Almost All 40 Atlanta Church Members Who Contracted COVID-19 in July Have Recovered

Almost All 40 Atlanta Church Members Who Contracted COVID-19 in July Have Recovered


Almost all 40 of the congregants from an Alabama church that made headlines after the congregants contracted the novel Coronavirus have fully recovered, according to a report published by the Baptist Press. In the report, it states that one family is still testing positive, but they are doing well.

The original outbreak happened when the church, Warrior Creek Baptist Church, was conducting a revival at the end of July. According to media reports, many of the church members were considered high-risk.

One of the congregants who tested positive reportedly had no symptoms of Coronavirus, which was a source of concern for some of the members. However, the World Health Organization says people with no symptoms, dubbed “asymptomatic cases,” are less likely to spread the illness.

But those troubles are now behind them, as nearly all the congregants who contracted the virus have recovered, The Christian Post reports. One of the members of the church said that the brunt of his symptoms was simply a lack of taste and “a little sinus” congestion. But other members of the church, according to him, have been “running fevers and headaches and terrible respiratory [issues].” However, nobody reportedly has died from the virus.

This isn’t the first crisis to hit Warrior Creek Baptist Church. In 2018, the church was destroyed in a fire. The fire sprang up overnight and multiple…

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Sight & Sound’s Queen Esther, Broadcasting Live Labor Day Weekend, Is ‘Timely’ for Today, Spokeswoman Says

Sight & Sound’s Queen Esther, Broadcasting Live Labor Day Weekend, Is ‘Timely’ for Today, Spokeswoman Says


For the first time, Sight & Sound Theatres this weekend is broadcasting one of its shows live to a worldwide audience, and the story couldn’t be more timely.

Sight & Sound will stream its new musical Queen Esther on its new streaming platform, Sight-Sound.TV, live from Lancaster, Pa., Friday (Sept. 4) at 7 p.m. Eastern, with encore showings on Saturday (3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern) and Sunday (8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern).

The Broadway-style musical will spotlight the biblical story of Esther, the courageous Old Testament woman who saved her people, the Jews, by foiling an evil plan.

The broadcast will feature behind-the-scenes interviews and multiple camera angles. The show also includes the largest moving set piece Sight & Sound has ever built.

Sight & Sound – which was closed for much of the summer due to the pandemic – is requesting a minimum donation of $25.

Katie Miller, corporate communications manager for Sight & Sound Theatres, said the story has multiple parallels to today’s pandemic world.

“We have been saying this for months: If we would have sat down this summer and said, ‘Let’s choose a Bible story and write a story that is really relevant for right now’ – I don’t know that we could have chosen a story more applicable than Queen Esther,” Miller told Christian Headlines. “She was a person who not only had her entire life…

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75 Percent of Churches, Christian Organizations Stayed Open Thanks to Paycheck Protection Program

75 Percent of Churches, Christian Organizations Stayed Open Thanks to Paycheck Protection Program


The coronavirus relief Paycheck Protection Program was instrumental in keeping 75 percent of churches open and other Christian organizations fully-staffed amid the government lockdowns nationwide. This is according to a survey by Vanderbloeman, which collected data from over 900 churches in a period of months.

The Christian Post reports that even though it was illegal for many churches to meet in person, the Paycheck Protection Program ensured those staffed at houses of worship did not lose a paycheck.

According to the survey, the program provided “unprecedented support” for Christian organizations around the country.

The Paycheck Protection Program ensured churches were able to continue their charitable, medical, and essential services amid widespread lockdowns because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Paycheck Protection Program was part of the CAREs act and doled out a total of $689 billion, of which between $6 and $10 billion were distributed to churches, The Christian Post reports. The program ended on August 8, 2020, but some proponents of the program wanted to keep it going to continue to protect peoples’ paychecks.

Congress, however, could not reach a compromise regarding the relief package, as both parties attempted to add a host of expenses, unrelated to the coronavirus, to the relief bills.

Reportedly, the Catholic Church received some $1.4…

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Remembrance of a song and dance man: A life lesson in seeking the joy of the Lord

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I remember the day when Martha first told me about Eddie’s diagnosis.

It just didn’t seem possible that her husband could experience the ravages of frontotemporal degeneration (FTD, sometimes referred to as Pick’s Disease).  

I’d worked for many years with Martha and had gotten to know her husband through social occasions. They became good friends of ours. We’ve known the couple for more than twenty years.

Eddie and Martha were flipsides of the same coin, different in many ways. Yet, they were bound together by more than fifty years of love and commitment, anchored in their relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Eddie was sharp, healthy, and resilient. But by the time we took a trip together to the mountains of North Carolina with some other friends a few months later, FTD was beginning to take its toll. 

Eddie was more withdrawn; Martha was more attentive.

Fast-forward to today: sadly, through tears of grief and joy, we celebrated Eddie’s life last weekend. 

I spoke at his funeral a few days ago. 

This is what I shared.

What happens when you’re squeezed? 

If you’re anything like me, you’re more than a little worried about what might spill out of you if or when you lose control of your faculties. Challenges don’t necessarily create new problems, but they almost always reveal ones already there. 

When any of us gets “squeezed” by a difficult diagnosis or challenging days, what we’re made of often comes out. It’s not always pretty. 

During that trip to North Carolina, I noticed something. 

Occasionally, Eddie would just break into song. And he fancied himself a singer on par with Frank Sinatra, no less. We’d be walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant, and he’d just begin to sing—sometimes loudly.

I didn’t always recognize the tune. But his joy was unmistakable. 

An indelible memory

One of the last times I was with Eddie, several of us had…

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D.C. Mayor Report Targets Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial for Removal, Relocation or ‘Contextualization’

D.C. Mayor Report Targets Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial for Removal, Relocation or ‘Contextualization’


The White House on Tuesday criticized the mayor of Washington, D.C., for publishing a new report that recommends the federal government consider removing or relocating the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument and multiple other historical properties.

The 23-page report was released by a working group assembled by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and was posted on the mayor’s website. Bowser, a Democrat, put the working group together in July and charged it with reviewing the legacy of namesakes properties to “determine if the individual, in an individual capacity or as part of a group, participated in the oppression of African Americans and/or other communities of color, or contributed to the nation’s history of systemic racism and other biases.”

The report recommends the federal government “remove, relocate, or contextualize” eight statues or memorials, including the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. Others include statues or memorials of Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Franklin, George Mason, Albert Pike, Christopher Columbus and Francis Griffith Newlands. 

The report also recommends the city rename 21 public schools, including ones named after Jefferson, Alexander Graham Bell, Zachary Taylor, Francis Scott Key, John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson. 

The group was dubbed the District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative…

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Abby Johnson Responds to Journalist Who Said Her Abortion Smelled ‘Like Freedom’

Abby Johnson Responds to Journalist Who Said Her Abortion Smelled ‘Like Freedom’


Several abortion supporters fired back against former Planned Parenthood executive Abby Johnson after she made remarks in a speech at the Republican National Convention that abortion has “a smell.”

A writer for Cosmopolitan who had an abortion as a 23-year-old told Johnson her abortion smelled like “freedom,” according to Faithwire.

In an article posted on Cosmo’s website, author Danielle Campoamor said her abortion smelled like her nurse’s “perfume” who held her hand during the seven-minute procedure, as well as “barbecued ribs and a glass of Maker’s Mark” and her “brand new studio apartment.”

She continued, stating that her dream job of being a writer would never have happened if “I had a child as a poor, unhealthy 23-year-old.”

Johnson took to Instagram to respond to Campoamor’s remarks.

“Of course you don’t remember how your abortion smelled, because you were sedated,” she said in a video on Instagram. “And you know why you were sedated? That was intentional, too. We sedated you so that you wouldn’t remember what your abortion smelled like. We sedated you so that you wouldn’t remember how bad it hurt when we killed your baby, when that powerful suction machine went into your uterus and sucked your baby out.”

Campoamor responded on Twitter, stating that she wasn’t sedated and was fully aware of what the doctor was doing to…

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Black Christian Commentator, Bible Teacher Claims BLM Founders Practice Witchcraft, Summon the Dead

Black Christian Commentator, Bible Teacher Claims BLM Founders Practice Witchcraft, Summon the Dead


Black conservative Christian and host of “The Hamilton Corner” podcast recently said the Black Lives Matter movement is associated with witchcraft and Marxist views.

According to The Christian Post, in an Aug. 19 podcast episode called “The BLM Connection to Witchcraft,” Abraham Hamilton III argues that Black Lives Matter is “Marxist, anti-Christ, anti-family, [and] anti-man organization.”

Hamilton pointed to a quote from Patrisse Cullors, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

“I’m calling for spirituality to be deeply radical,” Cullors said. “We’re not just having a social justice movement, this is a spiritual movement.”

Hamilton also played a clip of a June conversation between Cullors and Dr. Melina Abdullah, a professor of African studies at California State University Los Angeles who founded the BLM L.A. chapter.

In the interview, Abdullah talks about “meeting” with Wakiesha Wilson, the Black woman who died in police custody in 2016 in LA.

“We’ve become very intimate with the spirits that we call on regularly,” Abdullah said in the clip. “Each of them seems to have a different presence and personality. You know, I laugh a lot with Wakiesha … I didn’t meet her in her body, right? I met her through this work.”

Cullors said in the interview that she felt “connected” in a “deeply spiritual”…

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‘We Need God’s Help,’ Franklin Graham Warns of the Democratic Party’s Socialist Agenda

‘We Need God’s Help,’ Franklin Graham Warns of the Democratic Party’s Socialist Agenda


On Friday, Evangelist Franklin Graham spoke with CBN News Senior Analyst David Brody regarding the current political atmosphere, his upcoming prayer march and the Democratic Party’s socialist agenda.

Regarding the recent Democratic and Republican national conventions, Graham asserted that the Democratic Party is “opposed to faith.”

“The Democrats are really, if anything, they are opposed to faith.” Graham asserted.

Graham acknowledged that while his father, the late evangelist Billy Graham, was a lifelong democrat, even he saw the significant transformation within the Democratic Party as it became “a party of the left.”

“It’s a socialist party. They want socialism for this country,” Graham argued, according to CBN News.

Graham also addressed the debate within the church between those planning to vote for President Trump’s re-election based on their faith and those who take issue with his personality. As an example, Brody cited members of Graham’s own family such as his daughter’s outspoken support of the President, whereas his niece criticized evangelicals in an op-ed for their support of him.

“Well, I understand people have different opinions in the evangelical community. I’m not a spokesman for them,” he contended. “I’m just one person and so there’s a lot of opinions and ideas and views and unfortunately, people that don’t know the…

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J. K. Rowling gives back Kennedy award: A biblical response to those who criticize biblical morality

Author J.K. Rowling attends the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” Broadway opening at the Lyric Theatre on Sunday, April 22, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

J. K. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter series, the best-selling book series in history. Forbes named her the world’s first billionaire author, but later reported that she lost this status by giving away so much of her earnings to charity. Her Wikipedia article lists six honorary degrees, including one from Harvard University, along with twenty-eight other awards or recognitions.

However, she made the news recently for something she is giving back. 

Rowling received the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR) organization last year. Past recipients include Barack Obama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 

However, the organization’s president, Kerry Kennedy, recently stated that views expressed by Rowling have diminished “the identity of trans and non-binary people, undermining the validity and integrity of the entire transgender community.” At issue is Rowling’s concern about the impact of transgender ideology on medical care, safety, and opportunities for women. She has also noted that some in the transgender-rights movement are treating those who disagree with them in highly offensive ways. 

In response to Kennedy’s criticisms, Rowling stated, “I feel I have no option but to return the Ripple of Hope Award bestowed upon me last year. I am deeply saddened that RFKHR has felt compelled to adopt this stance, but no award or honor, no matter my admiration for the person for whom it was named, means so much to me that I would forfeit the right to follow the dictates of my own conscience.” 

Three “buckets” for Scripture?

My purpose today is not to discuss transgender issues themselves. (For a survey of this topic, see my paper “The Transgender Debate: Civil rights or religious rights?” and chapter…

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Hang on to Summer a Little Longer

Turn that end-of-season fruit into a flurry of jams, shrubs, and fermentation projects.

The post Hang on to Summer a Little Longer appeared first on TASTE.