The city of Pasadena, Calif., is threatening a local church with fines, jail and even closure for violating government restrictions prohibiting indoor worship services. 

The congregation, Harvest Church, filed a lawsuit in July against the state of California over the restrictions and has continued to meet indoors. The suit said the attendees are required to wear masks and that seats are configured so people are socially distanced. Temperatures also are taken when individuals enter the building, according to the suit.

Last week, Pasadena’s chief assistant city prosecutor sent Harvest Church Pastor Che Ahn a letter, threatening fines and up to one year in jail for anyone who attends a future service. The letter also threatens “potential closure of your Church.”

Churches in most of California are permitted only to meet outdoors, provided they social distance. 

“We have information that your Church was conducting live indoor church services at the location where anywhere from 50 to 100 people or more attended,” the letter, dated Aug. 13, reads. “It was also noted that the people who attended the services, as well as church staff, were not complying with the relevant governmental orders concerning social distancing or the wearing of protective masks. All of these are violations of the law.

“… This letter is to remind you that violations of these orders…

(RNS) — The vehicle of a Kansas pastor’s wife who has been missing for more than two weeks was found Tuesday (Aug. 18) in rural Arkansas with a woman’s body inside.

The Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office did not confirm the body belonged to Marilane Carter but said her purse and credit cards were inside the car, according to local news reports.

Carter was last seen Aug. 2 in a video at a hotel in West Plains, Missouri, and her phone last pinged near Memphis, Tennessee.

The evening before, Carter had left her home in the Kansas City area, where her husband, the Rev. Adam Carter, is pastor of Leawood Baptist Church.

Marilane Carter, 36, was on her way to visit family in Birmingham, Alabama, and had made “concerning statements to her family,” according to the Overland Park Police Department in Kansas. The Carters’ family told Fox 4 Kansas City at the time the mother of three may have planned to get mental health counseling at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, where she previously had worked as a chaplain.

Carter’s disappearance caught attention on social media, where many have used the hashtag #FindMarilane.

A Facebook page titled “Find Marilane,” set up to share information about Carter’s disappearance, shared in a post this week that her vehicle was found, according to the Baptist Press.

“The family asks for your thoughts and prayers right now…

Grace Community Church and its pastor, John MacArthur, could be facing thousands of dollars in fines under a contempt of court request filed this week by Los Angeles County.

The congregation met indoors on Sunday, defying a California court of appeals panel that upheld restrictions by the state and the county limiting worship to outdoor settings during the pandemic. MacArthur told attendees Sunday morning the church wasn’t wanting to “be rebellious” but simply wanting to obey God.

“We’re meeting because our Lord has commanded us to come together and worship Him,” he said.

Now, Los Angeles County is asking the court to hold Grace Community Church, MacArthur and other defendants in contempt of court and to fine each defendant $10,000.

“Grace Church cannot thumb its nose at the Court when decisions don’t go its way,” the county argues in a brief filed in California Superior Court.

The county’s brief also notes the court has the power to place defendants in jail up to five days, although the county’s legal brief doesn’t specifically request that.

“Defendants first deliberately disobeyed State and County public health orders. Now, they are willfully violating two Court Orders,” the county’s brief says, referencing the indoor gatherings but also an alleged denial of county health officials’ access to the property.

“The purpose of these public…

Evangelical leaders in Ohio presented the state’s Board of Health with a resolution this week that calls for pornography to be deemed a public health crisis.

According to CBN News, 74 evangelical leaders in Ohio agreed to sign their name to the resolution.

“Due to its affiliation to human trafficking, we would like the board to consider making this declaration,” said Rev. El Akuchie of Godsfield House of Prayer in Mansfield, Ohio. “Our hope is this resolution will encourage education, prevention, research, and policy changes at the state level to confront pornography’s proliferation on the internet and in society.”

House Resolution 180 is set to be considered by the Ohio General Assembly. Along with the support of the Christian leaders, 19 state representatives have also said they are backing the resolution.

The resolution states that pornography is a “public health hazard that leads to a spectrum of individual and societal harms.” The resolution points to statistics on births, divorces, diseases and suicides, which are “observed to be adversely impacted by the addiction of pornography.”

“As a diverse group of clergy, we believe if word got out of a multi-sector partnership between an engaged faith community and local government, strategically, it could deter potential human traffickers from establishing operations in our region,” Akuchie said.

The Ohio Department…

President Trump is extending federal assistance to the people of Iowa after a brutal windstorm that hit the state last week inflicted severe damage to buildings, crops and farmland. At least four people were killed in the storm as well, the Seattle Times reports.

According to The Christian Post, Trump met with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and other officials in a roundtable discussion on Tuesday concerning recovery efforts.

“All Americans are united in grief and prayer for the precious life that was lost,” Trump said.

“When you look at the severity of the damage and how widespread it is — and especially in Linn County that you’re in right now, it’s been a blessing that we haven’t had any more loss of life than we’ve had,” Reynolds added.

A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spokesman told the Associated Press that Trump approved the public assistance portion of Reynold’s request. This portion of her request will secure about $45 million disbursed across 16 counties and will go toward debris removal and repairs to government buildings and utilities.

The FEMA spokesman noted that Trump had yet to approve a request for individual assistance for 27 counties, including $82.7 million for homes destroyed or with major damage, $3.77 billion for agriculture damage to farmland, grain bins and buildings and $100 million for private utility repairs.

Trump, however, told Iowa…

An Iowa State University professor is drawing nationwide attention after warning students they could be dismissed if they make arguments against abortion or same-sex marriage in class projects.

The professor, Chloe Clark, teaches English at the Ames, Iowa, school and made the warning in the fall 2020 syllabus, according to a report by the Young America’s Foundation (YAF). A screenshot of the syllabus was given to the organization by an anonymous whistleblower.

“GIANT WARNING: any instances of othering that you participate in intentionally (racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, sorophobia, transphobia, classism, mocking of mental health issues, body shaming, etc) in class are grounds for dismissal from the classroom,” the syllabus said.

“The same goes for any papers/projects: you cannot choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do (ie: no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc). I take this seriously,” the syllabus added.

In a statement, Iowa State University said the syllabus was “inconsistent with the university’s standards and its commitment to the First Amendment rights of students,” Fox News reports.

“After reviewing this issue with the faculty member, the syllabus has been corrected to ensure it is consistent with university policy,” the university said in a…

Evangelist Franklin Graham condemned a brutal attack on a man that took place on Sunday night in downtown Portland, as violent riots in the city have become a nightly occurrence.

The now-viral video, which has over 4 million views on Twitter, shows a man, later identified as Adam Haner, who had crashed his white pickup truck after attempting to flee from Antifa and Black Lives Matters protesters.

He was then dragged from his vehicle and beaten by the protestors, Yahoo News reports. As Haner was about to make a phone call to his girlfriend, a man wearing a “security” vest delivered a brutal kick to the back of his head. Haner was knocked unconscious as his head hit the ground, bleeding profusely.

On Wednesday, a 30-minute video was released that showed what had happened leading up to the attack. The protestors had previously been taunting and attacking a transgender woman outside of a 7-Eleven. Moments later, Haner is shown trying to leave the scene as he tries to roll his vehicle out from the crowd, prompting them to approach and later attack him.

The protestors had also attacked his girlfriend Tammie Martin, who is the blonde-haired woman shown crying after seeing Haner’s unconscious body on the ground. He was later taken to a hospital but was released with non-life-threatening injuries.

“Next thing I knew I found him on the ground unconscious, and when I got…

A small town in Massachusetts painted over a Noah’s Ark display after an atheist group complained, according to The Christian Post.

Officials in Ashburnham, Massachusetts agreed to cover a turning game featuring the Noah’s ark story on the library’s playground with white paint. The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group whose mission is to free people from religion, sent a letter to the town after a concerned citizen contacted them.

“It is settled that permanent displays on public land are government speech,” said FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler in her letter. “It makes no difference whether this part of the playground was donated to the city. As a permanent fixture, observers understand that the display is sanctioned and approved by the city.”

FFRF believes that “the government should not be using public grounds to promote Bible stories to the most impressionable members of society.”

The letter also requested that the city respond with its plan to remove the turning game from the playground.

Ashburnham Town Administrator Brian Doheny responded to FFRF, agreeing to their complaint.

“Thank you for bringing this matter to the town’s attention,” he said. “In response to your letter, the town has painted over both sides of the display with white paint so no symbolism is shown.”

A Noah’s Ark display made headlines before in the…

(RNS) — A network of more than a dozen Christian groups is launching an initiative to address police reform.

The Prayer & Action Justice Initiative — bringing together Black, Hispanic and Asian organizations along with groups focused on prisoners, prayer and public justice — will advocate for greater equality, accountability and transparency in the criminal justice system.

“The church as a whole, especially certain parts of the church, have not been very clear where they stand on racialized violence and on racial justice in general,” said Justin Giboney, president of The AND Campaign, a group focused on applying biblical values to pressing contemporary issues, which is spearheading the formation of the network.

“We don’t want any ambiguity where we stand on justice. And so our thought is that it is time for the church to unite and, through uniting, we’ll have the credibility to lead on the issue of racial justice.”

The coalition, launched Wednesday (Aug. 19), includes the National Association of Evangelicals, National Day of Prayer Task Force, Asian American Christian Collaborative, National Latino Evangelical Coalition, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, OneRace and the Church of God in Christ, a historically Black Pentecostal denomination.

The coalition also includes Prison Fellowship, a Christian organization founded by the late Chuck Colson, and…