Christians should affirm the phrase “black lives matter” but reject the organization that penned the slogan, seminary president Albert Mohler Jr. says in a new column.

The president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary says the three words that have been embraced by Americans of every race and religion are “profoundly true” because “God made every human being in his image, which means every life on the planet, at every stage, matters.”

“[T]here are very real and urgent moral concerns about the lives and well-being of black Americans,” Mohler writes at ThePublicDiscourse.com.

But Black Lives Matter – the movement that was founded in 2013 and is behind BlackLivesMatter.com – takes stances that oppose biblical sexuality, Mohler writes.

The seminary president quotes the position statements on the movement’s website.

“We are guided,” the BlackLivesMatter.com website says, “by the fact that all black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location.”

On transgenderism, the website says, “We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead. We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans…

Phil Vischer, the creator of the popular Christian animated series VeggieTales and the voice of the show’s character Bob the Tomato, offered a historical take on systemic racism in America in a new video.

Amid civil unrest over racial injustices in America, Vischer released a 17-minute video titled “Race in America” on his personal YouTube channel and on the Holy Post website in which he breaks down systemic racism.

With the abolition of slavery and the success of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Vischer argues that many may believe that we are living in a post-racial society.

“Heck, we even had a black president,” Vischer adds.

“So why are people still upset? We’re going to go through history and we’re going to look at some data,” the show creator starts.

Showing an image of two houses, he says, “These are two households in America, one is black, the other is white. Today the average black household has 60 percent of the income of the average white household, but only one 10th of the household wealth.”

Vischer went on to note various benefits of having higher household wealth, such as funding schools, launching small businesses, stabilizing loss of income and helping families survive unexpected divorce or unemployment.

“What’s amazing about this number is that there are lots of extremely wealthy African Americans: movie stars, pop stars. … And there are a lot of extremely…

A California church may have to find a new home after a federal judge upheld a city’s prohibition on houses of worship in a three-block stretch of downtown.

New Harvest Christian Fellowship in Salinas, Calif., has rented space along Main Street for more than 25 years and began looking for a new building when its services outgrew its current location.

The church subsequently bought a spacious building on the same street in 2018 with the intent to hold services there, but the city’s planning commission and then the city council denied the church’s request to use the building as a house of worship, saying a church at that location would upset the city’s goal of stimulating “commercial activity within the City’s downtown,” which has been in a state of decline. The city limited the church to use of the building’s second floor.

The church then sued, claiming the city’s position violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), which protects houses of worship from discrimination in zoning laws. Salinas is located east of Monterey and south of San Francisco.

On May 29, federal magistrate judge Susan Van Keulen sided with the city, saying it had not violated RLUIPA and that the church could have found other buildings within the city for its location.

Pacific Justice Institute represented the church and said it will appeal.

“This continues to be…

For a growing segment of our population, even saying the phrase “Father’s Day” brings up bad feelings and memories. For some, the phrase even opens up physical and mental wounds.

Author and speaker Bob Reccord is on a personal mission this Father’s Day to help people heal from these wounds.

Reccord spent the better part of 2019 researching and writing on the topic of “father wounds” for his new book, Ending the Cycle of Father Wounds.

Reccord, who is a sought-after speaker and former North American Mission Board President, is clear that dealing with father wounds is something that he has had to do in his own life.

“My mother passed away when I was 11 months old leaving me and my three brothers with an alcoholic father who gave us up for adoption.”

“You would think that would have been a good thing,” he continued. “But my adopted dad carried father wounds from his father, too.”

Reccord is clear that having a father wound isn’t always something that is visible. “What you see on the outside oftentimes masks what’s on the inside of someone.”

Many who are experiencing the wounds of the father may not even know it. When asked how someone can know if they do have a father wound, Reccord shares that the wounds often present themselves as internal conflicts.

In his book, Reccord encourages his readers to take a father wounds examination to find out what they are dealing with.

Reccord is…

A group of churches in San Diego will gather on Saturday to “pray for healing and restoration in our city.”

The almost 100 churches and over 3,000 people will pray for the city to continue to heal as they wrestle with racial division due to continuing injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of the city’s political and spiritual leaders will take part in the event, which is scheduled for 9:00 AM. 101 local pastors have committed to the event, as well as two County Supervisors and the mayors of San Diego, La Mesa, Coronado, Carlsbad, San Marcos, Escondido, Lemon Grove, Poway, and El Cajon.

When asked about the event, County Supervisor Diane Jacobs said, “We are all so fortunate to live in a county like San Diego. Let’s rise up and pray so that it can continue to be one of the greatest counties in America.”

Steve Vaus, Mayor of Poway, expressed his excitement about the event, saying, “We must use the power of prayer to achieve the true promises of our country. On June 20th, let’s come together and pray for God to heal this land, for unity among all people, for justice in our community and wisdom for our elected representatives.”

Leaders are encouraging people who gather for the event to follow CDC and local guidelines that are still in place. Attenders will need to practice social distancing and wear face coverings. They have also said they welcome those who would like to…

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee joined an online video conference with five Black Southern Baptist Convention pastors to talk about race in America.

According to the Christian Post, Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd said the meeting was so they could all have a “biblical conversation about race in America and the implications it’s having on the churches of our Southern Baptist Convention and our Great Commission work that we are doing together.”

Floyd noted that about 23 percent of SBC churches are “non-Anglo,” and about 4,000 of the denomination’s total 47,500 churches are African American churches.

“As we are growing in racial diversity as a convention of churches, it is important that we listen to one another and to learn from each other,” Floyd said. “We are walking through some very difficult times in American life as racial tension and strife continue to rise to levels of great concern for each of us. I believe that the church of Jesus Christ must answer this moment in American history and this is why we are having this conversation together today.”

During the one-hour conversation, the group also discussed how the church may have needed to act against racism years ago.

“If the Church would have stood up for righteousness and justice rather than oppression and slavery back in the day, we may not be here,”…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Faith groups are applauding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision temporarily halting the Trump administration’s efforts to rescind an Obama-era program granting legal protection to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children.

The 5-4 decision, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and handed down on Thursday (June 18), blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to “wind down” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was created by President Barack Obama in 2012 to shield qualified young immigrants from deportation.

The decision hinged on a technicality: It did not prohibit the federal government from rescinding the program, but ruled that it did so improperly.

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote.

Even so, faith groups from across the religious spectrum hailed the ruling as a win for undocumented immigrants.

“This decision is an important victory in the fight for all immigrants and part of a larger movement that demands justice, equity, divestment from racist systems and institutions, and investments in Black communities and communities of color,” the Rev. John L. McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service, said in a statement.

“Faith communities across the United States have made their voices heard in support of DACA recipients…

JUBA, South Sudan, June 18, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Hopes that the transitional government in Sudan would bring back Christianity as a school subject alongside Islam wilted when officials omitted it from an academic schedule released last week, sources said.

Doubly disappointed when an expected TV broadcast of school lessons on Christianity was omitted from the government-owned Television Station Khartoum International Channel this week, Christian parents suspected Islamist elements within the transitional government were influencing Khartoum State Ministry of Education planning.

The only Christian woman appointed to the council that oversees transition to civilian government in Sudan, Raja Nicola Eissa Abdel-Masih, told a group of Sudanese church leaders in an online meeting on Tuesday (June 16) that council members were working to resolve the issue.

“I have been in communication with the undersecretary in the Ministry of Education in regards to the removal of Christian Religion from the time-table of the subjects for the Basic School Certificate for the year 2020,” Abdel-Masih told the church leaders.

A Coptic Christian who long served as a judge in Sudan’s Ministry of Justice, Abdel-Masih was one of six civilians appointed to the 11-member Sovereignty Council last August. Christians who have suffered under the regime of Omar al-Bashir, deposed in April 2019, have hoped that she and…

(RNS) — This Juneteenth, Pastor Eddie Anderson will be among many social justice activists, educators and faith leaders around the country reflecting on the role of the black church in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Anderson will participate in a breakout discussion that is part of “JusticeCon: A Path Towards Freedom,” a virtual conference hosted by The Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York. The Rev. Al Sharpton, Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer are among those participating.

Anderson then plans to join Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles organizers along Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards for the “Juneteenth Black Freedom March” in South Central LA.

And on Sunday, he has a sermon prepared that will highlight what freedom looks like while commemorating Juneteenth.

“This year is different because of the moment,” said Anderson, pastor at LA’s McCarty Memorial Christian Church. “This is more of like a third reconstruction moment in our country that we are really leaning into.”

Juneteenth — a contraction of “June” and “nineteenth” — honors the day in 1865 when enslaved black people in Galveston Bay, Texas, were notified by Union troops they were free by executive decree. This was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863.

Public celebrations honoring the day have been…