Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says in a new interview that if elected he would prioritize passage of the Equality Act, a bill that has sparked concern from religious liberty groups over its impact and from some LGBT activists over its effect on female sports.

Biden told the Philadelphia Gay News in an interview published Wednesday he wants to see the Equality Act passed and signed into law during his first 100 days in office. The Democrat-controlled House passed it last year, but the GOP-led Senate never brought it up for a vote. A spokesman for President Trump said last year the “bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.”

The Equality Act would amend federal laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment and housing.

“To help achieve our vision of equality, I will make enactment of the Equality Act a top legislative priority during my first 100 days – a priority that Donald Trump opposes,” Biden told the publication. “This is essential to ensuring that no future president can ever again roll back civil rights and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, including when it comes to housing. I will also direct my Cabinet to ensure immediate and…

LAHORE, Pakistan, October 28, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A 13-year-old Christian girl kidnapped by a Muslim man in Pakistan leapt toward her mother when she spotted her outside a courtroom on Tuesday (Oct. 27), but her family was not permitted to enter as a judge validated the 45-year-old abductor’s Islamic “marriage” to the child, sources said.

Refusing to acknowledge documentation of the girl’s age and the Catholic family’s pleas that Ali Azhar forcibly converted Arzoo Raja to Islam, Sindh High Court Justice K.K. Agha ruled the marriage was valid and instructed police not to “harass the newlywed couple,” said rights advocate Ghazala Shafique.

“All of us, including Arzoo’s family and people supporting their cause for justice, are in deep shock and grief after the high court allowed the accused to walk away with the minor girl in front of our eyes,” Shafique told Morning Star News.

In trial court earlier in the day, Azhar’s defense team argued for dismissal of the kidnapping charges while the legal team for the family asserted that Arzoo was the victim of forcible conversion and marriage, Shafique said. The family and their legal team were awaiting a court ruling after the hearing when they learned that Azhar’s team had filed a petition in the high court, she said.

“We rushed to the high court where Arzoo and the accused Azhar were present…

Saying they want to impact a new generation of men for Christ, the filmmakers behind the faith-based film Courageoussaid this week they will re-release the hit movie in theaters next year with new scenes, a new ending and an update on what happened to the lead characters.

Film directors Alex and Stephen Kendrick made the announcement Sunday at their home congregation, Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga.

Courageous was a surprise hit in 2011 when it opened in the Top 4 at the box office and ended its run with a worldwide gross of $35 million. The story follows a group of male police officers who are striving to become better fathers.

“The issues … facing men 10 years ago are certainly as applicable today,” Alex Kendrick told the church.

His brother, Stephen, said the goal is to “reach a new generation of men, but yet it be a better version” of the movie.

The new version of Courageous will include never-released scenes that didn’t make it into the theatrical film. It also will include a new ending that shows the lead characters a decade after the events of 2011.

“The new ending shows what happened to these characters and their families 10 years later – because we’re 10 years older,” Alex Kendrick said. “Two weeks ago, we assembled the cast and crew here in Albany at the church, and we shot new scenes around Albany. So you can see what…

Protestant pastors are nearly unanimous in their decision not to endorse a political candidate from the pulpit this year, although roughly one-third say they have endorsed a political candidate outside of the church setting, according to a new LifeWay Research survey.

The poll found that 98 percent of Protestant pastors have not endorsed a candidate from the pulpit this year, although 32 percent say they have endorsed a candidate “outside of their church role.” The latter figure is an increase from 2016, when 22 percent of pastors said they had endorsed a candidate outside of their church role.

Two-thirds (65 percent) of pastors this year have not endorsed a candidate outside of their church role, a decrease from 2016 when more than three-fourths (77 percent) answered that way.

“Pastors are more decided on who they are voting for in 2020, so it’s not surprising that more pastors have shared their opinions with others personally,” said Scott McConnell executive director of LifeWay Research. “The candidates endorsed by pastors may be local, state or national. But those who do so in an official church capacity are a rare exception.”

Americans are divided on if pastors should endorse candidates. Although 43 percent of U.S. adults believe it is “appropriate for pastors to personally endorse candidates outside of their church…

October 27, 2020 (Morning Star News) – The flogging an underground Christian in Iran received and the harsh prison sentence upheld for the pastor of a legally recognized church reflect the growing dangers of Christian faith in the country.

Mohammad Reza (Youhan) Omidi on Oct. 14 received 80 lashes for drinking Communion wine. Alcohol is forbidden only for Muslims in Iran, but since Iranian law does not recognize Omidi’s conversion from Islam to Christianity, he was sentenced to the lashes in September 2016.

Omidi was summoned on Oct. 10 for the punishment to his home city of Rasht – where his house-church involvement first led to his arrest in 2012 – from his internal exile in an area 1,000 kilometers south, according to London-based advocacy group Article18. Two of his fellow house-church members, Mohammad Ali (Yasser) Mossayebzadeh and Zaman (Saheb) Fadaee, have also been sentenced to flogging.

Omidi continues serving his two years of internal exile for house-church activities, which authorities termed, “acting against national security.” For that charge Omidi also served two years in prison, reduced from the original sentence of 10 years, and he was released on Aug. 18, according to advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

He had also been flogged seven years ago, being one of four men sentenced on Oct. 6, 2013 to 80 lashes for drinking Communion…

Christian Rocker Oz Fox recently suffered a massive seizure that has made it difficult for him to currently play the guitar, The Christian Post reports.

However, this hasn’t shaken the Christian rocker’s faith. Instead, he is “thankful to have breath,” and “[knows] God has [him] in his arms.”

In a Facebook update on his health, the rocker share, “At this time, I’m at home on 1500 mg of Keppra, an anti-seizure medication that calms my brain down and keeps me subdued. It’s hard to do anything physical right now.”

He also stated that he is happy to be taken care of by his wife, Annie Lobert, who founded a Christian outreach ministry titled “Hookers For Jesus,” an organization that works to reach out to sex-trafficking victims.

According to their website, Hookers For Jesus does ministry work that “is based on the simple act of love of ‘fishing’ for people who are looking for a way out of the dark waters they are drowning in of sex trafficking.”

“Please lift up my wife. She is carrying a lot now. I love her so much. I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Fox stated in the update. “I have some visits at UCLA coming up so please keep that lifted up for us. I really want all this resolved so I can get back to what God has called me to do. Thanks for all your love and support,” he continued.

Oz Fox is the lead guitarist and a vocalist for the Christian metal band…

A Christian business owner and ordained minister won a major religious liberty victory Friday when an Ohio county agreed not to force her to perform same-sex weddings under a controversial non-discrimination law.

The law in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.

Kristi Stokes, an ordained Christian minister and the owner of the business Covenant Weddings, filed a federal lawsuit in July, claiming the law would force her to officiate weddings and compose wedding homilies for same-sex couples in violation of her beliefs. The suit said Stokes “gladly works with people regardless of who they are, including LGBT individuals,” but “cannot officiate or bless every marital union.”

On Oct. 23, the county agreed in a court judgment that Stokes would not be forced to perform same-sex weddings. Stokes’ business is not impacted by the law because it does “not have a physical storefront,” the judgment read.

But even if the business was “considered a place of public accommodation,” the county’s law “does not mandate or force Kristi Stokes, or any other minister, to officiate or solemnize weddings against their sincerely held religious beliefs,” the judgment said. The law also “does not mandate or force” Stokes “to author specific…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Bernard C. Yates, longtime leader of the Zion Hope Primitive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, who was also a two-term national president for the Primitive Baptist Convention USA, has died, his family announced. He was 64.

In a statement from his family posted to the church’s Facebook page, Yate’s family confirmed that he died on Saturday.  

“God has spoken. Elder Dr. Bernard Cecil Yates made his transition to be with the Lord on October 24, 2020. We honor and celebrate the life of our husband, father, grandfather, pastor and friend. Please allow our immediate family time to be with one another,” the family said in their statement that also cited Jude 24-25.

Persons close to the family told the Pensacola News Journal that Yates died at home from cardiac arrest.

While his immediately family continues to grieve privately, the pastor’s nephew, Marcus Yates, noted in a statement on Facebook that his uncle lived an exemplary life.

“I’ve been looking for sage words, but, this time, they don’t want to come. Our hearts are broken. But we know a Savior who mends…

Paula-White Cain, the spiritual advisor to President Trump and the president of Paula White Ministries, is making the case for why she believes Christians should give President Trump a second term.

White-Cain’s case for Trump is part of a new series by Ed Stetzer for Christianity Today that will offer cases on both sides of the political spectrum as Christians make their votes in the 2020 election.

White-Cain starts her article by explaining that she has personally known the president for over 19 years.

“I’ve seen him firsthand as a father, a husband, a leader, a businessman and now the President of the United States of America,” she wrote.

“I also recognize most people have secondhand information that mischaracterizes the man I know. Therefore, I will talk about the “good fruit” (or what we call in politics – “policy”) that has come from this “good tree” – President Trump.”

In making her case to Christian voters, White-Cain highlighted Trump’s first term policies and accomplishments.

She argued that President Trump has delivered on his promise to appoint originalist judges to the Supreme Court “who would protect our religious freedoms and not legislate from the bench.” In Trump’s first term, he has appointed over 200 judges along with 3 Supreme Court justices.

“He has flipped three of the Circuit Courts and given us a supermajority…