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…

During Friday’s Cuomo Prime Time broadcast, host Chris Cuomo asserted that instead of trusting God to get us through these uncertain times, we should look “within us” for the answers.

“If you believe in one another and if you do the right thing for yourself and your community, things will get better in this country,” Cuomo said, according to the Daily Wire.

“You don’t need help from above, it’s within us,” the CNN host stressed as he pointed toward the sky.

A 13-second clip of this moment from the broadcast went viral on social media, Tuesday with many Christians speaking out against the television host.

 Allie Beth Stuckey, host of the Relatable podcast, offered a sarcastic response to Cuomo writing, “Chris Cuomo: ‘You don’t need help from above; it’s within us.’ Yep, that tactic is working SUPER well right now!”

Chris Cuomo: “You don’t need help from above; its within us.” Yep, that tactic is working SUPER well right now! https://t.co/rfXbCWY1LI

— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) July 1, 2020

Pastor and writer Nate Pickowicz also commented on the clip captioning it, “The spirit of this age.”

The spirit of this age: pic.twitter.com/UgfzBHaESo

— Nate Pickowicz (@NatePickowicz) June 29, 2020

Christian author Larry Farlow asked in response to the clip, “How do we know what ‘the right thing’ is, Chris?”

How do we know what “the right…

(RNS) — Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear said, “Of course, Black lives matter.”

Religious broadcasting veteran Pat Robertson stated, “It seems like now is the time to say, ‘I understand your pain. I want to comfort you.’”

Houston megachurch pastor Joel Osteen declared, “We need to stand up against injustice and stand with our Black brothers and sisters.”

Many prominent white evangelicals have made statements about Black lives in the weeks since the May 25 death of George Floyd, but is this new focus among white conservatives — and white Christians in general — momentary or lasting?

Researchers working at the crossroads of religion and race say it’s too soon to say. But highlights of a forthcoming study, which looks at racism, biblical interpretation and church cultures, may indicate a long struggle ahead.

Michael Emerson, co-author of the 2000 book “Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America,” said 2019 findings indicate “zero evidence” of a closing of the long-standing gap between how white evangelicals and Black Christians view racial inequality.

When asked if the country has historically been oppressive for racial minorities, 82 percent of white evangelicals do not agree, said Emerson, head of the sociology department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In comparison, among practicing…

The anti-abortion organization Center for Medical Progress (CMP) has published a new video revealing that babies who survived abortions are dissected, according to sworn in testimonies of Planned Parenthood partners.

CMP had previously released videos of Planned Parenthood officials seemingly admitting to the sale of fetal organs while under oath.

According to Live Action, CMP’s latest footage features Perrin Larton, who is the Procurement Manager for Planned Parenthood’s procurement partner Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc., being shown a taped conversation of herself from 2013 where she asserts that it is rare for aborted babies to come out in one piece, noting that they are “always pulled apart.”

She said that the exception applies to “somebody who has had six pregnancies and six vaginal deliveries.”

Larton continued: “They put lams [laminaria to dilate cervix] and she comes in the next morning and… I literally have had women come in and they’ll go to the O.R. and they’re back out in three minutes and I’m going, ‘What’s going on?’

“‘Oh yeah, the fetus was already in the vaginal canal and whenever we put her in the stirrups it just fell out,’” she said.

After seeing the 2013 video, Larton affirmed how intact aborted babies would occasionally fall out “once every couple of months.”

Then the baby’s organs and…