In a sign of how the Coronavirus pandemic may be affecting churches and Christian organizations, LifeWay Christian Resources announced they will cut their budget by $25-30 million for the rest of 2020. LifeWay, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, will realize the cuts through hiring freezes, spending freezes, salary cuts, and layoffs, the Baptist Press reports.

LifeWay was enjoying a strong start to 2020, as they were 3 percent ahead of budget at the end of March. However, the shutdown of churches during the pandemic took its toll over the last five weeks and revenues fell 24 percent. Lifeway officials attribute the loss in revenue to a drop in orders from churches for Sunday School curriculum, Bible study books, and VBS curriculum.

LifeWay CEO Ben Mandrell addressed the budget cuts, explaining that these cuts are necessary to ensure the organization’s long-term viability. He said, “We hope these proactive steps will allow Lifeway to continue ministering to churches throughout the crisis, however long it lasts, and long into the future.” He added, “We know the COVID-19 crisis has created a unique challenge for churches as they find new ways to gather, and many are also facing severe financial strains. We want to make sure Lifeway is in a position to continue serving churches and church leaders to help them fuel their ministries,” Christianity Today…

The View co-host Meghan McCain recently called Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s comments about praying amid the coronavirus outbreak “dangerous.”

According to The Christian Post, Hasselbeck, who herself is a former host of The View, appeared on the show in early March, before stay-at-home orders were put in place.

“I think there can be a fine line between what is taking precaution, and what is panic,” Hasselbeck said while speaking about the coronavirus outbreak. “Yes, we’re going to take precautions, we’re going to Purell, pray that God’s got us in our tomorrows. We pray that this coronavirus is extinguished, that it stops in its tracks,” she said.

Hasselbeck also noted that she would not let the coronavirus “rule” her.

She said, “I think we should prepare, I think we should pray. I’m not going to let coronavirus rule me and let it be an idol,” she said, “and I do think our leadership right now is pointing us to say, ‘Hey, this is not a panic situation.’ This is a precautionary situation, we’re going to use Purell, wash our hands — we’re going to be okay, guys.’”

Then last week, McCain appeared on Watch What Happens Live, saying she respected Hasselbeck but disagreed with her.

“I took this virus seriously from the very beginning, and I thought a lot of this rhetoric was really dangerous,” McCain argued. “I don’t need to co-host with her again, and…

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron this week urged the state’s governor to rescind the ban on in-person church gatherings and said he would file a lawsuit if nothing is done.

Cameron, a Republican, alleged that a March 19 order by Gov. Andy Beshear and state officials unconstitutionally targets faith-based gatherings. The order bans mass gatherings, including faith-based ones, but carves out at least eight exceptions, including ones for factories and grocery stores.

“The First Amendment provides the citizens of this country with the specific, enumerated right to practice their religious beliefs, free from targeting and discrimination,” Cameron said Tuesday. “By specifically banning faith-based mass gatherings while allowing other secular organizations and activities to continue operation, Gov. Beshear has deliberately targeted religious groups.”

The targeting, Cameron alleged, “continued when the Governor ordered state police to track the license plates of those who attended a faith-based gathering on Easter Sunday, and it continues even this week as he allows some businesses to resume operations.”

The March 19 order allows certain businesses to remain open provided they “maintain appropriate social distancing.” Yet it “provides no such exemption or accommodation for faith-based gatherings,” a press release from Cameron’s office said. 

“Kentucky…

Christians across Africa are facing extreme persecution and discrimination amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors, Christian minorities in Nigeria are facing government discrimination as they are only receiving one-sixth of the food rations allotted for them, unlike their Muslim counterparts.

Particularly, one Christian family of four only received a single packet of noodles and one packet of uncooked rice. Meanwhile, others feel like they have been “shunted to the back of the queue for aid and forgotten.”

While Nigeria currently has over 1,500 cases of COVID-19, experts predict an infection surge in Africa within the next several months, Faithwire reports.

“We are only at the dawn of the unfolding of this pandemic in this part of Africa,” spokesperson Jo Newhouse said, according to The Express.

“There are many causes for concern for Christian minorities, like the economic impact of continued violence against Christians amid lockdowns, marginalization of Christians, especially [converts], and Christians being blamed to have caused the virus.”

Christians worldwide have experienced increased persecution with some radical groups even blaming Christians for the virus’ spread.

In Somalia, the Muslim community has been receiving false rumors from native Islamic terror group al-Shabaab that COVID-19 is being spread “by the…

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has listed India as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) in its 2020 Annual Report.

This is the first time the USCIRF has included India in this particular list since 2004; it joins several other countries who are known to oppress and violate the religious freedoms of their citizens, including Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

In response to the damning designation, The External Affairs Ministry in India immediately rejected the report’s findings, calling it a “new level of misrepresentation” and lambasting it as “biased.”

According to USCIRF, a CPC is a country in which the government “engages in or tolerates particular ‘severe violations’ of religious freedom.”

“Severe violation” refers to the “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations…, including violations such as torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; prolonged detention without charges; causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons; or other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty or the security of person,” according to the report.

Despite the Indian Constitution enshrining protections for the right to religious practice, in reality,…

About one in five churches across the United States during the spring of 2019 heard a sermon mentioning abortion, according to a new Pew Research Center survey that showed a disparity between evangelical and mainline churches on the issue.

Nineteen percent of churches heard at least one sermon mentioning abortion, with evangelical Protestant (22 percent), Catholic (19 percent) and historically black Protestant churches (18 percent) being the most likely to include a sermon on abortion during the study period and mainline churches (10 percent) the least likely.

Most sermons were in opposition to abortion, Pew said.

Overall, 4 percent of all sermons in U.S. churches mentioned abortion during the study period, including 4 percent of evangelical sermons, 5 percent of Catholic sermons and 3 percent of sermons in historically black Protestant churches. Two percent of sermons in mainline Protestant churches mentioned abortion.

The survey examined online sermons from more than 6,400 U.S. churches between April 7 and June 1, 2019. The survey period did not include what often is called Sanctity of Human Life Sunday or Pro-Life Sunday, an annual day in January when sermons on abortion are more common.

“While the database is not representative of all U.S. Christian sermons, it offers a window into what many Americans hear each week from the pulpit,” Pew’s Dennis Quinn wrote in an online analysis.

Meanwhile,…