A new podcast by Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson has climbed the charts, sparked discussion and led to an unforeseen blessing for the outspoken Christian: fans wanting to be baptized by him.

The Unashamed with Phil Robertson podcast launched in 2019 and currently ranks in the Top 10 in Apple’s religion and spiritual podcasts.

“We’re reaching out to our neighbor and we’re telling them to love their God – repent and turn to God – walk like Jesus did. Love God and love your neighbor,” Robertson said of the podcast on a recent episode of Edifi with Billy Hallowell.

Despite him living in rural Louisiana, Robertson says fans drive to his area to be baptized by the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan.

“They’re coming from that podcast,” he said. “… About nine or maybe 10, in the last three days, they’ve come all the way down here. … And I baptized that whole little crew. It’s that way every day or two. They just keep coming.”

Referencing concerns some might have about baptizing strangers during a pandemic, Robertson said, “I baptized ‘em, and I’m still kicking.”

Robertson also has a television show, In the Woods With Phil on BlazeTV, and a new book, Jesus Politics: How to Win Back the Soul of America.

“I’m down here in the woods. I live a quiet life. I mind my own business. I work hard with my hands. … I’m not dependent on anybody, including…

In a culture defined by anxiety, toxic habits, and information overload, Pastor Levi Lusko is urging Christians to quiet the noise and take ownership of their God-given purpose.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Lusko, the lead pastor of Fresh Life Church, a multisite church in Montana and Utah, said he believes the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing millions to confront fissures in their lives — and most don’t know how to do so in a healthy way. 

“This time is exposing what maybe was already there all along: Toxic habits, unhealthy patterns of thinking, numbing medications, living on adrenaline and coffee, two hours of sleep,” the 38-year-old pastor said. “We’re chronically overloaded, overwhelmed, and lack a margin lifestyle. In this cultural moment, we’re overstimulated by screens and stimulants.”

“Soldiers don’t get PTSD when they’re overseas; they get it when they get home because everything settles down and then their body starts to feel the miles and the physical and psychological abuse they’ve been put through,” he continued. “The reason…

NEW DELHI, August 17, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A Christian father of seven in northern India was hospitalized for more than two weeks after Hindu extremists with iron rods interrupted his night prayers with his family and beat him at his home.

Pappu Kumar, released from a hospital on Thursday (Aug. 13), was praying with his family in Balawali village, Uttarakhand state at 9:30 p.m. on July 28 when a mob of at least 10 Hindu extremists appeared at his door, sources said.

The visitors told the 40-year-old Kumar, who put his faith in Christ just three months ago, to stop praying, said Mange Singh, a church pastor in the region who has been discipling Kumar’s family.

“Pappu responded that he was praying inside his house, and that should not bother anybody,” Pastor Singh said. “But the furious mob began to assault Pappu.”

The mob verbally abused Kumar as they kicked him and beat him with the rods, batons and fists, repeatedly telling him to stop following the Christian faith, Pastor Singh said.

“They intentionally threw Pappu on the heap of bricks that were placed near his house, so that they would cause him double injury,” he said.

Kumar sustained a severe head injury, a broken leg and fractured bones in his hand in the assault. The assailants relented only at the intervention of villagers, the pastor said.

Kumar’s brother and son borrowed a motorbike to take him to Pastor…

(RNS) — It may not be unusual for the head of one of the country’s largest evangelical universities to follow students or student groups on social media.

Or to follow or share content by conservative political pundits. Especially if the school’s leader has been as outspoken about politics as Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has been.

But tweeting an image of a face mask featuring a politician in blackface proved problematic for Falwell. 

And an Instagram photo of Falwell with his arm around a woman who is not his wife — their pants unzipped and midriffs bared — led to Falwell taking an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as president and chancellor of Liberty.

For leaders of religious institutions, social media can be another way to share their public messages and a peek into their private lives. But it can also backfire. 

“There’s a certain kind of integrity that the president of an evangelical university has to have, and he’s crossed that line of integrity multiple times,” Messiah College history professor John Fea said of Falwell.

Now, some of the images Falwell has “liked” on Instagram are raising eyebrows.

Religion News Service has verified that Falwell has liked a handful of images posted on the social media platform that show young women in swimsuits in the past month.

One is a photo of model Stefanie Gurzanski, who has…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — The recent U.S.-brokered agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has been lauded by some of President Donald Trump’s detractors as a breakthrough that could reconfigure relations in the Middle East and redeem three years of diplomatic efforts of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

But Monday morning (Aug. 17), Trump himself appeared to be concerned with acknowledging the influence of some of his greatest supporters: American evangelical Christians.

“It’s an incredible thing for Israel, (and) it’s incredible for the evangelicals, by the way,” Trump told “Fox and Friends.” “The evangelicals love Israel. Love Israel.”

Trump’s focus on the domestic implications of the Israel-United Arab Emirates deal signals the importance of religious conservatives to his general election strategy as the Democratic and Republican conventions convene over the next two weeks.

At a rally in Mankato, Minnesota, later on Monday, he again invoked religion, framing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as a test from God.

“You know what that is?” Trump said, referring to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. “That’s right. That’s God testing me. He said, ‘You know, you did it once.’ And I said, ‘Did I do a great job, God? I’m the only one that could do it.’ He said, ‘That, you shouldn’t say. Now we’re going to have…

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts on Saturday signed into law a ban on “dismemberment abortion,” a second trimester procedure that involves tearing the unborn baby apart limb by limb until the womb is empty.

The bill, LB 814, passed the unicameral legislature by a bipartisan vote of 33-8, although seven senators – all Democrats – were present but did not vote.

The new law prohibits all dismemberment abortions except in the case of a medical emergency. Medical doctors call it a dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion.

The doctor – and not the pregnant woman – would be charged with the crime under the text of the law.

A dismemberment abortion requires the dilation of the cervix and the removal of the unborn baby limb by limb – a hand, an arm, a foot, a leg, and so forth. It was described in excruciating detail in the movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.

State Sen. Suzanne Geist introduced the bill.

“Nebraska is a pro-life state, and this week the Legislature took an important step to strengthen our culture of life,” Ricketts said. “Senator Geist’s bill bans the horrific procedure of dismemberment abortion, which tears apart a living baby’s body limb by limb. This brutal procedure has no place in a humane, civilized society. I commend Sen. Geist, and the bill’s supporters in the Unicameral, for outlawing this barbaric practice…

Robert Trump, the younger brother to President Donald Trump, passed away over the weekend at 71 years old. The cause of death has yet to be released.

According to the Associated Press, Trump, who had previously been hospitalized for several days in June, died on Saturday in a New York hospital just one day after the President paid his ailing brother a visit.

“It is with [a] heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend,” President Trump said in a statement on Saturday regarding his brother’s passing.

“He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace,” the President concluded.

From President @realDonaldTrump on the passing of his brother and best friend, Robert – “We will meet again”: pic.twitter.com/1mBgx1td26

— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) August 16, 2020

Evangelist and vocal supporter of President Trump, Franklin Graham, offered his condolences to the president on Twitter.

“My prayers are with President Donald Trump and the family as his brother, Robert, passed away today. The President shared that Robert was not only his brother, but his best friend. I know they would appreciate your prayers as well during this time,” Graham wrote.

My prayers are with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and the family as his brother, Robert,…

Pastor Said Deeb of Life Center Church in Beirut said he had a feeling he needed to send staff home on the day a massive explosion rocked the city.

“I don’t know why, I was so rude, I told everyone, ‘Go home, go home, just close the Center’,” Pastor Deeb explained, according to CBN News. “But people said, ‘How come? We came a long way, we have commitments, we have meetings.’ I said I don’t know why but please go home and come back on Sunday and it was a Tuesday afternoon,” he said.

Deeb said he sent home 34 staff members and canceled children’s Bible classes.

“It was as if the Holy Spirit is saying, Go! Go! Go! Go! So I was saying everybody go home, turn off the computers, forcing them to leave, I was forcing them and they said, ‘We are cooking, cooking food for the refugees and for the poor,’ and I said, ‘Today cancel everything, put it in the fridge’.”

“They were thinking I lost my mind but they didn’t know and I didn’t know it was the Holy Spirit’s prompting.”

Then on Aug. 4, the roof of a warehouse near the Port of Beirut caught fire, sparking several blasts and then finally, an explosion.

Life Center Church in Beirut is only about a mile from the explosion’s epicenter. Church windows and doors were blown out in the explosion.

Nearly 200 people were killed in the city and thousands were injured, according to reports.

“The…