Influential producer, comedian, writer, and actor Tyler Perry opened a sprawling 330-acre headquarters over the weekend, closing the festivities with a stunning worship service, according to Faithwire.

Perry revealed 12 sound stages in his new headquarters each named after a black icon. Perry purchased the land near Atlanta, which had once served as a Confederate Army base in the Civil War, in 2015.

The opening weekend featured stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Ava DuVernay, Cecily Tyson, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland, Gladys Knight, Halle Berry, and more.

“@tylerperry you built the biggest studio in America, one that can fit all the other Hollywood studios combined and still have room to spare. You’ve also created a dream of hope and possibility for everyone to know that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can always do better when you’re aligned with the Divine. Thank you for the name of the sound stages. I love mine,” Oprah posted to Instagram.

Closing out the weekend was a worship service where Texas megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes delivered a message.

“I can’t explain how many icons were there to see history turn a page!” Jakes said on Instagram. “It felt like all the ancestors were rejoicing at what God has done. I didn’t see anyone that didn’t have gratitude on their face!”

Perry has big plans for the complex. In…

The U.S. Supreme Court long ago banned school-led prayer, but religion itself remains prevalent among the nation’s public schools, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

The poll of 1,800 teenagers (ages 13 to 17) found that 53 percent of teens say they regularly see classmates wearing jewelry or clothing with religious messages, and another 39 percent say they regularly see fellow students praying before a sporting event. 

Another 26 percent say it’s common to see someone invited to a religious youth group or worship service, and 16 percent say it’s common to see a classmate pray before a meal. Eight percent say it’s common to see fellow students read religious texts outside of class.

Pew called it the first large-scale, nationally representative survey “asking teens a series of questions” about their own practices and perceptions or religious expression in public schools.

Two-thirds of teens (64 percent) say they rarely or never talk about religion with their friends. But that is not the case among evangelical Christian teens. Fifty-eight percent of evangelical teens regularly talk about their faith with classmates, compared with 39 percent of mainline teens and 35 percent of Catholic teens who do so.

Girls are more likely than boys to discuss religion with their peers, according to Pew. 

Perhaps in a related category, one in 10…

An attorney representing a Kentucky public school board has convinced his district to remove “prayer lockers” with immediate effect following a complaint.

The specific lockers in question were located at Pike Central High School had a sign emblazoned across them urging students to submit prayer requests. Facebook posts indicate that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes sponsored the initiative.

“Do you have a prayer request?” reads the sign, which can be seen clearly in a photo posted to Facebook. “Write it on a piece of paper. Slip it into the locker. Our prayer team/FCA students would love to pray for you. All requests will remain anonymous.”

Shortly after hearing news of the initiative and seeing the Facebook post themselves, the anti-religion group “Americans United for Separation of Church and State” lodged a complaint, arguing that the locker was “likely a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

A complaint was also made to the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability.

“It is pretty straightforward that public schools cannot display religious messages, and they can’t encourage their students to pray or engage in religious activity,” added the American United’s attorney, Ian Smith, according to WFPL.

Kentucky’s education system has been the subject of many religious freedom controversies in…

The case of a Christian high school student who was forced to write the Islamic Creed at school is slated to come before a U.S. Supreme Court conference on Oct. 11.

The conference is a list of petitions that the Supreme Court reviews for consideration. The court can then decide whether to take on the case, CBN News reports.

This week, the Supreme Court will consider the case of Christian student Caleigh Wood, who in the 2014-2015 school year was forced by a teacher at La Plata High School in Maryland to write the Islamic conversion creed, also called the Shahada, as part of an assignment.

That creed says, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

Wood refused the assignment, saying that she believed it would be a sin to profess that there is another god other than the Christian God. School officials did not accept her refusal and she was given a low grade.

The Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit against the school, arguing that the school had violated the First Amendment Establishment Clause. A federal appeals court ruled in February in favor of the school, saying the school was not endorsing any specific religion with the assignment.

The law center appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

“Under the guise of teaching history or social studies, public schools across America are promoting the…

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Christian organizations are urging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a bill that would require the state’s public universities to offer abortion medication through campus health clinics. 

If signed into law, the “College Student Right to Access Act,” or SB 24, would take effect in January 2023. Newsom has until Sunday (Oct. 13) to make a decision. 

Commonly known as “the abortion pill,” the prescription medication provides a nonsurgical process to end early pregnancy, for women who are less than 10 weeks along, by blocking hormones needed to sustain the pregnancy. While groups like the California Family Council claim the medication can be dangerous, scientific research has found it is safe and effective. 

State Sen. Connie Leyva, a Democrat who authored the bill, said the legislation “reaffirms the right of every college student to access abortion.”

“By ensuring abortion care is available on campus, college students will not have to choose between delaying important medical care or having to travel long distances or miss classes or work,” she said in a statement.

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, saying such services were already “widely available” to students. Newsom, however, spoke in favor of the bill on the campaign trail.

Andrew Rivas, executive director of…