A pastor in Beirut, Lebanon says a headmaster at a Syrian school may be executed after the school official was arrested by an Islamist group.

According to The Christian Post, Radwan Muhammad teaches English in Afrin in northern Syria. The Kurdish Christian was accused of apostasy and is being held at the Failaq Al-Sham headquarters in Afrin. Failaq Al-Sham is an Islamist group associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

“We are extremely worried about Radwan’s life and wellbeing,” Pastor Nihad Hassan, who leads a Kurdish church in Beirut, Lebanon, said. “[T]hey may execute him.”

Failaq Al-Sham had ordered Muhammad to give up his Afrin school so it could be converted to an Islamic educational building, but Muhammad refused.

“I will hand you the building in one case only: if Jesus Christ comes down to earth again,” Muhammad reportedly told them.

Muhammad was arrested on July 30.

“Those Islamist groups and their Turkish masters are walking in the footsteps of IS (Islamic State),” Hassan said. “In fact, many of their fighters are former IS and al Qaeda members.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas is asking for Muhammad’s release.

“We also urge the Turkish authorities to intervene by restraining the various Islamist militia groups functioning under its command, and to immediately bring to an end all forms of violence and human rights abuses in the areas…

Disney continues to make headlines over its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in movies and TV shows. Most recently Disney included its first bisexual lead character on the supernatural animated series, The Owl House.

According to Breitbart, The Owl House, which premiered on the Disney Channel in January, follows a 14-year-old Dominican-American girl named Luz Noceda who travels to another world and hopes to become a witch.

While Luz shows interest in male characters throughout the show, she recently started to develop a relationship with a recurring female character, Amity, Variety reports.

In a recent episode, Amity and Luz share a dance and Amity desires to ask Luz to Grom, the show’s version of the prom.

Dana Terrace, the show’s creator, revealed that Luz is bisexual in a series of tweets following the episode. She explained that her creation of the character is reflective of her own sexual orientation.

“In dev I was very open about my intention to put queer kids in the main cast. I’m a horrible liar so sneaking it in would’ve been hard haha.” Terrace wrote. “When we were greenlit I was told by certain Disney leadership that I could NOT represent any form of bi or gay relationship on the Channel.”

Despite initial denials from Disney leadership over Terrace’s proposal featuring a bi character, it eventually was approved.

“I’m bi! I want to write a bi character, dammit!…

Throughout the pandemic, churches across the nation have been defying government restrictions on houses of worship as many believe religious freedom is being suppressed.

According to the Associated Press, on Thursday, three churches from Minnesota filed a lawsuit against Minnesota governor Tim Walz for his executive orders requiring people to wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines while attending religious gatherings.

The churches are being represented by the conservative law firm, Thomas More Society.

“Gov. Walz, a former teacher, gets an F in religious liberties,” said Erick Kaardal, special counsel for the Thomas More Society. “Other states, including Texas, Illinois and Ohio, have excluded churches from COVID-19 mask mandates.”

 “Unlike Walz,” he added, “those states have recognized that you cannot criminalize religious attendance at houses of worship for any reason. Governor Walz wants to prosecute Minnesotans for religious attendance. We are going to do our best not to see that happen.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison came to Walz’s defense, stating that the order was legally and constitutionally sound.

According to spokesperson Teddy Teschann, Gov. Walz stayed within his power in executing the order to ensure the public safety of the state’s citizens.

In early August, in Palmetto, Florida, Rev. Joel Tillis of Suncoast Baptist Church also took issue with…

Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders acknowledged on Sunday he is more liberal than Joe Biden but nevertheless expressed belief that Biden could be the “most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”

Sanders, a self-described “Democratic Socialist” and the former frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, made the comments on NBC’s Meet the Press after being asked if he was disappointed the party platform barely mentioned Medicare For All – something Sanders champions.

“I am not the candidate, so my views are not the dominant views,” said Sanders, a senator from Vermont.

But Sanders pointed to “Unity Task Force” recommendations that were made in July by allies of Biden and Sanders. The document was posted on Biden’s official campaign website and lists areas of agreement. The document addresses climate change, the economy, criminal justice, education, immigration and health care.

“The people on those task forces worked very, very hard,” Sanders said. “And I’m not here to tell you, as a strong advocate for Medicare For All, that we got everything we wanted. We surely did not. But I think if people look at the outcome of those task forces, they’ll find the reality that if those task force proposals are implemented – you know what? – Joe Biden will become the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt….

John MacArthur’s California church gathered Sunday morning for worship in spite of a last-minute court order that upheld government restrictions on indoor worship due to the pandemic.

“We’re not meeting … because we want to be rebellious. We’re meeting because our Lord has commanded us to come together and worship Him,” MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles County, said at the beginning of Sunday’s worship service.

Under current rules in Los Angeles County, churches are limited to outdoor gatherings, provided they social distance.

The service capped a busy legal weekend that initially saw the congregation win in court before Los Angeles County appealed to an appellate court.

On Friday, California Superior Court Judge James Chalfant ruled the church could meet indoors but ordered the congregation to social distance and to wear masks. MacArthur on Friday said he was “very grateful” that the judge vindicated “our desire to stay open and serve our people.”

But on Saturday, Los Angeles County filed an appeal with the California Court of Appeals, which late in the day blocked the judge’s ruling and upheld the county’s right to “enforce the Health Order’s ban on ‘indoor religious activity.’” The county had “demonstrated a likelihood” it would win the lawsuit, the appeals court said in its unanimous 3-0 decision, citing…

LAHORE, Pakistan, August 14, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A court decision to return custody of a 14-year-old Christian girl to the Muslim who allegedly kidnapped her and forced her to convert to Islam and marry him will make more Christian girls vulnerable to such trauma, sources said.

Lala Robin Daniel, a rights activist based in Faisalabad assisting the family of Maira Shahbaz, said the Lahore High Court’s refusal to take into account the documented age of the girl and the falsification of documents, including a fake marriage certificate, was unprecedented and would lead to more such cases.

“If the courts of this country start validating underage marriages of girls belonging to the minority communities, it will encourage people from the majority faith to target them with even more impunity,” he said. “A minor child can easily be influenced or coerced into renouncing their faith and marrying someone. This practice needs to be stopped.”

Daniel and the family’s attorney correctly refer to the girl as Maira in court documents, but the court mistakenly called her Maria in its verdict. A Catholic from Medina Town, Faisalabad, Maira contracted false marriage with the already married Muslim, Nakash Tariq, on Oct. 25, 2019 – six months before he allegedly abducted her on April 28, according to her mother, Nighat Shahbaz, a single parent and domestic worker.

According…

Saying “gay rights and freedom of speech” can co-exist, a federal judge Friday sided with a Christian photographer in ruling the city of Louisville, Ky., cannot force her to work at same-sex weddings.

The case involved a Christian photographer, Chelsey Nelson, who owns a studio that specializes in photographing, editing and blogging about weddings. She sued Louisville in 2019, claiming its anti-discrimination law would require her to photograph a same-sex wedding and thus violate her First Amendment rights.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Justin R. Walker sided with Nelson and issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the city from enforcing the law against her in her photography and her blogging.

Nelson will likely succeed in her lawsuit, he ruled. Alliance Defending Freedom represented her.

“America is wide enough for those who applaud same-sex marriage and those who refuse to,” he wrote. “The Constitution does not require a choice between gay rights and freedom of speech. It demands both. … Forcing citizens to express ideas ‘contrary to their deepest convictions’ is ‘always demeaning.’ It doesn’t matter if most people agree with the expression the government compels. Free thought ‘includes both the right to speak freely’ and to say nothing at all.”

The city, he wrote, is “attempting to compel religious speech at the core of the First…

Holding indoor services once again in defiance of California’s COVID-19 lockdown orders, Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church on Sunday told his congregation, “We are holding church … because our Lord commands it.” The megachurch met hours after an appeals court blocked a ruling that had allowed it to meet for worship.

“They don’t want us to meet, that’s obvious,” MacArthur said after Los Angeles County secured a stay of the trial court ruling that would have allowed the congregation to meet indoors with masks and social distancing.

“They’re not willing to work with us. They just want to shut us down. But we’re here to bring honor to the Lord,” the pastor continued.

The California Court of Appeal said in its ruling late Saturday, “As between the harm that flows from the heightened risk of transmitting COVID-19 (namely “serious illness and death”) and the harm that flows from having to conduct religious services outdoors instead of indoors, the balance at this early stage favors issuance of a stay.”

MacArthur said he doesn’t know…