President Trump walked from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church early Monday evening to make a brief statement and pose for photos while holding up a Bible.

Walking through Lafayette Park – which is a short distance from the White House – the President was joined by a large group of people, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Attorney General William Barr. 

According to NPR, protestors, largely peaceful, were gathered near Lafayette Park and St. John’s Church just moments before the President’s arrival.

Attorney General William Barr, however, is reported to have ordered U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops to clear that same area for the president’s walk to St. John’s Church, also known as the Church of the Presidents. 

Video footage shows officials shoving and deploying flash grenades and tear gas into the crowd of protestors. The White House has yet to comment on whether Barr found official’s use of force to be excessive or not, ABC News reports.

Upon his arrival at the St. John’s Church – which was briefly set ablaze by rioters the night before – Trump held up a Bible and made a short statement promising to make America “even greater.”

He said, “We have a great country. That’s my thoughts. The greatest country in the world and we can make it even greater.”

“It won’t take long,” he added….

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — During a Mass this Sunday (May 31) celebrating Pentecost, when Christians believe the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus’ apostles, Pope Francis called on faithful to be bringers of unity at a time when the world seems rife with division.

Francis celebrated Mass before a small number of Catholic faithful, who were wearing masks and respecting social distancing measures within St. Peter’s Basilica. This weekend the pope celebrated the first public events since the beginning of the pandemic, which took over Italy and the Vatican in early March.

In his homily, Francis drew from the gospels to explain the differences among the twelve apostles. They “were from different backgrounds and social contexts,” and all of them “had different ideas and sensibilities,” the pope said.

“They were all different. Jesus did not change them; he did not make them into a set of pre-packaged models. No. He left their differences, and now he unites them by anointing them with the Holy Spirit,” Francis said.

“With the anointing comes their union — union in diversity,” he added.

To faithful in the United States, this message comes at a time of deep fracture and division as riots and protests continue following the death of George Floyd on Monday (May 25). A viral video recorded his final moments where a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, is seen pressing his knee…

(RNS) — Since the beginning of 2019, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear has been among the most high-profile advocates for preventing sex abuse and protecting victims of abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Greear, pastor of The Summit Church, a megachurch in Durham, North Carolina, called for Southern Baptist leaders to investigate and oust churches that cover up abuse.

He set up an advisory group of experts to aid the SBC in dealing with the issue of abuse, helping create a “Care Well” initiative to prevent abuse and minister to survivors.

Greear also led a litany of lament during the SBC’s 2019 annual meeting

“The failures of the way of man brought us to the place we are as a denomination on this issue of abuse,” said Greear at the meeting. “It is only the movement of God, we know, that can rescue us from it. It’s not just policy. It’s not just statements and changes. It’s the spirit of God working in us.”

Now advocates for abuse survivors are criticizing Greear after his church decided to hire a teaching pastor who has been accused of mishandling an abuse claim in the past and for a Summit Church policy that would allow registered sex abusers to attend worship services.

Greear, who is expected to continue to serve as SBC president for another year due to the coronavirus pandemic, said he stands by his church’s decision to have…

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday overturned Kentucky’s ban on a common second-term abortion procedure, although the judges differed greatly in how they described it.

The appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, affirmed a lower court decision that found the law unconstitutionally placed an “undue burden” on a pregnant woman.

The law, HB 454, banned a procedure that doctors call “dilation and evacuation” (D&E) but pro-lifers label “dismemberment abortion.” It involves dismembering “the living unborn child” and extracting “portions, pieces, or limbs of the unborn child from the uterus,” according to the law’s text.

The court’s majority said a D&E abortion takes place when “physician first dilates the patient’s cervix and then uses instruments and suction to remove the contents of the uterus.” Because the “fetus has grown larger than the cervical opening,” the “fetal tissue separates as the physician draws it through that narrow opening.”

But Judge John K. Bush, in his dissent, described the procedure in gruesome detail, saying he understands why some pregnant women would want the fetus’ heart to be stopped before the procedure begins.

“Dr. Anthony Levantino testified that in a D&E procedure, the ‘[f]etus dies from dismemberment from literally having arms and legs pulled off’; ‘[it] bleed[s] to death,’” Bush…

Calling it a “moral and national security imperative,” President Trump issued an executive order Tuesday providing $50 million to promote religious freedom around the world and to pressure countries that are the worst violators to change their policies.

The order provides at least $50 million per fiscal year for “programs that advance international religious freedom,” according to the order’s text. The State Department and USAID – an agency of the federal government – will decide where the money goes.

“Such programs shall include those intended to anticipate, prevent, and respond to attacks against individuals and groups on the basis of their religion,” says the order, which was labeled an “Executive Order on Advancing International Religious Freedom.”

The $50 million also will be used to:

• “ensure that such [religious] groups can persevere as distinct communities;
• “promote accountability for the perpetrators of such attacks;
• “ensure equal rights and legal protections for individuals and groups regardless of belief;
• “improve the safety and security of houses of worship and public spaces for all faiths; and,
• “protect and preserve the cultural heritages of religious communities” around the world.

The order requires the Secretary of State, within 180 days and with the consultation of USAID, to “develop a plan to prioritize international religious…

As coronavirus restrictions lift in China, the communist government remains steadfast in its ongoing persecution of local Christians.

In April, at least 48 Three-Self Churches were shut down by the local government in Yugan County, according to Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious rights and human rights in China.

The reasoning behind the shutdowns is due to Yugan County’s “large number of believers,” making it “one of the key targets of the CCP’s religious persecution.”

According to the Christian Post, Yugan county has a population of over 1 million people, in which more than 10 percent are Protestants who attend over 300 officially registered Three-Self churches.

One Three-Self congregant told Bitter Winter that in April, officials of Shegeng town, under the direction of the mayor, raided the church and removed its podium, cross and all other religious symbols.

Congregants wept in distress at the sight of the destruction of the church’s most cherished items.

The believer noted, “if you try to protest, they will accuse you of fighting against the Communist Party and the central government.”

In Yugan’s Daxi township, a village press secretary told believers that shutting down churches and demolishing crosses was a part of state policy.

One of the local believers noted that the press secretary said that “there were too many believers in the county,” after an inspection by the…

JOS, Nigeria, June 3, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A Christian in north-central Nigeria who led a team of civilians that apprehended Muslim Fulani herdsmen after they allegedly killed five Christians on Thursday night (May 28) was blunt about their motives.

“These Muslim Fulani herdsmen have been attacking our communities because we are Christians,” Ibrahim Agu Iliya told Morning Star News. “Their desire is to take over our lands, force us to become Muslims, and if we decline, they kill us.”

Muslim Fulani herdsmen went into a mini-store in the Kwashie area of the town of Miango, in Plateau state’s Bassa County, and shot to death the store owner and four others, relatives said. They did not steal anything from the store or the victims, sources said.

Sunday Samuel, whose 42-year-old sister Asabe Samuel was the store owner, said he was in his home behind the store when he heard gunshots.

“I opened my bedroom window in order to find out what was happening,” the 53-year-old Samuel told Morning Star News. “I saw armed men with guns shooting all around, and I thought they’ll force their way into my house. I heard the attackers speaking to themselves in Hausa and Fulfulde, calling for a quick retreat from the spot.”

Sporadic shooting went on for about 10 minutes before the gunmen retreated, he said.

“I decided to go out and find out what had actually…