(RNS) — Hundreds of campers may have been exposed to COVID-19 after attending a Christian camp hosted by Fellowship Church, an evangelical megachurch in Grapevine, Texas. The church’s Allaso Ranch retreat center, located near Dallas-Fort Worth, has been welcoming campers of various ages this summer since June 13. 

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that at least three campers who attended Allaso Ranch in the previous two weeks have tested positive for coronavirus, with one child hospitalized.

One parent whose daughter tested positive after attending Allaso Ranch in early July told the newspaper that she’d heard of at least 80 other campers who tested positive for the virus.

The parent also reported that more than 200 children attended the camp the week of July 5, and at least 140 came the next week.

An Instagram post from July 13 shows hundreds of maskless campers crowded together singing in Allaso Ranch’s indoor auditorium, worshipping mosh pit style. Other photos depict children close together without masks in an outdoor pool area.

“We all make calculated risks. We still have to live,” said another parent whose child contracted coronavirus at Allaso Ranch. “Everything is a calculated risk whether you go to the store or let your kid play sports. How are we going to defend not letting him go to camp when he’s playing baseball and going to work every…

California pastor John MacArthur said in a sermon Sunday his church will continue to meet in-person despite a state-mandated ban on such gatherings, saying that Christ – not the state – is the “head of the church.”

“I can’t think of anything worse than to put an entire world into fear and then shut down the only place they could go to have their fear finally and completely removed,” said MacArthur, a well-known author and preacher at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., whose sermons are syndicated on radio stations nationwide. “We’re fulfilling our Lord’s design.”

Churches in at least 30 counties have been ordered by the state to close again due to rising COVID-19 cases. MacArthur’s sermon came three days after the elders of Grace Community Church released a public statement saying the congregation “will not bow” to the state restrictions because the state itself had exceeded its authority.

“When any government official issues orders regulating worship (such as bans on singing, caps on attendance, or prohibitions against gatherings and services), he steps outside the legitimate bounds of his God-ordained authority as a civic official and arrogates to himself authority that God expressly grants only to the Lord Jesus Christ as sovereign over His Kingdom, which is the church,” the elders’ statement said.

MacArthur, in his sermon, said Grace…

(RNS) — Which churches have resumed gathering in person amid the coronavirus pandemic?

Mostly evangelical Protestant churches rather than mainline Protestant and, more often, those that are located in the South or Midwest, according to a new survey released Friday (July 24) by LifeWay Research, the research arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

But even for those churches that have reopened, services likely don’t look like they did before COVID-19 upended everyday life in the United States.

“Resuming in-person worship services has not been reverting to worship as usual,” LifeWay Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said in a written statement.

By theological affiliation, 82% of pastors who identify as evangelical — traditionally, more conservative — said their churches gathered in person for worship last weekend (July 19), compared to 57% of pastors who identify as mainline.

Doctrinally, that shouldn’t make a difference, McConnell told Religion News Service. But many evangelicals also tend to be more politically conservative, and the split falls along political lines as the pandemic has become politicized.

And by region, 78% of pastors in the Midwest and 75% in the South said they met last week in person, compared to 61% in the West and 55% in the Northeast, according to the survey.

Those numbers dropped off this past weekend in the West as California has…

Representative Ted Yoho (R-FL) has been asked to step down from the board of Bread for the World after he allegedly called fellow congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “f***ing b***h” in front of media personnel.

According to the Washington Post, Bread for the World, a Christian non-profit organization fighting against world hunger, asked Yoho to resign from his board position on Friday, insisting that his actions and words do not represent the values of the organization.

“As a bipartisan Christian organization committed to alleviating hunger and poverty through sound public policies, Bread for the World upholds the values of respect, dignity, and compassion that Jesus calls us to when engaging decision-makers from across the political spectrum. We believe that Rep. Ted Yoho’s recent actions and words as reported in the media are not reflective of the ethical standards expected of members of our Board of Directors,” the organization wrote.

Referring to a meeting Bread for the World had with Yoho on Friday, the group continued, “During that conversation, we reaffirmed our joint commitment to expanding opportunity for men, women, and children around the world and thanked Rep. Yoho for his commitment to foreign aid effectiveness and transparency. Despite these areas of agreement, Bread sought his resignation as an action that reaffirms our commitment to coming…

Netflix is defending its decision to include a transgender angle in its new series The Baby-Sitters Club, saying the plot is “smart” and “sweet” and supports children who want to identify with a different gender.

The live-action series is based on a collection of popular Scholastic books about middle-school girls who launch a babysitting business.

In episode 4, Mary Anne – one of the sitters – is asked to watch a young girl, Bailey. Mary Anne, though, soon discovers Bailey is a biological boy who dresses like and identifies as a girl. Toward the end of the episode, Mary Anne defends Bailey’s transgenderism to a doctor and nurse when Bailey gets sick and is hospitalized.

The series is rated TV-G and available on Netflix’s children’s profiles.

Last week, Netflix’s official Twitter account posted a defense of the episode by Rose Dommu, a writer for Netflix who identifies as a trans woman. Netflix’s Twitter account has 8.5 million followers.

“The Baby-Sitters Club is a smart, sweet, and self-aware update of the beloved book series about preteen BFFs who start a childcare service — literal girlbosses! This generation’s BSC handle the same dramas as their original incarnations, with the circumstances updated for 2020,” Dommu wrote.

The Baby-Sitters Club is a smart, sweet, and self-aware update of the beloved book series about preteen BFFs who…

After months of COVID-19-related restrictions compelled places of worship to suspend on-campus services across America, more than 70% of Protestant churches have cautiously resumed in-person services following the required safety measures, according to a new LifeWay Research survey.

About three months ago, in April, less than 10% of Protestant churches held in-person services, but the number climbed to more than 55% by the first weekend in June, and in July, more than 70% met physically, according to the LifeWay survey.

“While more and more churches have resumed in-person worship services, it has not always been a straight path back,” said LifeWay Research’s executive director, Scott McConnell. “Some have had difficulty resuming or had to stop meeting again as things got worse in their area.”

The study found that 99% of the churches that have reopened to meet physically indoors are taking health and safety precaution.

For example, 94% of pastors said they provided…

NEW DELHI, July 27, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A 26-year-old mother became the fifth Christian in two months to be killed in India last week when she refused to hand over her daughter to be raped by Hindus who had assaulted the girl and other Christian minors, sources said.

Two masked Hindus slit the throat of Sunita Devi (name changed for security reasons) in Regadi village, in Jharkhand state’s Khunti District, when she came out her door at 1 a.m. and refused their demand for her young daughter, according to the sources.

“The two suspects had raped Devi’s minor daughter three times in the past besides three other Christian juvenile girls, and all four of the minor girls belong to my church,” pastor Jaymasih Nag of Grace Family Ministry (Anugrah Pariwaar Seva) told Morning Star News.

Devi’s daughter told police the assailants had previously called Devi by phone with demands that she hand over her daughter to be sexually abused, according to a police report. That night her mother had refused to answer her cell phone when the assailants called, according to the daughter.

At about 1 a.m. Devi noticed two men at the window of the room where she had been sleeping with her children and decided to get up and send them away, Pastor Nag said, based on what the minor girl had told him.

“Unaware of their intentions, Devi with the help of her cell phone torch, stepped out of the house to shoo…

After 100 consecutive days of hospitalization due to the COVID-19 disease, a 69-year-old pastor in Ohio came back to his congregation on Sunday to preach a sermon.

Jonathan Mitchell, the pastor of Faith Fellowship Church of God in Youngstown who was put on a respirator for 30 days and kept in the ICU for another month while in hospital, was back in his church Sunday to preach his first sermon in a long time, WKBN reported.

“This is my life, I can’t [do] nothing else. This is my life and I honor God and thank Him for this opportunity and that the church still wants me,” Mitchell said.

The pastor was discharged from the hospital on July 15. On his way back home, he was told they would stop by the church to pick up mail. But many members were waiting in the church to greet him, the newspaper reported earlier.

“My goodness, my heart is overwhelmed. We love you, we love you. My heart is overwhelmed with joy,” he was quoted as saying…

A pitcher for the San Francisco Giants cited his Christian faith as the reason he refused to kneel prior to the national anthem in a team-wide show of unity for Black Lives Matter.

Pitcher Sam Coonrod, who is in his second season with the team, was the only player on either team not to kneel. Every manager, coach and staff member also kneeled, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I’m a Christian … and I just can’t get on board with a couple of things that I have read about Black Lives Matter,” Coonrod said, referencing the national organization, not the movement. “How they lean toward Marxism and they’ve said some negative things about the nuclear family. I just can’t get on board with that.”

Coonrod, who made his Major League Baseball debut in 2019, said he “meant no ill will by it.”

“I don’t think I’m better than anybody. I’m just a Christian. I believe I can’t kneel before anything but God, Jesus Christ. I chose not to kneel. I feel if I did kneel I’d be a hypocrite. I don’t want to be a hypocrite.”

Coonrod’s comments reflect a debate among the wider Christian community over the organization’s stances. Black Lives Matter, founded in 2013, says on its website: “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another.”…

A campaign created by the Trump administration is reaching out to veterans and Americans who are feeling suicidal. Houses of worship are also being encouraged to collaborate by spreading the message amongst its members.

In a recent interview with CBN News, the Second Lady of the United States, Karen Pence, discussed her role as an ambassador in the PREVENT effort. PREVENT stands for “President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide.”

President Trump signed an executive order concerning PREVENT last March as a means to empower veterans and stop them from committing suicide.

“PREVENTS seeks to change the culture surrounding mental health and suicide prevention through enhanced community integration, prioritized research activities, and implementation strategies that emphasize improved overall health and well-being,” the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs states.

“I saw my role as a way to say, let’s end the stigma, and let’s start the conversation,” Pence told CBN News Chief Political Analyst David Brody. “Everybody has risk factors for suicide, every single one of us.”

More than 47,000 people commit suicide each year in the U.S., and more than 6,000 are veterans. Each day, about 20 veterans commit suicide. According to CBN News, the rate of suicide among veterans is two times higher than the rate among the general population.

PREVENT also…