More than 20 Christian leaders have joined together to sign a letter asking Congress to earmark an extra $4 billion for protecting the upcoming election and its voters.

According to Relevant Magazine, the leaders argue in the letter that “any effort to discourage or suppress their vote assaults their human dignity and undermines our democracy.”

“As Christian leaders who represent and lead a broad cross-section of the church across the country, we also believe that voting is a sacred right and commitment, particularly given our nation’s long struggle to extend the right to vote to every eligible citizen regardless of factors such as race and gender,” the letter continues.

The letter comes after problems were reported in recent primary elections. In Wisconsin, voters faced long lines and exposure to COVID-19. There were about 36 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among voters and poll workers.

“COVID-19 presents an imperative to redefine our priorities. For many communities, we need funding and bold leadership to secure free, fair, and safe elections,” said Barbara Williams-Skinner, CEO and co-founder of Skinner Leadership Institute. “We need ample vote-by-mail, early voting and in-person voting access to fit the needs of each and every voter, all of whom are made in the image of God.”

Dr. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, wrote…

A Kentucky megachurch pastor is encouraging churches across the nation to “stand up” for their religious freedom and meet in-person Sunday, May 17, even if their state’s restrictions forbid it.

The “Peaceably Gather” movement by Pastor Brian Gibson of HIS Church in Owensboro, Ky., has attracted the support of nearly 50 pastors at churches in a dozen states who have signaled they will gather their congregations for an in-person service. HIS Church is a large Kentucky congregation that has four locations.

Gibson is encouraging churches, synagogues and mosques to practice social distancing and to be “measured” and “smart” with the services. But he says the state bans on church services and religious assemblies are infringing on constitutional rights.

He questions why stores are allowed to open, while churches must remain closed.

“I believe that Jesus is a lamb, but He’s also the lion,” Gibson says in a video on the Peaceably Gather website. “… Right now, America needs some lions to stand up and roar. America needs some lions to stand up and roar for the Constitution. [America] needs some lions to stand up and roar for religious freedom. [America] needs some lions to stand up and roar for people of worship of every type in this great nation.”

It was smart, Gibson says, for churches to close for the coronavirus pandemic.

“To be a…

A California church has organized an army of volunteers to repair 263,000 protective masks and deliver them to local healthcare workers.

Masks have become an essential piece of personal protective equipment for frontline workers in the fight against coronavirus. 

According to a Press Released sent to Christian Headlines, the enormous project, which involved over 4,200 volunteers, was coordinated by the Rock Church in San Diego and began after the County of San Diego’s Medical Operations Center asked for assistance with the retrofitting of their N95 respirators that were beyond their manufacturer’s date.

Soon, some 4,284 San Diego volunteers were pulling three-hour shifts in order to get the job done – a total of 12,852 hours work were completed, saving the county an estimated $191,238.

A member of the San Diego board of Supervisors, Greg Cox, shared, “My thanks to the Rock Church and its volunteers for fixing 300,000 masks that will be given to the County to help us fight this pandemic. The Rock Church rocks!”

Speaking on why the church decided to get involved in the monumental effort, lead pastor Miles McPherson said: “Jesus did not simply sit in the synagogue and wait for people to come to Him. He went to them. He also asked a very simple question. He said, “What can I do for you?” This is a simple and powerful thing to do. Just ask how you can help.”

After…

A new Dude Perfect documentary that has jumped into YouTube’s Top 10 and amassed millions of views also provides a peak into the group’s faith.

Dude Perfect: Backstage Pass, is a YouTube Original film that landed on the platform May 11 and tells the history of the five friends who went viral a decade ago with basketball trick shots and then expanded their base with comedy routines. The movie is a part of Dude Perfect’s channel, which has 51 million subscribers. 

Much of the documentary follows Dude Perfect on its 2019 tour. It also gives fans a look at their family life and faith. 

The film includes footage of their families gathering around them and praying before they embarked on the first live tour of their career. It also shows the men praying over a 6-year-old boy during the tour. 

Dude Perfect consists of Tyler Toney, twins Cory and Coby Cotton, Garrett Hilbert and Cody Jones.

“If we lost everything tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. We know that the most important thing we have is Jesus,” Hilbert says in the film. “So it’s very important to the decisions we make and the content we produce.”

Says Coby Cotton, “I think making content that was family-friendly came initially from our faith in Jesus, and we felt like that was something that we really truly wanted to do.”

Faith, Toney says, is “really the underlying principle and theme behind everything Dude…

Many well-known Christians and Christian leaders posted tributes to Ravi Zacharias on social media after the latest news on the famous apologist’s health. 

Sarah Davis, Zacharias’s daughter and the CEO of Ravi Zacharias International Ministry, posted an update to the ministry’s website which offered a sober appraisal of her father’s health. 

Davis said, “We have just learned that while the tumor in my dad’s sacrum has been responding to the chemotherapy, the area where the cancer metastasized has actually worsened. His oncologist informed us that this cancer is very rare in its aggression and that no options for further treatment remain. Medically speaking, they have done all they are able.”

She also said that he is on his way to his home in Atlanta, “where our family can be together for whatever time the Lord gives us.”

Following this news, former NFL Quarterback Tim Tebow posted a tearful video on Twitter asking his followers to pray for Zacharias. Tebow began, “I think it’s really important in life to have heroes, and especially in the faith, and one of my heroes of the faith is a man name Ravi Zacharias. He’s not doing very well.” Then Tebow asked his followers to write messages of encouragement to Zacharias and share testimonies about his influence in their lives. 

The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner hoped to show the messages to “Ravi and his team”…

A recent Pew Research survey revealed that 43 percent of all American adults believe the Trump administration has “helped interests of evangelical Christians.”

According to the survey, which was conducted in mid-February, while 43 percent of all American adults believe the Trump administration has “helped interests of evangelical Christians,” 11 percent of all American adults believe the President’s administration has hurt the evangelical Christian agenda and 44 percent do not believe the administration has made much of an impact on evangelical interests at all.

Among white evangelical Protestants, 59 percent believe the President and his administration have positively impacted evangelical interests, while seven percent believe their interests have been hurt and 32 percent believe little to no difference was made. 

Overall, the survey found that 64 percent of White Evangelicals “agree with Trump on all, nearly all or many issues”, whereas only 15 percent of Black Protestants, 30 percent of Hispanic Catholics, 32 percent of Jews and 28 percent of religiously unaffiliated people agree with Trump “on all, nearly all or many issues.”

Furthermore, while 48 percent of all U.S. adults agree that the President “fights for what [they] believe in” at least fairly well, among White evangelical Protestants, 81 percent believe the President…

A Mississippi pastor advanced to the finals of NBC’s The Voice during Tuesday night’s results show and expressed surprise in a late-night video he had made it that far.

“I cannot believe this,” Todd Tilghman, the lead pastor of Cornerstone Church in Meridian, Miss., said in a Facebook Live video on his Facebook page. “… I’m grateful for every minute of it.”

Tilghman will sing in next Monday’s finals, which includes five performers. The winner will be revealed in next Tuesday’s show. He joked he’s “four or five episodes past” his goal.

Tilghman sang the 1991 country song Love, Me by Collin Raye during Monday’s performance, with his eight children sitting around him, watching. His performance impressed Kelly Clarkson, one of the show’s four coaches.

“If I could sound like a man singing, I would want your voice,” she said.

Tilghman told his Facebook Live audience he couldn’t have advanced to the finals by himself. The show relies on the votes of the audience.  

“I just sing – and that’s it. The rest is all you. … and the goodness of God,” he said. “… I am so, so thankful that God has seen fit for this to go the way that it has.”

Tilghman is a member of Team Blake, which means he works with and is coached by country singer Blake Shelton.

“I think America’s connecting with Todd because he’s just the happiest person on the…

JOS, Nigeria, May 13, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Lami David was in her kitchen preparing dinner for her family in north-central Nigeria on Thursday evening (May 7) when two Muslim Fulani herdsmen broke into her home and shot her and her mother-in-law, sources said.

The 32-year-old mother of four had her 2-year-old wrapped on her back in her home in predominantly Christian Nkietohu village, Plateau state, when she heard the first shots in the room where her mother-in-law, 60-year-old Elizabeth (Lisa) Nchu, was resting, according to community leader Josiah Zongo.

Her mother-in-law was shot in the shoulder, and David was then shot in her chest and legs, Zongo said.

“The woman was shot with her baby on her back – the child was not hurt as well as other children were not,” Zongo told Morning Star News. “The woman was found lying in a pool of blood behind the house where she’d tried to run away from the gunmen. She fell down because of the shot. She was also heard saying it was the Fulani herdsmen who came from Rafin Bauna village, a nearby Hausa/Fulani community.”

Her husband, who was in his room with the other three children at the time of the attack, escaped, Zongo said. The family was sheltering in their home at 7:45 p.m. due to a curfew to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“The gunmen also followed the man as he ran for his life but could not get him,” he said.

David…

(RNS) — Brian Kaylor didn’t realize how the coronavirus pandemic — with its stay-at-home orders, school closures and other distancing measures — was emotionally impacting his 8-year-old son, Kagan, until the children’s minister at their church started sharing a nightly bedtime story.

In the first storytime video, posted on Facebook and Vimeo, the minister at First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Missouri, talked about feeling sad and angry.

“How is she reading my mind?” Kagan asked.

The second-grader is struggling with not seeing his friends, and the videos have been a comfort, said Kaylor, editor and president of Baptist magazine Word&Way.

Kaylor pulls the videos up each night on his phone, and his son disappears into another room to watch, usually wrapped up in a blanket, he said.

Kagan runs to the screen when the same minister gives the children’s messages during online services. He shows off his latest Lego builds to his friends during Wednesday Wave sessions she hosts for the kids on Zoom.

“I think my son needs the social interaction and comfort from our church community right now even more than I do,” Kaylor said. “So, I appreciate ministers working to create that space virtually.”

As the coronavirus continues to upend daily life in the United States, churches and Christian leaders are finding ways to relieve bored and anxious children unable to leave their homes — as well as their…