A Jacksonville city councilman who represents the district where Sunday’s mass shooting occurred says America needs to return to God.

Florida city councilman Reggie Gaffney told WJAX-TV in Jacksonville that America and Florida have a “gun problem” and a “faith problem.” 

“We’ve really got to ask ourselves two questions,” he said. “What are we going to do about guns? And we’ve really got to get focused on getting closer with the Lord, because this city is under attack.” 

The shooting at a video game tournament at a waterfront mall known as Jacksonville Landing resulted in three deaths, including that of the alleged shooter, 24-year-old David Katz, who killed himself. Eleven were injured. 

Florida Gov. Rick Scott echoed the Jacksonville city councilman’s comments about faith.

“Every parent has to say to themselves: What can I do better? Our church leaders have to say to themselves, ‘What can we be doing to get people more involved in faith?’ Because when I was growing up, this wasn’t happening. And it’s happening now,” Scott said.

Young men, Scott said, are taking actions that were unthinkable when he was growing up. “Something’s changed,” since he was a child, Scott added, according to First Coast News.  

“There’s something wrong. Why are young men willing to give up their life? Who…

NEW DELHI, August 27, 2018 (Morning Star News) – Christians’ confidence in the judiciary in Nepal was shattered after a court sentenced a 63-year-old pastor to 10 years in prison on rape accusations the complainant later renounced, church leaders said.

 

Pastor Govinda Prasad Dhakal, 63, was sentenced on June 7 upon conviction for “frequently raping a minor” he and his wife had adopted in 2016. Christian leaders and his family roundly refute the allegation, citing an attempt by the alleged victim’s family to extort money from him with a false accusation.

 

“We are not happy to see the verdict, because everything was pre-decided,” Tanka Subedi, chair of the Religious Liberty Forum Nepal (RLFN), told Morning Star News.

 

The complainant, the now-12-year-old girl’s mother, confessed before the court that she had fabricated the rape story in a fit of anger over the pastor’s unwillingness to pay the girl’s school fees after he returned the child to her custody, a source present in the courtroom said. Authorities arrested Pastor Dhakal on Dec. 12, 2017, based on the mother’s initial statement.

 

Prabhushanta Dhakal, Pastor Dhakal’s younger son, was a witness to the courtroom proceedings. He said the mother expressed remorse, saying she never thought the pastor would end up in jail.

“The girl’s mother in the court confessed, ‘I was…

A local library in Lafayette, Louisiana has recently decided to host “Drag Queen Story Time” on October 6^th of this year. The purpose of the event, according to the Lafayette Public Library System, is to “share stories of individuality, openness and acceptance with families seeking an opportunity to show their children that every person is unique and should be treated with equal respect.” However, the mayor and various local members of government have challenged whether this event is something in the best interests of the children of the town.

Lafayette’s citizens have mixed reactions to the event. Theresa Elberson, the director of the Lafayette Public Library, where the event is being held, shared with KATC excerpts of emails that she received:

“We were horrified to learn that our public library is planning promote deviant lifestyles in the name of tolerance” said one email.

However other emails voiced support: “We need programming like this to show our children how differences are beautiful, insightful and most importantly completely normal.”

Drag Queens, according to Dr. Jennifer O’Brien writing for Psychology Today, are when a male, who is typically gay, dresses and acts like a woman for the purpose of entertainment in nightclubs and bars. “Dressed in stereotypical feminine clothing and with elaborate makeup and wigs, they usually adopt an…

Pope Francis has been accused by a former top Vatican official of covering up sex abuse in the Catholic Church for years.

Francis, who at the World Meeting of Families in Ireland over the weekend apologized to the faithful for cover-ups from others, has since given an enigmatic response to the accusations.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who previously served as the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States in one of the top diplomatic positions, states in an 11-page letter, published in The National Catholic Register, that “corruption had reached the very top of the Church’s hierarchy.”

Viganò claims that Francis and other Vatican officials were made aware of the long list of accusations against former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, including that he took sexual advantage of young seminarians.

He insists that Pope Benedict XVI imposed sanctions on McCarrick in 2009 or 2010 and ordered him to withdraw to prayer and penance, but that Francis decided to cover for him and even put him in a position of a trusted counselor.

The alleged papal cover-up of McCarrick continued for years, the letter states, until finally the cardinal was removed from public…