All England schools will be required to teach an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, according to CBN News.

The policy from the England Department of Education includes topics such as sexual orientation, gender identity and healthy relationships, which will be discussed at the high school level. At primary schools, children will learn about different families, including LGBTQ families.

“We want to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe,” a Department for Education spokesperson told NBC News.

According to the policy, the new education initiatives will help students with their “mental wellbeing” and “to know how to be safe and healthy.”

“This is why we have made Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools in England and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in all secondary schools, as well as making Health Education compulsory in all state-funded schools,” the policy reads.

A representative from Britain’s leading pro-LGBTQ organization, Stonewall, said the decision will help students become more “inclusive.”

“LGBT-inclusive education is about teaching that some children have two mums or two dads. Learning about different kinds of families from a young age helps create inclusive environments so everyone feels they belong,” said Sidonie Bertrand-Shelton.

Added Josh Bradlow, the policy manager at Stonewall: “This is a landmark…

On Wednesday, the Department of Education issued the final rule on the “Religious Liberty and Free Inquiry” regulation which protects the religious freedoms of faith-based groups on college campuses, The Christian Post reports.

In the new regulation, the department “ensures the equal treatment and constitutional rights of religious student organizations at public institutions and provides clarity for faith-based institutions” under the discrimination law, Title IX.

According to a two-page summary of the ruling, “[T]he Final Rule prohibits discrimination against religious student organizations because of their beliefs, practices, policies, speech, membership standards, or leadership standards, which are informed by sincerely held religious beliefs.

“[A] religious student organization would have the same rights as other student organizations at the public institution to receive official recognition, to use the institution’s facilities, and to receive student fee funds.”

Public colleges and universities “must comply with the First Amendment as a requirement to receive Department grants,” as explained in the final rule.

“Accordingly, the Department will rely upon a final, non-default judgment by a state or federal court to determine whether a public or private institution has violated these material grant conditions,” the summary stated….

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Thursday, September 10, 2020

A Florida church is “devastated” after their pastor, who’s also a self-styled prophet with thousands of followers, was charged with fatally shooting his wife outside her job at the Navy Federal Credit Union just two days before their fifth wedding anniversary Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Orlando Police Department told the Orlando Sentinel that Sylvester Ofori, 35, who leads the Floodgates of Heaven International Ministries and has more than 60,000 followers on social media, attacked his wife, Barbara Tommey, 27, just before 9 a.m. near the front door of Navy Federal Credit Union on the 4600 block of Gardens Park Boulevard.

“We are all devastated. I have no words. I’m just devastated,” a representative of the church told The Christian Post on Thursday morning.

The representative said while their church has not been meeting for in-person services during the coronavirus pandemic, she “didn’t see any signs there was trouble” in their pastor’s marriage.

“I’m at a loss for words right now. I can’t even think about it,” she said, remembering the pastor’s wife as “a very beautiful…

Teenagers whose parents attend evangelical or Catholic churches are far more likely to maintain the religious identity of their parents than are teens whose parents attend a mainline Protestant church, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

The poll also showed that evangelical teens stand out from other teens in practicing their faith.

The survey, released Thursday and conducted prior to the pandemic, found that 80 percent of teens (ages 13-17) whose parents are evangelical maintain that religious identity, while 81 percent of teens from Catholic homes share their parents’ religious views.

But among homes of teens whose parents attend a mainline Protestant congregation – such as ones affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church or the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – only 55 percent of teens share their parents’ religious views.

A total of 24 percent of teens from mainline Protestant homes are unaffiliated with religion, compared to 12 percent of teens from evangelical homes and 15 percent of teens from Catholic homes.

Meanwhile, the poll also found that evangelical teens “stand out from other adolescents” in their commitment to faith, according to a Pew analysis that also said evangelical teens are “far more likely” to practice their faith in specific tangible ways.

For example, about half of evangelical teens (48 percent)…

A North Carolina public school took out Bible verses printed on donated planners this week. Sulphur Springs Baptist Church in Hiddenite, North Carolina, purchased $2,000 worth of planners to help students, but school district officials believed the verses did not respect a separation of church and state, The Christian Post reports.

According to the church’s Associate Pastor of Youth and Children, James Safrit, two verses—Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”) and Jeremiah 29:11 (“I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not too harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”)—were printed on the back of 2020-’21 school year planners. The planners were a gift from the church after a conversation with East Alexander Middle School Principal Kristie Love.

“I called the middle school, talked to the principal, and she had a couple of requests … for the school,” Safrit said. “She requested flash drives for every student to transport work back and forth.” Also requested were the planners.

But Safrit acknowledges a miscommunication with the school. “[Love] didn’t ask for a proof or anything to see what it looked like,” he said. “In hindsight, I probably should have let her look at it.”

A statement issued by the church on its Facebook page also hoped to clear up the misunderstanding.

“We had no intentions of…

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Baylor University have filed a lawsuit with the Texas-based Harold E. Riley Foundation and its board of trustees over what they say is an “attempted coup” of the foundation.

According to the Baptist Press, the schools allege in the lawsuit that the foundation was set up to make both universities “equal” charitable recipients of the funds, but the board of trustees rewrote the by-laws to cut them out of the funds

The lawsuit says:

“This secret coup appears to be an attempt to seize control of the Foundation and its assets; i.e., Mr. Riley’s Citzens’ shares. Defendants’ efforts to change the trust and eliminate the Beneficiaries’ ability to appoint trustees was apparently not enough. Defendants are now trying to seize control of the one business whose stock forms the primary asset of the Foundation.”

According to charity documents in the public domain, the Harold E. Riley Foundation was founded in 2018 as a Private Foundation with over 13 million dollars in revenue. If the allegations about the board are true, then this means Southwestern and Baylor University could both potentially be out millions of dollars in funds.

Colby T. Adams, the vice president of strategic initiatives at Southwestern, told Religion News Service in an email “This is but the latest in a two-year pattern of attempts to divert support…

President Trump on Wednesday released a new list of Supreme Court candidates for a potential future vacancy and urged Democrat Joe Biden to do the same, saying Americans deserve the information about judicial nominations so they can “properly make a decision as to how they will vote.”

The list of 20 names includes such notables as former Solicitor General Paul Clement and U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Ted Cruz (Texas). Trump said any future vacancy would be filled by names on either the new list or the original list he released during his 2016 campaign.

“Apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision an American president can make,” he said. “For this reason, candidates for president owe the American people a specific list of the individuals they consider for the United States Supreme Court.”

Trump warned of a “growing radical left movement” that “rejects the principle of equal treatment under law.”

“If this extreme movement is granted a majority on the Supreme Court, it will fundamentally transform America without a single vote of Congress,” he said. “Radical justices will erase the Second Amendment, silence political speech and require taxpayers to fund extreme late-term abortion. They will give unelected bureaucrats that power to destroy millions of…

A historic Washington, D.C., church that was the subject of arson and graffiti during the summer riots recently had its protective plywood panels painted with racial justice imagery.

St. John’s Episcopal Church of Lafayette Square, a congregation located not far from the White House, had the murals painted onto the panels, which had been installed to protect their windows from vandalism, at an event on Saturday.

The Rev. Rob Fisher, rector at St. John’s Church, told The Christian Post in an interview on Tuesday that the event was coordinated with a local arts group called the P.A.I.N.T.S. Institute and with the DowntownDC Business Improvement District.

Fisher said that the event was aimed at turning “something that is a bit of an eyesore” into “colorful images offering message of love, healing, togetherness and peace in Jesus’ name.”

“The artists really put their hearts and souls into the works they created. Many expressed to me what an honor it was to decorate the…

JUBA, South Sudan, September 9, 2020 (Morning Star News) – The head of the body responsible for curricula in Sudan announced that a previous directive omitting Christian education as a subject for primary schools was in error, according to a new letter to educational directors.

Omer Ahmed al-Garay, director general of the National Centre for Curriculum and Educational Research (NCCER), wrote in the new letter that the body had not intended to omit Christianity from school subjects in the previous directive.

“In reference to our previous letter dated Aug. 23, 2020, regarding the school subjects, we wish to consider the new timetable attached,” Al-Garay wrote. “The old timetable had unintended error.”

The official document sent to directors of education in various states of Sudan directed them to reconsider omitted Religion Education subjects for primary schools in the newly introduced curriculum.

Al-Garay said he had received many calls from Christians asking why Christianity had been omitted from the list of school subjects.

“I apologize to Christian brothers who called asking why Christianity was dropped out from the school subjects,” Al-Garary wrote.

Church leaders in Sudan, however, met the new directive with skepticism. The Rev. Yahia Abdelrahim Nalu of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) told Morning Star News that Christianity will continue to be…

Mariners Church, one of the largest churches in America and the second largest in the state of California, announced Tuesday that it will resume in-person worship services this weekend after officials in Orange County lifted some restrictions on businesses and religious organizations.

In a statement to The Christian Post, the church said its Irvine campus will be open for live, socially distanced in-person and outdoor worship services at 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. 

Churchgoers are encouraged to wear face coverings inside the building where seating will be arranged to accommodate physical distancing. Worshipers will also be able to access a touchless experience through the Mariners Church app where guests can see sermon notes, worship lyrics and giving opportunities. The church will also continue offering a variety of socially distanced worship options such as its spacious outdoor campus to accommodate individuals and families.

“God has been so gracious in providing Mariners Church with a beautiful and spacious outdoor campus that enables us to safely welcome back the…