A Christian photographer filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn a Virginia law that would force him to take pictures at same-sex weddings under the threat of $50,000 to $100,000 fines.

At issue is the Virginia Values Act, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in April and prohibits “unlawful discrimination because of” sexual orientation in “places of public accommodation.” It defines a public accommodation as “all places or businesses offering or holding out to the general public goods, services, privileges, [or] advantages.”

Virginia law permits a civil penalty of up to $50,000 against first-time violators and up to $100,000 for each subsequent violation.

The law went into effect Wednesday.

Alliance Defending Freedom filed the suit against Virginia’s attorney general and another state official on behalf of Chris Herring, who owns Chris Herring Photography.

Herring is a Christian who derives his views on marriage from the Bible, the denominational teachings of the Southern Baptist Convention, and “other Christian leaders, pastors, and theologians that Chris admires,” the suit says. His formal policy, the suit says, is “to only offer wedding photography services celebrating weddings between one man and woman and to decline any photography requests celebrating any other weddings – including those for same-sex engagements or…

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana pro-life law Monday in a much-anticipated abortion case, and the four dissenting justices didn’t mince words in criticizing the majority’s position.

“Today a majority of the Court perpetuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing so without jurisdiction,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote.

The court, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned a Louisiana law that required abortion doctors to acquire admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. The goal of the law, supporters said, was to protect the health of a woman if the procedure didn’t go as planned.

Thomas criticized the court’s abortion opinions from the past five decades and argued Roe v. Wade, handed down in 1973, should be overturned.

“Roe is grievously wrong for many reasons, but the most fundamental is that its core holding – that the Constitution protects a woman’s right to abort her unborn child – finds no support in the text of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Thomas wrote.

The “right to abortion,” he wrote, was “created out of whole cloth, without a shred of support from the Constitution’s text.” Roe and its subsequent cases, he argued, “should be overruled.”

“The idea that the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment understood the Due Process Clause to protect a right to abortion is…

Herman Mendoza had it all—money, success, mistresses, and a beautiful home in the Poconos. But the kingdom he had built came toppling down when he was arrested for selling drugs, forcing him to his knees where he eventually accepted Christ.

According to CBN News, Mendoza’s experience with drugs started young as a teenager with his brother. He continued experimenting for years until he lost his job in his 20s.

“I was married and living with my wife and I was laid off from a job that I was working at,” Mendoza told The PureFlix Podcast. “And so I was desperate for money.”

He partnered with his brother and the two sunk deep into the drug trade, largely selling cocaine. Soon, the money started to flow in and Mendoza felt on top of the world. He bounced around from party to party, traveling the Eastern Seaboard with his brother distributing drugs and collecting mistresses. Eventually, he had a home in the Poconos for his nuclear family and a string of apartments around the city for his mistresses.

“I thought, ‘Hey, this is an easy way to make money and get rich,’” he said.

But the high didn’t last long. Mendoza’s newfound success stopped when police discovered cocaine in the trunk of his car, marking his first arrest. He was stunned, terrified of what might happen to his wife and child while he was in prison.

He faced 25 years to life but struck a deal with prosecutors…

A U.S.-based evangelical broadcaster will be pulled from Israeli airwaves, Israeli regulators announced.

Asher Biton, chairman of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, told GOD TV last week that it had seven days to stop the broadcast of the Shelanu channel.

“The channel appeals to Jews with Christian content,” he wrote. “Its original request,” he said, stated that it was a “station targeting the Christian population.”

Shelanu’s satellite provider, HOT, has also dropped the channel.

Ron Cantor, Shelanu’s Israeli spokesman, said their license in Israel “state unequivocally” that the station would broadcast its content in Hebrew. Most Christians in Israel speak Arabic.

In its original application, Shelanu describes itself as a “Christian religion channel broadcasting Christian content … for the audience of Israeli viewers … [in] Hebrew and English.”

In Biton’s initial approval of the station, he said that “the channel is intended for the Israeli viewing audience.”

Avi Mizachi, a Shelanu board member, said it was “absurd” that the channel was being pulled off the air.

“It is absurd that anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist content is broadcast freely every day on cable television in Israel, and a pro-Israel Zionist channel like ours is under investigation,” he said. “We should be free to broadcast content of our…

(RNS) — The Rev. Traci Blackmon was at home outside of St. Louis when a local hospital called. It had been sending people with mild coronavirus home to recover, but it didn’t have enough masks to send with them.

Now the hospital had a question: Could Blackmon’s church help sew some masks?

“That moment still haunts me,” said Blackmon, senior pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Missouri, and a registered nurse. She knew how crucial it was for those people to protect others from contracting the disease.

She was also ready and able to help. Christ the King is part of a network called Masks for the People that is distributing surgical masks and hand sanitizer in low-income and minority neighborhoods. She told the hospital the church would be happy to help.

As coronavirus cases surge again, churches across the U.S. have stepped up, providing medical supplies to help slow the spread of the virus and food to those who have lost their jobs. Still others are serving places affected by the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd. Through it all, church leaders have had to navigate how to meet people’s needs while keeping their volunteers safe.

None said it has been easy. But in interviews this month, all said it is what their faith demands.

The U.S. has had more than 2.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Tuesday that requires consent from a parent or guardian before a minor receives an abortion.

The new law, which went into effect Wednesday, also increases the criminal penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony for any doctor who doesn’t assist an infant who is born alive during an abortion. The doctor is required to transport the baby to a hospital.

The legislation passed the Florida House 75-43 and the Senate 23-17.

Florida Senate President Bill Galvano said the law was needed.

“The serious and irrevocable decision to end a pregnancy involves undergoing a significant medical procedure that results, in many cases, in lifelong emotional and physical impacts,” Galvano said. “The parents of a minor child considering an abortion must be involved in such a substantial and permanent decision.”

The new law says a physician “must obtain written consent from a parent or legal guardian” before “performing or inducing the termination of a pregnancy of a minor.”

The law also allows for a judicial bypass.

“For those who are in a situation of abuse or where parental consent is not in the child’s best interest, the bill provides a judicial waiver process that still involves the intervention of an adult,” Galvano said.

If the consent law is violated, the doctor – not the minor – would be prosecuted.

Florida Rep. Erin Grall