(RNS) — Criminal charges have been dropped against a former associate children’s minister at The Village Church, a Dallas-area evangelical megachurch.

Matt Tonne was indicted for indecency with a child involving sexual contact in January 2019 and has denied the charges against him.

The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office moved to dismiss the charges against Tonne last week, according to court documents. The motion — signed by Sherre Thomas, an assistant district attorney of Dallas County — states that, despite an investigation, “the complainant cannot and has not positively identified defendant as the person who committed this offense.”

A young woman who attended The Village Church while growing up has accused Tonne of sexually assaulting her at a 2012 church camp she attended when she was 11. Now an adult, she sued the Village Church for gross negligence and emotional distress last year, seeking $1 million in damages.

J. Mitchell Stone of Scheef & Stone, who is one of the woman’s lawyers, said that the district attorney did not speak to his client before dismissing the charges.

Stone said that his client “stands ready” to identify Tonne.

“Our client and her family are shocked and disgusted at the Dallas County District Attorney’s sudden decision to dismiss this case without so much as consulting her or even picking up the telephone to talk with her before they…

The pastor of a large California church said Tuesday his congregation will not stop meeting for indoor worship despite fines from the county that have topped $50,000.

Jack Trieber, pastor of North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, Calif., said in a new video on the church’s Facebook page that Santa Clara County posted an additional order on the church’s doors this week and is fining the congregation $5,000 for each service. The video includes a screen capture of the order.

“They’ve ratcheted this thing up,” Trieber said.

Health regulations from the city and county prohibit the church from gathering or singing indoors. The county previously gave the church a cease-and-desist order and claimed the congregation was not social distancing during indoor worship. Trieber, though, says the congregation is social distancing. (A video on the church’s Facebook page shows individuals social distancing while worshiping during a service.)

All total, the congregation has been fined $52,750.

The county’s order calls it an “unlawful indoor gathering.” It also says attendees are not wearing masks.

Trieber pleaded with the county to stop the fines. He also asked Americans for prayer and support.

He read from the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law – no law – [respecting] the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” he…

(RNS) — This past Sunday (Aug. 30) John MacArthur, the senior pastor of Los Angeles’ Grace Community Church, made a startling statement.

“There is no pandemic,” he said.

His proof? A recent Centers for Disease Control report that only 6% of U.S. deaths attributed to COVID-19 listed the virus as the only cause of death; the remaining 94% listed additional underlying health conditions known as “co-morbidities.”

But according to health experts, MacArthur made quite a jump to conclude that, of the estimated 160,000 U.S. deaths examined in the CDC’s report, only 9,210 were due to COVID-19, and all the rest died of something else.

In fact, it’s wrong.

As of Monday, 6 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19 — including 700,000 Californians — and an estimated 184,000 Americans have died from it. When recording the reasons for a patient’s death, doctors list all factors leading to the person’s demise — but the virus remains the main reason they died.

MacArthur’s non-denominational church has been defying California’s ban on large indoor meetings without masks or social distancing. In doing so, the church appears to be wading into a highly politicized campaign to minimize or outright deny the existence of the coronavirus. Recently, MacArthur told President Trump in a phone conversation that “any real, true believer” of Christianity will be forced to…

Twenty-Five missing children were recovered by the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Ohio on September 1, 2020. It is suspected roughly one-fourth of the children were involved in human trafficking or prostitution.

According to local news affiliates, there is presently a sting operation in place to catch the rest of the children. But while that happens, the U.S. Marshal’s Service is working with local authorities to get the rescued children to safety while they continue to free more children and hopefully catch the traffickers running the sordid operation.

The operation, dubbed “Operation Safety Net” is setting out to find all 200 of the missing children in Northeastern Ohio. The operation is made up of 475 people, 250 men and 125 women, who are committed to finding the sex traffickers and freeing the missing and sex-trafficked children.

This report comes on the heels of the U.S. Marshal’s Service freeing 39 Georgia children, many of whom were child sex trafficking victims. 9 known associates were arrested and charged with a litany of charges from sex trafficking to parental kidnapping and other charges. Many of the children were abused and some suffered from mental health issues.

That operation, titled “Operation Not Forgotten,” shows the ability of local law enforcement, the FBI and other organizations to shut down sex trafficking operations and free the victims.

So far this year,…

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…

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…

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…

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…