The president and CEO of Christianity Today says in a new editorial that churches should consider making “biblical restitution” to African Americans for the sins of slavery, segregation and racial injustice by setting up financial funds “to make it right.”

“It’s time for white evangelicals to confess that we have not taken the sin of racism with the gravity and seriousness it deserves,” Christianity Today’s Timothy Dalrymple writes in the editorial under the headline, “Justice Too Long Delayed.”

“… [R]epentance is not enough.”

Dalrymple quotes a Barna poll that found “only 42 percent of white Christians believe the history of slavery continues to impact African Americans today.” Dalrymple, though, says the impact of slavery continued through American history because the “virus” – racism – “mutated.”

Dalrymple labels slavery one of America’s “original sins” and details not only its history but that of reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, “progressive policies” that made things worse, and over-incarceration.

“The result … is a catastrophic wealth gap: The median net worth of black families in the United States today is one-tenth the median net worth of white families. Sixty-two percent of black children born between 1955 and 1970 were raised in poor neighborhoods, compared to 4 percent of white children,” he writes. “Results…

President Donald Trump met this week with conservative black leaders to discuss police reforms and other anti-racism proposals.

According to the Christian Post, the meeting was the first of two. In Dallas later in the week, Trump also met with black leaders to talk about anti-racism initiatives.

“A lot of these things are systemic,” said Ja’Ron Smith, assistant to the president on domestic policy. “We need to break down that system and fight back.

“You know, opportunity zones, [historically black colleges and universities], criminal justice reform, those are reversing some systemic issues,” Smith added.

The meetings come as protests and demonstrations continue across the nation following the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a black man, died after a white police officer in Minneapolis detained Floyd by pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck.

“Recently, with the protests, how can we create better policing and community relations?” Smith said.

“One thing we have done over the last couple of weeks is listening to individuals, and now we have some solutions, and those are things we are going to continue to work through as an administration.”

Kareem Lanier, of the Urban Revitalization Coalition, said Trump’s work has already been “nothing short of historic for black America.” He said, however, it’s time for police reform.

“We did criminal justice reform, but police reform is the…

(RNS) — Each Sunday, Larry Little and his wife, Mary, get ready for church. They dress casually, fill two tumblers with water, climb into their golf cart and drive two miles to The Grove, a grassy field next to their church.

There they find a parking place, turn off the engine and settle in for a live service in front of a Jumbotron and a stage.

The Littles, who live in a retirement community called The Villages, about an hour’s drive northwest of Orlando, Florida, are among the lucky few.

Since mid-March, when state shutdowns forced churches, synagogues and mosques to close amid the coronavirus pandemic, Americans have had to mostly rely on online worship services.

But Live Oaks Community Church has been able to offer continuous outdoor services — one on Saturday and two on Sunday — with dozens, sometimes hundreds, arriving via their golf carts.

“The only negative is that you don’t have much interaction with the rest of the congregation,” said Larry Little, 77. “Our golf carts are 6 feet apart and they don’t want us outside the golf cart.”

For many, if not most, older congregants living in colder climates or with no access to outdoor services, such options are a luxury.

Unable to find spiritual sustenance or the comforts of community, many are isolated and lonely. They may struggle with using the technology required for viewing online services or…

At least 81 people in a nomadic village were killed by militant extremists on Tuesday morning, according to authorities in the Borno state of Nigeria.

On Wednesday, the Borno government in Northeast Nigeria released a statement revealing that an attack was carried out at the Faduma Kolomdi community in the Gubio local government area by militants in armored tanks and trucks, the Christian Post reports.

In the statement, one male witness told Borno State Gov. Babagana Umara Zulum that armed men arrived at the village on Tuesday at around 10am and began to round everyone up.

“They gathered us and said they wanted to deliver a religious sermon to us. They asked us to submit whatever arm we had. Some villagers gave up their dane guns, bow and arrows,” an unnamed resident was quoted as saying.

The survivor then noted that the militants began to shoot residents “at will.”

“Even children and women were not spared, many were shot at close range,” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “Many started running.”

Five people were taken to the hospital for treatment.

“We have buried 49 corpses here while another 32 corpses were taken away by families from the villages around us,” the resident said. “The insurgents abducted seven persons including our village head. They went away with 400 cattle.”

A resident from a neighboring village also confirmed Tuesday’s attack.

Zulum, who visited…

Bestselling Christian author, motivational speaker and blogger Rachel Hollis announced that she and her husband Dave are filing for divorce.

The Christian Post reports that Hollis announced the “difficult decision” in an Instagram post on Monday.

“We started out as best friends 18 years ago and the truth is, that core friendship and the parts of us that work so well, have become a band-aid for the parts of us that don’t.” Hollis wrote.

“We have worked endlessly over the last three years to make this work and have come to the conclusion that it is healthier and more respectful for us to choose this as the end of our journey as a married couple,” she added.

Hollis then noted that she and Dave will stay friends as they take care of their family and run their company together.

“We are choosing joy — even though, I’ll be honest, the last month has been one of the most awful of our lives. I want to be strong and bold and optimistic for you now, but every ounce of my energy is reserved in being those things for my children,” Hollis wrote.

“That said, having been such an open book to this beloved community, we hope that you can allow us a human moment,” she asked of her Instagram followers. “We hope you can understand our need to process these changes away from social media.”

“We graciously ask that you respect our privacy so we can focus on what matters most, our four kids and…

A Baptist organization filed suit Wednesday against the state of Illinois over a new law that forces it to provide abortion coverage as part of its employee health insurance plan.

At issue is the Illinois Reproductive Health Act of 2019, which requires any health insurance plan that includes pregnancy-related benefits also to cover abortion. It contains no religious exemption.

The Illinois Baptist State Association joined a dental practice and its owner, and a freight company and its owner, in filing suit in state court, alleging the law violates the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act. The Thomas More Society is representing them.

“Radical partisans have forced employers of faith in Illinois into a terrible choice: either pay for the intentional termination of unborn children, or leave your employees’ families and your own without health insurance,” said Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel for the Thomas More Society.

The lawsuit says the plaintiffs believe “they have a religious and moral duty to provide health coverage to their employees.” But the law puts them in a dilemma, the suit says.

“As a matter of sincerely held religious beliefs, Plaintiffs believe abortion involves the destruction of human life and is gravely wrong and sinful,” the suit says.

The Illinois Baptist State Association is…

Two pro-life activists are alleging bias among New York City officials after they were arrested while standing in front of an abortion clinic amid the protests over George Floyd’s death.

The controversy started the morning of May 30, when pro-life activists Bevelyn Beatty and Edmee Chavannes arrived on the sidewalk in front of the Margaret Sanger Center Planned Parenthood in Manhattan, Live Action reported.

Planned Parenthood had set up a barricade on either side of the entrance, allowing patients to enter the clinic from the street.

Although it is illegal in New York City to block the entrance to an abortion clinic, Beatty and Chavannes said they were there to counsel the women and were not blocking or harassing anyone, Live Action reported. Both women were standing within the barricade, although it was wide enough to allow multiple people to pass.

Planned Parenthood then called the police.

“[Planned Parenthood is] not following social distancing, mind you – the person I’m standing with I actually live with so we don’t need to follow social distancing. But the police were saying we were violating social distancing and the only ones that are supposed to be there are the ones that work there,” Beatty told Live Action News. “And we told them we’re not moving because it’s a public sidewalk and we have a right to be there. They could be there because they work for Planned Parenthood, but we work…

(RNS) — For most of their history, Southern Baptists have opened their meetings with a gavel named for a slaveholder. 

The president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination now says that gavel should be retired. 

“Southern Baptists, I think it is time to retire the Broadus gavel,” said J.D. Greear in a Wednesday (June 10) statement. “While we do not want to, nor could we, erase our history, it is time for this gavel to go back into the display case at the Executive Committee offices.”

The gavel, first used by SBC officials in 1872, was named for John A. Broadus, a Confederacy supporter and a founding faculty member of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the SBC’s flagship seminary.

The SBC president said he had felt uneasy using the gavel at the 2019 meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. He was aware of Broadus’ racial views but also said he “did seem to change some of his positions later in life.”

Greear said the gavel’s presence was sending a mixed message from a denomination that was founded in 1845 in defense of missionaries who owned slaves.

“Here we were, a convention of nearly 48,000 independent, autonomous churches, meeting in a city that has been filled with (a) horrific history of civil rights abuses making historic moves in the areas of diversity, abuse and mission, using a gavel named after a Southern Baptist who owned slaves and was…