The U.S. Department of Defense says new guidelines will be put into place to protect religious liberty rights for military service members.

According to CBN News, the U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper began looking into the issue after hearing that some military members and chaplains were banned from attending worship services off base during the coronavirus pandemic.

The new guidelines, called Instruction 1300.17, say that the DOD must:

• Acknowledge that service members have the right to observe the principles of their religion.
• Accommodate religious practices and procedures for service members.
• Ensure that religious beliefs shall not serve as a foundation for discrimination, loss of promotion, education, training, or assignment.
• Require that military departments implement training and oversee the performance of these policies and procedures regarding the religious practices of service members, commanders, chaplains, and recruiters.

The policy also states military leadership must accommodate “individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs,” adding that “a Service member’s expression of such beliefs may not, in so far as practicable, be used as the basis of any adverse personnel action, discrimination, or denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment.”

First Liberty Institute first submitted a letter to Esper in May, asking for “clear DOD…

Hurricane Sally, an uncharacteristically large hurricane that hit multiple states in recent days, has left more than 500,000 residents without power and caused untold millions in damages. But that hasn’t stopped local churches from doing what they can to help out.

In Alabama, at least two churches have rallied together to help distribute relief to affected victims. One church was a United Methodist Church that had a disaster relief warehouse, which shipped supplies to Loxley, Alabama.

Cindy Sandlin, the Warehouse Director, gave a statement to WAAY 31 saying that “It gives us a chance to give back to those people and to help those people and to let those people know we care about them.” The Warehouse also gave supplies to those affected by Hurricane Laura in Louisiana.

In addition to the United Methodist Church, The Decatur Church of Christ was also on standby to help victims of the hurricane as soon as they arrived after helping victims of Hurricane Laura. The church’s outreach minister, Cody Michael, said in a statement that “every disaster we go on, we end up having stuff that’s leftover that was extra, that was not quite enough to fill up a trailer. So, we always hang onto that until the next disaster, that way we’ve already got something saved up that we can go with.”

The Decatur Church of Christ partners with several disaster relief agencies to help disperse help and supplies to wherever…

On Monday, Lifetime announced two new holiday films for its “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” lineup, including its first LGBTQ themed movie, The Christmas Setup.

According to A+E Networks, the film will feature real life gay married couple Ben Lewis and Blake Lee as the main characters.

A Lifetime press release describes The Christmas Set Up as “a feel-good LGBTQ holiday romance.”

“The Christmas Setup follows the story of New York lawyer Hugo (Lewis) who heads to Milwaukee with his best friend Madelyn (Ellen Wong) to spend the holidays with his mom Kate (Fran Drescher), who is also in charge of the local Christmas celebrations. Ever the matchmaker, Kate arranges for Hugo to run into Patrick (Lee), Hugo’s high school friend and secret crush, who has recently returned after a successful stint in Silicon Valley,” the announcement stated.

“As they enjoy the local holiday festivities together, Hugo and Patrick’s attraction to each other is undeniable and it looks as though Kate’s Santa-style matchmaking is a success. But as Hugo receives word of a big promotion requiring a move to London, he must decide what is most important to him.”

The holiday-themed film will be written and directed by people from the LGBTQ community.

Additionally, Lifetime will be collaborating with GLAAD, an LGBTQ media monitoring organization, “to ensure the movie represents the LGBTQ community sensitively and…

Two Idaho State University female athletes filed an appeal Wednesday in defense of an Idaho state law that prevents biological males who identify as female from competing on girls’ or women’s teams.

A federal judge last month overturned the law, known as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

The two athletes, Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall, run track and cross country at Idaho State in Pocatello. They are represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed a notice of appeal Wednesday with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Males and females both should have the chance to enjoy opportunities for fair competition and victory,” Kenyon said in a news release. “Allowing males to enter our sports isn’t fair. It changes everything because it eliminates the connection between an athlete’s effort and her success. Idaho’s law helps make sure that, when women like me work hard, that hard work pays off, and we have a shot at winning.”

The law requires biological sex, and not gender identity, to be used in determining who plays on high school and college teams. Idaho lawmakers said the law was necessary because of what has happened not only in Idaho but elsewhere, including Connecticut, where two biological boys who identify as girls won 15 state track titles.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against the law on behalf…

Coptic Christian girls in Egypt are being abducted and trafficked at alarming rates according to “Jihad of the Womb,” a report that provides an in-depth look at why so many Coptic Christian girls are being abducted, CBN News reports.

Reportedly, Egyptian officials have done little to help Coptic Christian women find their children, and, according to CBN’s International Correspondent Gary Lane, “Christian girls are often targeted by Muslim men in heavily Islamic countries like Egypt. Many are neighbors who charm impoverished Christian girls with kindness and gifts. Attracted by the good looks and kindness of young Muslim men, the girls are lured away from their families based on empty promises of wealth and successful life. Some are raped and culturally that brings shame to their families. They see conversion to Islam and marriage as their only way out.”

The report, by advocacy group Coptic Solidarity, states a good portion of these abductions are blown off by Egyptian authorities as marriages, even though coercion was used to force these young girls into abduction. According to the report, at least 500 women and girls were abducted this way. But other cases reported as common according to the report are:

• Overpowering and kidnapping women, identified as Coptic by not wearing [a] hijab or wearing a necklace with a cross
• Luring minor Coptic girls into romantic relationships by Muslim men
• Engaging…

The city of Louisville, Kentucky agreed to a $12 million settlement to the family of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year old black woman who was fatally shot by police back in March.

According to the Associated Press, the city also called for reforming police practices but Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, believes that it’s not enough in combating racial injustice across the nation.

“Please continue to say her name,” an emotional Palmer said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In April, Palmer filed a lawsuit that blamed Louisville police for using misleading information when they acquired a “no-knock” warrant to enter Taylor’s apartment on the night of March 13, 2020.

During the incident, three officers entered Taylor’s apartment as part of a drug trafficking investigation into Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, who was later arrested in a different location.

Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were asleep in her bed when police broke in. Thinking they were intruders, Walker said that he fired once at the officers who then returned fire as Taylor was shot multiple times, killing her in the process. Taylor had been serving as an emergency medical technician in Louisville.

Despite the investigation, no drugs were found in Taylor’s home. Louisville’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron is currently investigating the actions of the officers involved in the shooting.

“I…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Thursday, September 17, 2020

Lamenting that the term “evangelical” is now too “largely political” and hasn’t been helpful in conveying the character of their organization, Evangelicals for Social Action, a Christian scholar-activist group started in 1973, announced Monday that they have changed their name to Christians for Social Action.

“Today the word ‘evangelical’ in the popular mind has largely political connotations. For significant numbers of people, it signifies a right-wing political movement irrevocably committed to Donald Trump. Many young people raised in evangelical churches are turning away in disgust–abandoning evangelical churches and even sometimes the Christian faith itself. And the larger society thinks of evangelicals not as people committed to Jesus Christ and the biblical gospel but as pro-Trump political activists,” Ron Sider, the organization’s founder and president emeritus, said in a statement.

“After careful…