NEW DELHI, June 29, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Under pressure from an official in the ruling Hindu nationalist political party, police in Uttar Pradesh state, India have released without charges a suspect in the attempted killing of a pastor last month, sources said.

“When we entered the police station for the identification process, the attacker was treated like a VIP, not as a criminal,” Deepak Kumar, brother-in-law of the pastor, told Morning Star News. “He was released the same day, even after we insisted that he is the one.”

Four men ambushed 39-year-old pastor Dinesh Kumar as he left Mohiuddinpur village, Mau District on his motorbike on May 28, beating him with clubs so severely that he lost consciousness. A deep wound to his head required 16 stitches, a cut on his arm seven stitches, and he sustained internal injuries; seeing the wound on his arm, a doctor asked his wife if he had been shot.

“They had no intentions to threaten me – they attacked to kill me,” Pastor Kumar, of Jamalpur village, told Morning Star News.

Police went to Pastor Kumar while he was still in the Intensive Care Unit of Prakash Hospital in Mau to ask if he knew the names of any of the assailants, and he did not give one, the head of the Madhuban police station told Morning Star News. Pastor Kumar said he later called the police station to report that he recognized one of the assailants.

“I had…

One church has been demolished by officials using cranes and heavy-duty machinery as Christians in China continue to be persecuted.

ChinaAid, a non-profit Christian organization for the human rights of Chinese citizens, reported that 200 communist officials stormed into Sunzhuang Church in Henan province on June 12.

The officials responsible for the demolition were from the Zhengzhou High-Tech District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau, despite not showing legal documents.

The report by ChinaAid went on to note that the officials threw out chairs and additional church property.

Some church members did not fare well upon apprehension by officials. One woman was hospitalized after being knocked unconscious by officials who pushed her to the ground. Similarly, another woman was also taken to the hospital after officials beat her.

One male church member had also been arrested. The church was then demolished following the raid, the report asserts.

Sunzhuang Church had been a part of China’s branch of government-run churches since the early 1990s. The Christian Post reported that the church had also joined the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in June 2012, as they were permitted by the communist government to construct a brand new church building.

Then in June 2013, Sunzhuang Church was issued a demolition notice by the Sunzhuang Village Committee because congregants failed to comply with the…

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has published its handbook on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

According to the Christian Post, the handbook, “Lutheran Introduction to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression,” was created by ReconcilingWorks, a Lutheran ministry that helps “all sexual orientations and gender identities.”

“Many LGBTQIA+ people have learned by experience that they are not truly welcome in church, even in churches that state, ‘All are welcome here!’ says ReconcilingWorks in the introduction of the handbook.

“A general statement of welcome is often heard as meaning ‘everybody but me,’ so it can take a special effort to communicate an authentic welcome to LGBTQIA+ people,” the ministry said.

The handbook is meant to help congregations reach out to members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“If you don’t know which identity terms, pronouns or titles to use, and find yourself getting ‘stuck’ on terms, re-center yourself on the fact you are talking about a person,” the handbook says. “It is also ok to ask which pronouns one prefers, or just avoid using gendered terms. Remember, all you need to welcome someone is their name.”

The handbook also defines gender identity as “a person’s innate, deeply felt psychological identification as a man, woman or another gender,…

(RNS) — Kyla Rodriguez’s two children had a blast earlier this month at Immanuel Lutheran Church’s Vacation Bible School.

Every morning during the weeklong Rainforest Explorers-themed program, 3-year-old Carson and his little sister Madison, nearly 2, prayed and sang songs. They ate rainforest-themed snacks and made tissue paper rainbows and colorful toilet paper roll parrots.

And they did it all without ever leaving their home in Merrill, Wisconsin.

The virtual Vacation Bible School, or VBS, was hosted by Immanuel, their grandparents’ Missouri Synod church in Seymour, Indiana. Carson and Madison received backpacks in the mail ahead of time, stuffed with the materials they’d need for crafts and other activities. Then each day, they’d tune in to watch prerecorded videos for stories, songs and instructions.

The kids were especially excited to see their grandpa, a pastor at the church, on TV, according to Rodriguez.

“They liked the songs and the crafts and it was something fun to do, especially right now. We don’t have things like going to story time at our local library,” she said.

“So it was fun to have something to do during the day that they liked, that was just a little different from our normal days right now.”

Like so many other things, VBS programs look a little different this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A beloved summertime tradition for many…

The U.S. Supreme Court handed the pro-choice community a major victory Monday in a much-watched abortion case, striking down a Louisiana law that required clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.

The law was similar to a Texas law overturned by the Supreme Court in 2016 that required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital located within 30 miles of the clinic. The high court voted 5-4 to strike down the Texas law, with Chief Justice John Roberts voting with the conservative bloc in the minority.

Pro-lifers believed they might have the votes this time, since Justice Anthony Kennedy – who voted with the majority in 2016 – had been replaced by Brett Kavanaugh.

But on Monday, Roberts flipped sides and joined the liberal bloc, arguing the Supreme Court must abide by precedent. Roberts concurred only in the judgment and wrote a separate concurring opinion.

The Texas case was Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

“I joined the dissent in Whole Woman’s Health and continue to believe that the case was wrongly decided,” Roberts wrote. “The question today however is not whether Whole Woman’s Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case. … Adherence to precedent is necessary to ‘avoid an arbitrary discretion in the courts.'”

Pro-lifers say the law makes clinics safer for women if complications…

Saying “the foundation of freedom is faith,” Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday urged members of a Texas megachurch to pray for the nation and to rely on God to get America “through these challenging times.”

Pence spoke nearly 30 minutes at First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, the same day he also held a press conference at a local hospital with Gov. Greg Abbott and others to address a spike in coronavirus cases in the state.

Pence wore a mask at the church and took it off to speak to the crowd. Prayer and faith, he said, are key during America’s current crises.

“I believe with all my heart … that if we will but hold fast to Him, we’ll see our way through these challenging times, we will restore our nation’s health, we will renew our freedom, and we will inspire people across this land with our witness of the love and compassion and strength that comes in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” Pence said.

Speaking at the church’s “Celebrate Freedom Sunday,” Pence quoted faith-centric comments from the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. and said the “faith of the American people will continue to perfect our nation for generations to come.”

“The foundation of America is freedom. The foundation of freedom is faith,” he said.

Pence quoted Lincoln as saying, “It is the duty of nations as well as of men … to…

These times aren’t easy. While many continue to lose jobs and employer-based healthcare during the ongoing pandemic, the need for affordable and accessible healthcare has never been greater. How can you maintain your access to healthcare when you or someone in your family loses their job?

With twenty-one states reporting rising rates of coronavirus and the United States Department of Labor reporting an unemployment rate of 19.7 percent, many American workers are no longer able to rely on traditional employer-based healthcare to meet their medical needs.

In addition, if you or a loved one does lose their job, maintaining COBRA coverage is expensive – families pay an average of $1595 per month, and it only lasts for 18 months. What happens then?

One simple way we can maintain access to healthcare, even after losing a job, is to become a member of a Christian-based cost-sharing ministry, which shares funds among members to assist with incurred medical expenses. Joining a cost-sharing ministry is an effective way to make healthcare affordable and accessible without being tied to employment status.

Cost-sharing ministries are communities of like-minded people who agree to the biblical values of sharing to help one another pay their medical bills. While the membership requirements vary by organization, cost-sharing ministries match funds from member contributions to provide access to healthcare…

The Editor in Chief for Yahoo Music wrote a column this week examining the history of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and suggested that the United States might want to search for a new national anthem. She also spoke with a journalist and activist who suggested replacing “The Star-Spangled Banner” with John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

Lyndsey Parker referenced several incidents that have happened in recent weeks regarding the National Anthem. First, protestors overturned a statue of “The Star-Spangled Banner’s” author Francis Scott Key in San Francisco. Also, a student at the Urban Assembly School for the Performing Arts in New York refused to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a virtual graduation ceremony. Instead, Liana Morales sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which many have called the “Black National Anthem.’

Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” after observing the Battle of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. Key held slaves and said that Black people were “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”

Parker spoke with Kevin Powell, an activist and journalist who starred in the first season of MTV’s The Real World. Powell cited Key’s being born into a slave-holding family, his prosecution of abolitionists during his time as a lawyer, and his friendship with…