Christians in America are more likely than the general population to see the United States as a blessed nation and a world leader, although majorities in both categories affirm such a belief, according to a new Barna survey.

Christians also are more likely to say the U.S. is a Christian nation and was “chosen by God.”

The data from the survey of 2,889 U.S. adults was posted on Barna’s website Wednesday and is part of a new study undertaken with the Racial Justice and Unity Center and others.

“While the Fourth of July offers a time for the U.S. to celebrate the Declaration of Independence, it also provides space for us to look back on our country’s history – the good and the bad – to sharpen the lens with which we envision its future,” Barna said in the release.

According to the poll, 80 percent of practicing Christians but 58 percent of U.S. adults agree with the statement that “historically, the United States has been a Christian country.” Fifty-one percent of practicing Christians strongly agree with the statement, while 29 percent “somewhat” agree.

Barna defines “practicing Christians” as self-identified Christians “who have attended a worship service within the past month and agree strongly that their faith is very important in their life.”

Meanwhile, 87 percent of practicing Christians but 52 percent of U.S. adults agree that “historically,…

Dr. Voddie Baucham, the Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, recently gave some words of warning regarding the Black Lives Matter organization on Glenn Beck’s radio program.

According to The Blaze, Baucham cautioned against the organization noting that people are being labeled as racist for not agreeing with all that the organization stands for and the actions the group is taking.

“And what worries me is that there are so many Christians who are not taking that stand,” he said.

“We have to separate this movement from the issues. I know that [Black Lives Matter] is a phrase that is part of an organization. It is a trademark phrase. And it’s a phrase designed to use Black people,” Baucham asserted.

“That phrase dehumanizes Black people because it makes them pawns in a game that has nothing whatsoever to do with Black people and their dignity and has everything to do with a divisive agenda that is bigger than Black people,” Baucham warned.

“That’s why I’m not going to use that phrase, because I love Black people. I love being Black,” he continued.

The Dean added: “I don’t have to prove anything to you … this is about me being right with God.”

Ultimately, Baucham believes that the Black Lives Matter is “dangerous” and “vicious” for trying to use Black people to enforce an agenda.

Baucham also encouraged people to read through the…

A new film from the makers of I Can Only Imagine will spotlight the so-called Jesus Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s and star two well-known actors.

The new movie Jesus Revolution will star Jim Gaffigan (Chappaquiddick, The Jim Gaffigan Show) as pastor Chuck Smith and Joel Courtney (Super 8) as Greg Laurie, who at the time was a teenager.

Smith, who passed away in 2013, founded the Calvary Chapel movement. Laurie is currently senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif.

Deadline first reported the involvement of Gaffigan and Courtney. The film is in pre-production, and a release date has not been set.

“This is a distinctly American story of rebirth,” Gaffigan told Deadline. “The late 1960s and early 1970s were a time when spirituality was on the wane, leaving a lot of people searching for answers in other places. I’m excited to play a pastor who helped make a home for the people most desperate for those answers and built a congregation – a coming together of people – to make something greater than themselves.”

The film will be made by Kingdom Story, the same company behind I Still Believe, I Can Only Imagine and Woodlawn. Jon Gunn, who directed Case for Christ, will direct Jesus Revolution. Andrew and Jon Erwin and Kevin Downes will produce it.

Jon Erwin told Christian Headlines in May that the pandemic put them behind on production…

A new survey shows that most evangelical Protestants support women taking on leadership roles in the church.

According to Christianity Today, the survey from political scientist Ryan P. Burge found that 8 in 10 self-identified evangelicals said they agree with women teaching Sunday school, leading worship and preaching at women’s conferences and retreats.

Seven in 10 said they were in favor of women preaching during church services.

Nearly 87 percent said they supported having women teach Sunday school, while 72.8 percent said they would support women preaching on Sunday morning.

The survey comes just a few weeks after social media pages revealed some complementarians privately decrying author Aimee Byrd.

In a Facebook group called Geneva Commons, elders from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church in America reportedly said of Byrd:

“I wish her husband loved her enough to tell her to shut up,” one wrote.

“Why can’t these women just take their shoes off and make us some sandwiches!?!” another wrote.

Byrd is the author of Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose.

In 2018, Beth Moore also found herself at the center of the debate on the women’s role in the church.

“I’m asking that you would simply have no tolerance for misogyny and dismissiveness toward women in your spheres of influence,”…

Boston city officials say they will remove a much-debated statue of Abraham Lincoln that depicts the 16th president freeing a slave.

The Emancipation Group statue in Boston is a replica of the original Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., and shows Lincoln standing over a slave named Archer Alexander who is on one knee but is no longer in bondage. The word “Emancipation” is engraved on the base. 

The original memorial in Washington was erected in 1876 and funded solely by freed slaves, “primarily from African American Union veterans,” according to the National Park Service. The statue was the idea of Charlotte Scott, a freed slave who launched a fundraiser to pay “homage to the President who had issued the Emancipation Proclamation that liberated the slaves in the Confederate States,” according to the NPS website. Frederick Douglass spoke at the statue’s dedication. 

The memorial’s official name in Washington, D.C. is the Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln. 

The Boston Art Commission voted Tuesday to remove the replica, which has stood in Park Square since 1879. Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh supported the move. The commission said in a blog that many criticized the statue’s “visual representation of Archer Alexander as the passive recipient of Lincoln’s gift of freedom.”

“Many also feel that it inaccurately implies that one person is…

Five choir and orchestra members at a Dallas megachurch where Vice President Mike Pence visited this weekend tested positive for the coronavirus before the vice president’s visit.

According to Buzzfeed, another member of First Baptist’s Church in Dallas’ orchestra also showed symptoms and was waiting on test results.

None of those church members were at First Baptist Church in Dallas when Pence visited Sunday. Buzzfeed reported it was unclear how many of the musicians who were present for Pence’s visit also may have been exposed to the six others during other practices and performances.

During Pence’s visit, called Freedom Sunday, the choir and orchestra performed for Pence without masks.

The music director of the church did not attend Freedom Sunday after he tested positive for the virus and quarantined.

“Some of you may know but I’ve been in quarantine since June 14 after several exposures,” said Jarrod Blackstock, music director and associate minister of worship. “I was tested and it came back positive for the virus.

“I thought Freedom Sunday was a great day. Everyone who participated did an excellent job! I’m sorry that I wasn’t there and hated to miss it,” he added.

Abigail Miller, the director of communications for First Baptist Dallas, said the church is being “strategic and prudent” with church activities.

“We have taken…