Four inspirational videos seeking to encourage troops during the COVID-19 crisis and posted on an official Facebook page by two Fort Drum, New York chaplains have been removed following a complaint by a national organization known for targeting Christian expression in the military.

Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), issued a press release saying the group sent a demand letter to the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division Sustainment Brigade, saying it received eight complaints about the video messages by Chaplains Maj. Scott Ingram and Capt. Amy Smith. Each chaplain recorded and posted two messages on the brigade’s official command Facebook page in March and April.

In his statement, also posted on Twitter, Weinstein thanked the “Army’s senior leadership for so expeditiously pulling those illicit proselytizing videos.”

The press release also included links to all four videos that MRFF successfully had removed from the brigade command website. In one of her videos, Smith encouraged brigade members to visit an on-site labyrinth at the Visitor Center Park, saying it was a good spiritual tool.

“It’s going to feel like you are walking in circles,” she said. “But sometimes in life, that is what you feel like.”

As Smith walks the path, she draws a spiritual parallel to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Sometimes you…

Police have arrested a professor at Christ Church Oxford for allegedly stealing and selling some 120 ancient pieces of papyrus, including a piece of the Gospel of Mark.

According to Christianity Today, Dirk Obbink, professor of papyrology and Greek literature at Christ Church Oxford, is suspected of stealing the papyrus fragments from the Egypt Exploration Society’s collection at Oxford’s Sackler Library.

The collection houses some 500,000 artifacts from the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus.

Obbink has denied that he stole the ancient documents, claiming that the evidence was “fabricated in a malicious attempt to harm my reputation and career.”

Obbink first came to Oxford in the late 1990s and served as director of a project to digitize ancient pieces of papyrus. Obbink was one of three editors overseeing the publishing of the collection. In 2001, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work in rescuing and interpreting the papers.

In 2011, Obbink claimed that he found a fragment of Mark’s Gospel among the collection. He said the manuscript dated to the late first century and referred to Jesus’ baptism where John the Baptist says, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Obbink says the book may have been copied within 30 years of the original bible manuscript, making it a rare discovery.

Scholars and experts have since…

Several groups have expressed dismay after a new Danish translation of the Bible omitted dozens references to Israel. The new translation, called Bible 2020, was published by the Danish Bible Society.

According to CBN News, Jan Frost, a “Bible enthusiast and supporter of Israel” from Denmark, pointed out that “Israel” was replaced by another word in 59 out of the 60 references in the New Testament. For example, it refers to “the land of Israel” as “the land of the Jews” and the “People of Israel” as “the Jews.” In addition, in Psalm 121 it translates “He who watches over Israel” to “He who watches over us,” the Jerusalem Post reports.

Frost insists that the translation is driven by Replacement Theology. This doctrine holds that the New Testament “supersedes the Old Testament” and that God’s covenant with Israel was replaced by God’s covenant with the church.

The Danish Bible Society defended the translation, arguing that they prepared the translation with an eye towards people who have no knowledge of Christianity and are likely to understand “Israel” as references to the modern geopolitical state. They said that, “Bible 2020 is a Bible that can be read and understood even by people who do not have a thorough knowledge of biblical language and Christianity. It is a Bible translation designed to convey meaning in plain good and…

JOS, Nigeria, April 22, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed four Christians in Kaduna state on Sunday (April 19), a day after an Anglican priest was kidnapped in southern Nigeria, sources said.

Herdsmen attacked Angwan Magaji Kamaru village, near Kamaru in Kauru County, shortly after 6:30 p.m. for two and a half hours without resistance from police or other security personnel, survivor John Asaragi said in a text message.

He identified those killed as Hannatu Joseph, 70, a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA); Sunday David, 45, a member of the ECWA; Sarah Sunday 40, a Catholic; and Jummai Sajeh, 75, a Catholic.

“Thirty-eight houses with 86 rooms were also razed down, while about 87 families are affected,” Asaragi told Morning Star News.

Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna People’s Union, confirmed the attack and fatalities in a press statement, transliterating the village alternatively as Unguwan Magaji, Kamaru Chawai ward, Kauru Local Government Area (LGA), in southern Kaduna state.

“The invaders who came by at 6:45 p.m. from behind the hills that serve as the boundary of Kaduna state and Ganawuri, Plateau state, numbered over a 100,” Binniyat said. “They attacked from four flanks, causing confusion and pandemonium among unsuspecting villagers as village youths tried to fend them off.”

Four people were killed, Binniyat said,…

One controversial sex-ed program was dropped by a county council in England after parents and Christian activists protested against its sexually explicit content.

According Birmingham Live, parents said that Warwickshire County Council offered content to children “encouraging masturbation,” contained an unhealthy view of porn, and promoting “experimental transgender ideas in schools.”

One anonymous mother from Leamington Spa told Birmingham Live that she was “horrified” when she saw the online content after the council’s plans were made public on a website called Respect Yourself.

“At first I thought it looked fine. Then I started to read it and some of it is really quite disturbing,” she said. “I thought ‘is this what the council is telling my kids, that porn is fine and there’s no such thing as porn addiction?”

Additionally, The Christian Institute said the program materials “made no reference to marriage, contrary to national requirements.”

Children would also be taught on multiple genders and encouraged schools to allow students to enter bathrooms designated for the opposite sex.

“It also encouraged schools not to inform parents if their children would be sharing overnight accommodation with pupils of the opposite sex while on residential trips, and to conceal a child’s transgender status from their own parents — contrary to parental rights…

(RNS) — Sixty-five percent of churches have seen a decline in giving since mid-March as congregations have halted in-person services due to the coronavirus, according to a new survey.

The “State of the Plate” survey released Wednesday (April 22) by the National Association of Evangelicals found that a third of churches — 34 percent — reported that giving had dropped between 10 percent and 20 percent. About 1 in 5 churches (22 percent) said the decline was between 30 percent and 50 percent. Almost a tenth of churches (9 percent) reported a drop of 75 percent or more in giving to their congregations.

Just 8 percent of churches said giving had increased, and 27 percent reported steady offerings.

The survey conducted between April 8 and April 20 of 1,091 mostly Protestant churches in the U.S. asked church leaders how COVID-19 shutdowns affected their church’s giving. The research involved participants such as Christianity Today’s Church Law & Tax and the NAE Financial Health initiative.

Brian Kluth, who started the State of the Plate research after the 2008 financial crisis, predicted that the findings could lead to tighter budgets for congregations and their staff members.

“What’s surprising is they’re much deeper and far-reaching than what happened in the recession,” he said in an interview, referring to the Great Recession in the late 2000s. “This is a major…