The Central Baptist Church in New York, which stopped its drive-in worship services after facing the possibility of a fine from the Massena Police Department, is challenging the claim that its drive-in services violate Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order.

The church’s representation, The Rutherford Institute, wrote a letter to the police chief saying the church is within their rights to hold the drive-in services, the Christian Post reports.

“You are mistaken in your assertion that church ‘drive-in’ worship services are prohibited under New York’s current emergency orders and could result in fines,” wrote The Rutherford Institute, a national, nonprofit civil liberties organization, to police chief Adam J. Love last week.

In early May, Love told Pastor Samson Ryman that the church violated the state executive order in its May 3 drive-in worship service, which included 23 people in 18 cars. Love told the pastor that the church could face a $1,000 fine.

But The Rutherford Institute says the “threats” could violate the church’s rights.

“Although federal and state governments have adopted specific restrictive measures in an effort to decelerate the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the current public health situation has not resulted in the suspension of fundamental constitutional rights such as religious freedom, freedom of speech and the right of…

(RNS) — Were 2020 going as planned, United Methodists from around the world would be wrapping up a two-week meeting in Minneapolis, where they were expected to discuss a measure to split the denomination.

But, as it is, the coronavirus pandemic has forced people into their homes, closed businesses and canceled events well into the summer.

The quadrennial United Methodist General Conference has been postponed until next year — possibly until late August and early September 2021.

Many U.S. United Methodist leaders see the delay as a blessing, allowing more time and cooler heads to consider a split. But some have also expressed concern over continuing harm to many in the denomination eager to move on after decades of debate over the role of LGBTQ Christians in the church.

“Some people have said to me, ‘This gives us time to take our breath and see if there are new possibilities,’ and also there are some persons for whom the delay is continued injustice, and that’s harmful,” said the Rev. Kenneth Carter, resident bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and past president of the denomination’s Council of Bishops.

“So to say the pandemic has become the agenda is not to suppress the need for justice and inclusion.”

Delegates to the General Conference were expected to take up a proposal to split the denomination, called “A Protocol of…

President Trump on Friday unveiled a goal of distributing a coronavirus vaccine to the American population by the end of the year as part of an “unprecedented” partnership between the federal government, the private sector and the military.

Dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” it will involve the federal government manufacturing hundreds of millions of vaccine candidates before they are approved in order to save time. The U.S. military will help distribute the vaccine to the general population.

“It’s risky, it’s expensive, but we’ll be saving massive amounts of time,” Trump said in a Rose Garden press conference, alongside several federal officials, including the FDA commissioner, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and the director of the National Institute of Health (NIH).

“[O]ur task is so urgent that, under Operation Warp Speed, the federal government will invest in manufacturing all of the top vaccine candidates before they’re approved,” Trump said. “This will eliminate any unnecessary delay and enable us to begin providing Americans with a proven vaccine the day our scientists say, ‘We’re ready. We got it.’”

Once a vaccine is approved, the federal government will use the military to “deploy every plane, truck and soldier required to help distribute it to the American people as quickly as possible,” Trump said.

“With unrivaled…