the battles surrounding the President. Trump later told the crowd that it was not easy to bring home the pastor, but his recovery was worth the effort.

The President’s speech to the summit came in the midst of growing concern from conservative evangelical leaders for the President’s removal of troops in Northern Syria, which leaves religious minorities—including Christians—open for a…

A typhoon hit Japan just south of Tokyo on Saturday evening killing anywhere between 14 and 33 people. 

According to the Associated Press, Typhoon Hagibis wreaked havoc on northern and central Japan Saturday dumping several inches of rain and producing high gusts of wind in the area. 

Fourteen different rivers across the island country were also reported to have flooded as a result of the storm. 

The government’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Sunday that, so far, 14 people have been killed, 11 have been reported missing, 187 were injured, and some 1,283 homes were flooded with 517 either partially or totally damaged. The AP reports that the Fire and Disaster Management Agency tends to be conservative in their estimates.

Japanese media reports significantly higher numbers with Kyodo News saying that 33 people were killed in the storm and 19 are missing.

The Tokyo Fire Department confirmed one woman’s death noting that a woman in her 70s. was “accidentally dropped 40 meters to the ground while being transported into a rescue helicopter in Iwaki city in Fukushima,” the AP reports.

As of Sunday morning, approximately 376,000 homes were without electricity and 14,000 homes were without running water. By Sunday evening, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. issued an update noting that more than 66,000 of their customers were still without power. Tohoku…

JOS, Nigeria, October 14, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed a young Christian man after stopping him on a highway in Kaduna state on Oct. 5, while in Plateau state another 13 Christians have been slain in less than a month, sources said.

Armed herdsmen stopped the vehicle of Bartholomew David, 23, and a female passenger shortly after he had dropped his sister off at the Akilbu railway station, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the city of Kaduna on the highway to Abuja. They took David and the woman, who had requested a ride from him to the Akilbu station, into the wilderness, Akilbu resident Enoch Barde told Morning Star News.

“As he was coming back he gave a lady a lift to Akilbu, and on their way the kidnappers stopped them, took them inside the bush and shot him to death, and the girl ran,” Barde said, citing information he learned from the young woman. “The girl said the herdsmen kidnapped them because they were Christians. She told the police the same thing.”

The woman, whose name is undisclosed for security reasons, and David are of the Adara ethnic group in Kaduna state. Barde added that kidnapping of Christians in the area has become rampant as the Fulani herdsmen are Muslims while the native groups of the Adara tribe are mostly Christians.

“In most cases, only a few women or girls who are lucky usually escape from…

A New Orleans high school has turned down a free Chick-fil-A meal offered to teachers due to the company’s views.   

The College Football Playoff Foundation offered teachers throughout the city a free Chick-fil-A meal as part of its way to leave a positive impact on the community, WWL-TV reported. New Orleans is hosting the College Football Playoff National Championship in January.

New Orleans’ Lusher High School declined the free food.

“Out of respect to our LGBTQ staff, we have chosen to not serve Chick-Fil-A at an employee lunch. The #1 rule at Lusher is to ‘Be Kind’ and we live this motto every day,” Lusher principal Steven Corbett told WWL. “Chick-Fil-A has been politically outspoken about its views, and we feel it is not part of Lusher’s culture of kindness and community.”

Corbett stood by the decision in an interview with WDSU.

“Any time there’s an organization that is anti-LGBTQ and has efforts to infringe upon their rights, we thought it was important to make sure that we were supporting and standing up for our community,” he said. 

The high school’s Twitter feed posted the WDSU interview alongside the hashtag “#NoPlaceForHate.”

#LusherPride for @Stevecorbett66 #NoPlaceForHate https://t.co/9UyiqrtuTJ

— LusherCollegeCounsel (@LusherCollege) October 10, 2019

The College Football Playoff Foundation’s…

Thousands of Christians, Kurds and Yazidis are fleeing parts of Syria as violence continues between Turkey’s forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces.

This week, the White House announced that American soldiers would be pulled out of northern Syria. Along with the announcement, Turkey moved its forces into northern Syria, CBN News reports.

The group In Defense of Christians, said they are “deeply concerned for the Christian and Yazidi communities of Northeast Syria should the Republic of Turkey move into the region.

“There are over 40,000 Christians in the Northeast, which is a dramatic decrease from the 130,000 Christians who lived in this area before the impact of ISIS and the Syrian Crisis,” the statement from the group said.

A Catholic archbishop in Ebril, Iraq previously said that pulling U.S. troops from any hostile areas would lead to more violence against Christians, the Catholic News Agency reports.

“We are gravely concerned regarding the recent draw down of the U.S. presence in Iraq,” the archbishop said.

“Having faced genocide at the hands of ISIS, our shattered communities have drawn immense hope from the promise of the American commitment to Iraqi minority communities spearheaded by the vice president.”

The archbishop was referring to a 2017 promise from Vice President Mike Pence, who said the U.S. would protect…