LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Attorneys for Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church are condemning recent headlines declaring a coronavirus outbreak in the megachurch that has defied public health orders since July.

The Los Angeles Times on Thursday reported that three confirmed COVID-19 cases had been tied to the church. The headline for that story read: “Coronavirus outbreak strikes L.A. megachurch that defied public health orders.”

Jenna Ellis, attorney for John MacArthur and Grace Community Church, in a statement, said the cases shouldn’t be characterized as an ‘outbreak.’  She called the LA Times headline “grossly misleading.”

“Three very mild positive tests among more than 7,000 people is hardly news,” Ellis said. 

Less than 1% is not an outbreak, she said.

“It has never been the Church’s position that it is only safe to hold services if no one ever tests positive, or for example, if no one ever gets the flu during flu season,” continued Ellis.

Los Angeles County’s health protocols for places of worship require that Grace Community Church report to the Department of Public Health when at least three cases of coronavirus are reported or identified within a span of 14 days.

That way, public health officials can determine if there is an outbreak and provide infection control guidance, technical support and site-specific…

With the 2020 presidential election just one week away, protestors are planning to do whatever it takes to see President Trump leave office no matter the outcome of the election.

The group, known as Shut Down DC, has outlined what they plan to do on Election Day and in the days to follow.

According to CBN News, the group claims that Trump plans to steal the election and will not concede if he loses.

“Trump has shown that he will stop at nothing to maintain his grip on power. Trump will not leave office without mass mobilization and direct action,” Shut Down DC’s webpage states.

On Nov. 3rd, Shut Down DC is calling people to meet at Black Lives Matter Plaza in downtown Washington D.C, nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church.

“On Election Day, when you’re done voting, doing election protection, or getting out the vote, come join us at Black Lives Matter Plaza,” the group states on their website.

“We’re inviting everybody who agrees with these organizing principles to work together to make this uprising happen. We’re going to make sure Trump leaves. From election night on, as the situation changes and evolves we all work together to make that happen.”

The group also told followers who are not in DC to likewise take action in their own communities.

“Organize in your community! Find out where the votes will be counted where you live. Make a plan…

Theologian and seminary president Albert Mohler says in a new column he has changed his mind about Donald Trump as president, even if he hasn’t changed his mind about Trump’s character.

Mohler didn’t support Trump four years ago and spoke out multiple times against the Republican nominee, writing in the summer of 2016 that evangelicals were tragically being urged to support the “lesser of two evils.”

This week, though, Mohler said he now supports Trump. Mohler made his arguments in a column, “Christians, Conscience, and the Looming 2020 Election.”

“I have had to think more deeply about how character is evaluated in a historic context,” wrote Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

Trump’s judicial nominations and support for the pro-life causes helped sway Mohler, who didn’t believe in 2016 Trump would govern as a pro-life president.

“I was wrong,” Mohler wrote. “… I have no means of reading Donald Trump’s heart on this issue, but I can easily evaluate his actions. In terms of presidential action, Donald Trump has been the most effective and consequential pro-life president of the modern age. Furthermore, in both executive actions and court appointments, President Trump has gone far beyond what would have been politically necessary to secure his base.

“He has staked his place…

Hillsong Church is launching a new location in Atlanta, Georgia, led by husband-and-wife duo Sam and Toni Collier, the first-ever African-American lead pastors of a Hillsong church.

“We want to start a movement that not only changes Atlanta, but changes the world,” Sam Collier, author, adviser to the MLK Jr. family, and founder of A Greater Story Ministries, told The Christian Post. “Just like God did with Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta nearly 60 years ago, there was a model that was built that went on to impact the entire world. We want to be a model of unity and understanding and bring about revival.”

The mission of Hillsong Atlanta, Collier told CP, is to “reach and influence the world by building a large Christ-centered, Bible-based church, changing mindsets and empowering people to lead and impact in every sphere of life.”

“Hillsong Atlanta is the marrying of many different worlds, racially, and even politically, to represent the fullness of God,” he said. “What better place to launch a church with this vision than in the birthplace of civil rights?” 

Prior to pastoring Hillsong…

On Sunday, Christian TV and film producer DeVon Franklin and his wife, actress Meagan Good, hosted a virtual faith-based event in their endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

According to The Christian Post, the GOTV L!VE: A Soul of the Nation Gospel Concert Special was broadcast online across the nation and in over 65 gospel stations. The event sought to encourage people of faith to cast their vote for Biden in the 2020 election.

“We are ready for a new administration, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the leaders that we need to see the progress and changes we all want,” Franklin said at the start of Sunday’s event.

“We need to bring back justice, compassion and civility to our country,” he asserted. “We’ve had over 220,000 American lives lost to COVID-19, millions unemployed and sliding into poverty and far too many black lives scarred and cut short by police brutality.

“And if we’re honest,” he continued, “a justice system that has never worked for everyone. We cannot afford to sit around and wait for change; we have to become the change we want to see.”

Biden and Harris also appeared in the virtual event and delivered remarks to faith voters in separate messages.

“Normally, on these Sundays leading up to the election, we are gathering together at church with our family and our friends. And we’re marching to…

United Church of Christ congregations based in New England recently helped to eliminate $26.2 million in medical debt for families in seven states and first responders nationwide.

The amount was raised by a coalition of 122 UCC congregations, four associations, and over 100 households based in the mainline Protestant denomination’s Southern New England Conference.

The regional UCC body worked to raise the money in cooperation with a New York-based nonprofit called RIP Medical Debt, which buys medical debt at a reduced price.

This is the second major buy that the denomination has overseen, making the total amount of medical debt paid for $51.8 million, according to a UCC announcement on Sunday. 

The Rev. Jocelyn Gardner Spencer, senior pastor of the United Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut, was part of the charitable endeavor.

“Our scriptures call us to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to let the oppressed go free,” said Gardner Spencer in a statement.

“In the midst of a pandemic that is…

Following a mediation process, megachurch pastors Ron Carpenter and John Gray have finally settled after years of lawsuits between the two.

According to The Christian Post, the two had been fighting after the Carpenters reportedly tried to evict the Grays from the church Carpenter previously pastored, but handed over to Gray when he moved his Redemption Church brand from South Carolina to California in 2018. Gray, who rebranded the Redemption Church to the Relentless Church in South Carolina, fought back.

According to Gray’s lawyers, the dispute was really over church membership.

“In essence, this is not a dispute as much about leases and occupancy of church buildings, as much as it is a fight over church members. Pastor Gray has come into Greenville at the urging of Ron Carpenter, even moving to be here before school was out for the summer for his children because Carpenter said he had to leave immediately for California.”

However, Carpenter’s lawyers asserted that Gray had been “shady” and “dishonest” during the closing procedures for changing hands of the church. However, the agreement allegedly couldn’t be concluded anyways because the International Pentecostal Holiness Church technically owned a portion of the property.

The settlement allows Gray to stay until 2021 and then find a new building for his church. In statements made at a joint announcement,…

Sadie Robertson Huff, pregnant with her first child, was admitted to the hospital recently due to COVID-19 complications. She has since been discharged and is now resting at home.

“I’m not going to lie, this has been one of the most challenging things,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I got Covid-19 and ended up getting very sick. I know everyone experiences covid differently, but wow these symptoms are wild. I’ve definitely struggled through this one!”

Robertson told her 3.9 million Instagram followers that Baby Huff “is doing great and healthy.” But the experience tested her faith in a new way. She confessed, “I’ve learned a lot and I have been challenged in a lot of new ways. I will say my dependency on Jesus has never felt greater in some of the hardest moments of this sickness.”

Robertson shared that she is grateful for her swift recovery and “a Savior who is with me in these moments that feel rather lonely.”

Thousands of people commented well wishes for the 23-year-old author and speaker.

Earlier this month, Robertson announced her pregnancy with her husband Christian Huff on Instagram.

“We are thankful to be carrying a miracle into the world! Baby, you are already loved and already believed in. Can’t wait to welcome you into the world with all the joy, hope, and excitement you will bring into the life of so many by your…

Actor Matthew McConaughey says in a new interview that he sees no contradiction between science and faith, and that the Bible has helped him become a better person.

He also says Hollywood is sometimes “condescending” to people of faith. 

McConaughey, a professing Christian, made the comments during an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.  

Asked if he considers himself religious, McConaughey replied, “Yeah, absolutely.” He told GQ Magazine in 2014 that he attends a non-denominational church that is “based in the faith that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins.”

McConaughey told Rogan he took a role in the 1997 film Contact in part because of his beliefs about the compatibility of science and faith. The movie tells the story of scientists attempting to make contact with extraterrestrial life. 

“I had written a college paper called ‘John Wayne goes West,’ and it was about how do you – how can you – be a believer in a world of science. And I remember writing things during the making of that movie, like, ‘Science is the practical pursuit of God.’ The two are not exclusive. They dance together. They go together – belief and science. 

“I never saw those as contradictions. And that’s part of the reason I attacked that role and became part of that movie. I wanted to play a person that had that point of view, of a…