A Texas pastor is crediting divine intervention for saving lives from a major storm that damaged his church’s building.

Highland Terrace Baptist Church in Greenville, Texas, was preparing to hold its mid-week service Wednesday night when pastor Chet Haney and his congregation decided to cancel. Half an hour later, much of the building was destroyed. 

“It was a funny feeling, because about 5:30 [p.m.] everything was normal,” he told KTVT-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth. “Without hesitation, we all decided together: We better tell everybody to stay home. Thank the Lord we did, because in 25 minutes we didn’t have a church anymore in terms of the building.” 

The National Weather Service says straight-line winds, not a tornado, slammed the region. Winds peaked at 85 mph.

The storm tore a hole into the roof of the worship center. Much of the roof caved in and was destroyed. 

“It’s actually my granddaughter’s Sunday School room – it’s completely demolished. Something fell out of the sky and landed on top of it,” Haney said. 

The Sunday School room, he told KXAS, would have been filled with children if services had been held. 

Church member Wynema Payne had arrived early for choir practice.

“Within three seconds, we heard a loud boom and the roof here was taken off and deposited in that Sunday School class probably 30 feet from us,”…

Book publishers are asking President Donald Trump to reject a proposal for what many are calling a “Bible tax.”

According to CBN News, the proposed tariffs are on $300 billion of Chinese goods and include printed materials, such as Bibles and children’s books, which are made in China. The tariff is about 25 percent.

Bloomberg reports that those materials are printed in China because of “the unique paper, printing technology and skills needed.”

During a hearing this week, however, companies and trade groups that would be impacted by the proposed tariffs ask the U.S. International Trade Commission to reconsider the tariffs.

Mark Schoenwald, the chief executive officer of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, attended the hearing.

“We believe the administration was unaware of the potential negative impact these proposed tariffs would have on Bibles and that it never intended to impose ‘a Bible tax’ on consumers and religious organizations,” Schoenwald said.

He added that the tariff would impact the entire publishing market.

In response to the tariff, publishers would have to raise their prices. CBN News also said Christian booksellers, ministries and churches would face the new challenges.

“If tariffs are imposed, there will be fewer books available to American kids,” said Daniel Reynolds, CEO of Workman Publishing Co. in New York.

He…

A new report from Inside Higher Ed revealed this week that Liberty University has made the decision to cut several divinity school staff members.

According to CBN News, the Lynchburg, Virginia school has seen a steady decline in enrollment in their divinity school since 2015. Inside Higher Ed reports that the university’s online program has dropped from 19,727 students in 2015 to 13,688 students in 2017. The on-campus program has lost some traction as well, with the number of enrolled students dropping from 1,078 students in 2015 to 992 students in 2018. 

Some have attributed the decline in enrollment to the school’s close relationship with President Donald Trump. According to Christianity Today, however, the school believes it is a result of the change in the times and the evolution of ministry.

“Really, it’s a sign of the times,” Liberty’s senior vice president for spiritual development and campus chaplain David Nasser told Christianity Today. “The landscape of the way churches are staffing is changing, the landscape of the way mission organizations are staffing is changing, and I think that’s why we’ve seen some decline in the school of divinity in that sense.”

The school has, however, seen an increase in graduate-level applications to the divinity school.

Liberty University administrators noted that they have seen that this generation of…

A public meeting in Alaska began with an invocation that included the mantra “Hail Satan!” The invocation, given by a member of the Satanic Temple, led to walkouts from attendees and officials, as well as protests outside the meeting.

The incident took place at the Kenia Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting in southern Alaska. Iris Fontana, a member of the Satanic Temple, was the first member of a nontraditional religion to offer the invocation at the meeting after the Assembly was forced to change their policy about who could offer invocations.

In the invocation, she said, “Let us be present in this moment, clear our minds and be free of outdated propaganda and regulations that were created by historical people who were afraid of the unknown. Let us embrace the impulse to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, so that we may let go of comforting delusions, and see the truth in the world. Let us demand that humans be judged for their actions, not their loyalty to useless social norms, labels, and categories. Let us stand firm against all authority that tries to threaten the unalienable rights of all humans. Let us cast aside our differences to use reason, logic, science, and compassion to create solutions for the greater good of our community. It is Done. Hail Satan. Thank you.”

According to the Anchorage Daily News, Fontana also offered an invocation…