Souls to the Polls is encouraging Black churches to vote in the presidential election.

“Family, this is the most important vote of my lifetime. And this Sunday, October 25th, is an early voting Sunday. We’re asking everyone to leave church. Leave virtual or in-person service … and vote!” the Rev. Greg Lewis, executive director of Souls to the Polls Milwaukee, said in an announcement on Facebook Friday.

Souls to the Polls started before the 2008 presidential election, where church leaders asked members to “take your souls to the polls” and go directly from Sunday services to the polls.

Souls to the Polls Milwaukee Program Coordinator Bruce Colburn told The Christian Post this week that the response to the effort has been “very good, very supportive.”

“People understand that this is a very important election and it affects their future very strongly,” he said.

In South Florida, hundreds of voters and volunteers showed up at an event Sunday to rally others to get to the polls.

“We’re celebrating getting out the vote,” said Katrice Johnson, a Hallandale Beach resident and organizer with the non-partisan group Faith in Florida. “We don’t care who you vote for. We just want you to vote.”

Minister Tim Griffith, of Pembroke Pines, told the crowd that every vote matters.

“It’s bigger than you,” he said of the…

(RNS) — A Charlotte, North Carolina, church was declared an “imminent hazard” and ordered closed until Nov. 6 after an outbreak of COVID-19 led to more than 121 cases and at least three deaths. The closure took effect Saturday (Oct. 24).

The abatement order from the state’s health director, Gibbie Harris, was issued for the United House of Prayer for All People, which hosted more than 1,000 people at a weeklong event held Oct. 4 through Oct. 11. The event, described as a convocation, led to the largest community-based outbreak in Mecklenburg County, according to Harris.

Based in Charlotte, the Pentecostal church meets in several locations, but its leadership has refused to comply with recommendations for social distancing and wearing masks.

Harris said the church has also refused to provide information for contact tracing of those infected.

The closure was implemented in part because the church was planning a “Whirlwind Revival,” Oct. 26 to Oct. 31.

Calls to the church were not answered on Monday.

Nationwide, numerous churches have resisted state orders limiting the size of indoor gatherings and requiring social distancing guidelines. Some have sued, claiming that banning religious gatherings is a violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clauses.

In Los Angeles, Grace Community Church pastor John MacArthur defied California’s…

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of Christians from all over the country assembled on Sunday evening to worship on the National Mall to intercede for the nation amid an ongoing pandemic and tense election season.

As part of worship artist Sean Feucht’s multi-city nationwide tour called Let Us Worship, the Sunday event was the 45th place the California-based musician had led worship, often in places where violence and discord have manifested earlier this year such as Seattle, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon. A cold drizzle periodically rained down on the crowd with temperatures in the 40s. 

Feucht explained from the stage that the Let Us Worship movement was in part born out of alarm and distress over California Governor Gavin Newsom’s policies related to the shutdown of churches, particularly his words prohibiting singing. These draconian measures, he said, have caused many in the Church to react in fear and intimidation but the Church should be comprised of the least fearful people.

JOS, Nigeria, October 23, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Protests against police brutality in Nigeria that grew into generalized unrest over poor government took on a religious dimension this week with attacks on Christians and church buildings.

Following peaceful protests that began earlier this month against torture and killings by Special Anti­­-­Robbery Squad (SARS) forces, counter-demonstrations against the #EndSARS protestors and shootings by security forces escalated tensions. On Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 19-20) Christian leaders in Plateau, Kano and Kogi states led prayer walks of thousands of Christians in appeals for peace.

As various cultural and political groups expanded the protests to include their own interests, suspected Muslim agitators took advantage of the chaos to attack churches, sources said. In Kogi state on Monday (Oct. 19), following a prayer walk in Anyigba, Christians praying inside the Dunamis Christian Centre were attacked by suspected Muslim antagonists, an area resident said.

“A dozen pastors and more than 400 Christians were praying in the church when they were attacked,” Friday Adah told Morning Star News by text message. “I watched in horror as violence was used against Christians in Anyigba town. A peaceful prayer walk seeking God’s help for our country, Nigeria, for God to restore peace and love, was suddenly met with undue force as…

On Sunday, over 35,000 people gathered for the Let Us Worship tour in Washington D.C. to intercede for the future of America.

The tour, which gathered throughout the day at different locations, began in front of the Supreme Court. There, believers prayed and worshipped ahead of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s likely confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Bethel worship leader Sean Feucht, who has been leading the tour across the U.S. since the summer, noted that it was “the largest prayer gathering in front of the Supreme Court since Roe v. Wade.”

Dr. Charles Karaku of International Outreach Church lamented the substantial amounts of abortion that have taken place since Roe v. Wade was passed and asserted that abortions must be stopped.

“WHILE PRAYING ON THE STEPS OF WASHINGTON DC SUPREME COURT IT FELT LIKE WE STOOD ON THE AMERICAN VALLEY OF DRY BONES. IT IS FULL OF 62,000,000 DRY BONES OF A NATION OF ABORTED BABIES,” he wrote on Facebook, adding that the large number of abortions equates to the population of France or Italy.

“We have wiped out approximately the entire population of France or Italy. We have sacrificed these babies on the altars of comfort and convenience,” he continued.

Karuku called for abortion clinics across the U.S. to be defunded and shut down and for pro-choice politicians and political parties to be removed and…

In what the White House called a “historic deal,” Sudan agreed Friday to normalize relations with Israel, thus becoming the third Middle Eastern and predominantly Muslim country since summer to agree to peace with the Jewish state.

In August, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also agreed to normalize relations. Leaders of both nations joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September at the White House for a signing ceremony as part of what was dubbed the “Abraham Accords.”

Friday’s announcement took place in the Oval Office, with Trump leading a conference call with Netanyahu and Sudan Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The White House said the agreement expands the Abraham Accords.

“Today’s peace agreement will enhance Israel’s security and end Sudan’s long isolation from the world because of what was taking place,” Trump said. “It will unlock new opportunities for trade and commerce, education and research, and cooperation and friendship for both peoples.”

Days earlier, the U.S. had removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 2001 terrorist attacks, lived in Sudan during the 1990s.

The two nations will begin negotiations in the coming weeks on cooperative agreements in “agriculture, economy, trade, aviation, migration issues, and other areas of mutual…

In an interview with The Christian Post, Pastor David Platt of McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia, explained what it means for Christians to vote ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Platt’s latest book, titled Before You Vote: Seven Questions Every Christian Should Ask, was published last month as Platt felt that it was essential for Christians to have healthy political discussions while remaining united in Christ as His church.

Platt’s inspiration behind the book came after he prayed for President Trump, who made a surprise visit to Platt’s church last year.

Platt, who was then criticized for the move, lamented that division had run rampant amongst Christians today when it comes to politics.

“I don’t want to see the church further divided or the name of Christ further defamed. Instead, I long to see a united church that exalts the name of Christ in this toxic political climate,” he asserted.

Several questions posed throughout the book include: Does God call me to vote? Who has my heart? What does my neighbor need? and How do I weigh the issues?

“In the end, what’s most important, and what I am definitively advocating for based on God’s Word, is the realization that how we use our vote is a matter of faithfulness before God,” Platt explained. “For our vote is a unique privilege and responsibility that God has entrusted to us by…

Rapper and pop star Kanye West just had a lengthy interview with Joe Rogan on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

In the podcast, West, an outspoken Christian, talked about his reasons for running for President of the United States, how many friends cautioned him against it, and other details that were previously unreleased.

For one, West first had the idea of running in 2015. “It was something that God put in my heart back in 2015. A few days before the MTV awards it hit me in the shower,” West told Rogan. “When I first thought of it, I just started laughing to myself and all this joy came over my body, through my soul.”

West also told Rogan that a lot of his friends cautioned him against running, but he has decided to make another bid in 2024. “If it’s in God’s plan that part of my path is to be the governor then that’s fine, but my calling is to be the leader of the free world. I’m definitely 100% winning in 2024,” he said.

One of his friends, Media Mogul Oprah Winfrey, told him he would need to become more informed on foreign policy. Others also cautioned him in various ways, he told Rogan.

This interview follows him releasing a new campaign song and video to Instagram and Twitter, with an inspiring message for Christians to vote their conscience. In the song, West highlighted the corruption of the…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Monday, October 26, 2020

After nearly a year of public legal disputes over church property, megachurch pastors John Gray and Ron Carpenter Jr. have settled their differences after a successful mediation process, Carpenter said.

The peace deal between the megachurch pastors comes in the wake of an announcement by Carpenter earlier this month that he will return to Greenville, South Carolina, with a new campus of his Redemption Church in January 2021.

“Yesterday, everything was mutually agreed to. There are no more lawsuits. All legal matters are finished,” Carpenter told Greenville News on Saturday after a Vision Night event in Greenville.

Carpenter and his wife, Hope, moved their Redemption Church brand from Greenville to San Jose, California, in 2018 to take over as new pastors of the 14,000-member Jubilee Christian Center. In making the move, they passed the reins of the Greenville church they led for 27 years to Gray and his wife, Aventer, who rebranded the congregation Relentless Church.

After a slew of controversies, including Relentless Church’s purchase of a $1.8 million home for the Grays and conflict over the transition…