By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Sunday, October 25, 2020

Responding to a new report showing a growing number of coronavirus cases connected to clusters in religious gatherings, World Overcomers Christian Church, one of North Carolina’s largest churches, announced Thursday it will not hold in-person services until a vaccine is developed.

“When our people are able to come back together, they’re going to want to greet one another and hug one another, and in my estimation, the risks are too great,” Andy Thompson, senior pastor of the 15,000-member church, told CBS 17.  “We have to figure out ways to minister to people beyond just them risking contact in the middle of a pandemic.”

A report from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released Wednesday said in the last two weeks, clusters of coronavirus infections from social gatherings have increased. A cluster is defined as the occurrence of five or more epidemiologically linked cases within 14 days of one another. The link could be through common residence, sports team, fraternal organization membership or similar gatherings.

Data from the report show…

According to the latest survey by the Nashville-based LifeWay Research Center, the majority of Protestant churches in America have held in-person services in September but attendance has not been the same as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey, which was released Tuesday, found that 87 percent of Protestant pastors in the U.S. say their church met in person in September, while 13 percent did not.

Additionally, 60 percent of African American Protestant pastors said that their congregations did not physically meet in September.

LifeWay Research also found that 31 percent of mainline pastors are more likely to have physically gathered in September while 7 percent of evangelical pastors did not.

Regarding denominational groups, Methodists (22 percent) and Presbyterian/Reformed (23 percent) are more likely to have not met in person as opposed to Lutherans (12 percent), pastors in the Restorationist movement (10 percent), or Baptists (9 percent).

Scott McConnell, the executive director of the LifeWay Research, explained that while “more and more churches across the U.S. have found ways to meet again, things are not back to normal.”

“The impact of regulations, caution and hardships mean more than 1 in 10 churches are still not meeting in person for any type of worship service,” he noted. “Churches are living organisms, and when more than a third…

In a lengthy Facebook post on Thursday, Evangelist Franklin Graham addressed Pope Francis’ endorsement of same-sex civil unions saying it contradicts the Bible’s take on homosexuality.

Graham wrote that the Pope’s comments, which were made in the new documentary Francesco, were “unthinkable in light of the Word of God.”

He went on to highlight God’s creation of humanity in Genesis and the definition of the family as “society’s most basic social unit.”

“The Bible teaches that when God created the human race, “He created them male and female, and blessed them …” (Genesis 5:2),” Graham noted. “The first family consisted of a male husband and a female wife, then their children, which is how God defines society’s most basic social unit, the family.”

But when humanity sinned, Graham explained that God’s design for marriage and sexual expression between males and females was distorted by homosexuality.

“Women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another …” (Romans 1:26-27),” he wrote, citing the Apostle Paul’s words.

Nevertheless, Graham stressed that God’s love is “completely inclusive” and that sinners can come to Him by turning to His Son Jesus Christ in faith and…

Pro-life advocate Erika Schanzenbach, in a new lawsuit, claims two abortion activists intimidated and licked her while she was protesting outside of an abortion clinic in Tennessee, CBN News reports.

Some of the abortion activists’ alleged harassment was caught on camera by Schanzenbach and uploaded to YouTube.

In the video, Schanzenbach is heard asking to speak with one of the abortion activists.

“Ma’am, can we talk to you today?” Schanzenbach asks. “This place is a place where little innocent children are killed, ma’am. We’re asking you to love your neighbor as yourself, today,” Schanzenbach continued.

As Schanzenbach is speaking, one of the abortion activists approach her, seemingly pushing against her sign.

When asked repeatedly to back off, the activist stood there and refused. The other activist slowly inched closer to her and then touched Schanzenbach when she put up her hand, seemingly in an attempt to defended herself.

The other girl still would not back off and eventually, more abortion activists surrounded Schanzenbach.

Thomas More Society attorneys filed the lawsuit on October 2, 2020, when a local judge denied orders of protection from the abortion activist who tried to intimidate her, lung at her and later licked her hand.

According to CBN News, “The Thomas More Society’s newest lawsuit names Denise Skeen, her adult daughter Alethea Skeen –…

Letitia Wright, who starred in Black Panther, the highest-grossing movie in the U.S., is starting her own production company titled, Threesixteen Productions, to bring light to Hollywood, The Christian Post reports.

The company’s name, Wright said, is based on John 3:16, which states “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

In an interview with Porter Magazine, Wright shared that “It was a name that was pressed on my heart. When I was in a dark place, God reached out to me and I kind of see my production company in that sense: there’s an issue and it needs a little bit of saving.”

Wright also talked about a Black Panther sequel and how that would be different without Chadwick Boseman, who recently died of cancer. “The thought of doing Black Panther without him [Boseman] is kinda strange. We’re just grieving at the moment, so it’s trying to find the light in the midst of it,” she said.

According to the production company’s website, Threesixteen Productions “will have an impact on the audience, helping to bridge the gap between stories untold & hidden within our society.” It also states, “the focus of the company is to produce meaningful content within the entertainment industry.”

Letitia Wright said in an interview with The Hollywood…

A church in Illinois is encouraging its congregants to go out to dinner and engage in friendly conversation with people who may hold opposing political views.

Stateline Church, a nondenominational church in Rockford, kicked off a two-week series called “Thou Shalt Not be a Jerk” last week. The series is designed to instruct Christians on how to rise above the politically polarizing climate that has come to define the United States ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

In a sermon at Stateline Church’s Oct. 11 service, Pastor Gregg Giamalva expressed concern about “the polarization of people over politics.” He lamented that it has become commonplace to “destroy bridges with people, with family members because of this polarization … where we literally reduce people, when it comes to politics, to evil.”

Giamalva unveiled the first half of a list of “commandments” that he thought would help Christians understand “how to engage politics.” The first commandment is “thou shalt engage in politics with proper perspective.”

The pastor argued…

Luci Swindoll, a devotional author and speaker, died this week from COVID-19 complications. She was 88.

According to Christianity Today, Swindoll was one of the first Women of Faith speakers in the 1990s and also wrote books about Christian singleness.

She was most known for her message to Christian women to find purpose in God and not in the world.

“Legalism is the worst thing that ever happened to the church,” she said. “When I realized that God deals in grace … it set me free to be who I really am.

“Everything changed because of grace,” Swindoll said. “Now all we have to do is know him, trust him, see what he does with our lives, and love people into the kingdom. I don’t think it’s our place to tell people how to live. … We can’t make people believe, but if they see in the believer love and fun and joy and just the thrill of being alive, they say, ‘What is it they have that I don’t have? I want it.’”

Swindoll was born in 1932 in El Campo, Texas and raised in Houston. When she was 12, she decided she would not get married.

But in 1950, Swindoll, 18, became engaged to a man just before leaving for college at Mary Hardin-Baylor College. She realized she didn’t want to settle down and broke the engagement.

“I learned it was okay to be myself and like myself—and survive—in spite of my mother’s strong disapproval. She had no…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Friday, October 23, 2020

Public health officials in Los Angeles said Thursday that they have confirmed at least three cases of COVID-19 connected to Pastor John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. 

Officials investigating the COVID-19 infections told the Los Angeles Times that they will be working closely with the church to limit the transmission of the virus but did not provide any other details.

Places of worship in L.A. County, where the church is located, are required to report to the county Public Health Department when there are at least three coronavirus cases within a span of two weeks so the agency can determine whether there is an outbreak, the Times reported.

The Christian Post reached out to MacArthur and his church for comment but a response was not immediately available.

It does not appear that the announcement has affected current operations at the church.

Owen Strachan, an associate professor of Christian theology and director of the center for public theology at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, revealed on Twitter Thursday…

John Piper suggested in a new piece for his site, Desiring God, that he may not be voting for Donald Trump or Joe Biden in the presidential election.

“I think it is a drastic mistake to think that the deadly influences of a leader come only through his policies and not also through his person,” Piper writes. “Flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, immorality and factiousness are not only self-incriminating; they are nation-corrupting.”

Piper says he is not making an endorsement and he doesn’t intend to “dictate how anyone else should vote.”

He said he is “baffled that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai), and the like, to be only toxic for our nation, while policies that endorse baby-killing, sex-switching, freedom-limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly.”

He said voters should consider the person and how he impacts the nation, not just in policy, but in his character and convictions.

“This is true not only because flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, immorality, and factiousness are self-incriminating, but also because they are nation-corrupting. They move out from centers of influence to infect whole cultures.”

In supporting a person who is unrepentant, Piper says Christians…

Three individuals in a California megachurch that has opposed pandemic health restrictions have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The health department said it will work with the congregation, Grace Community Church, to determine if the virus has spread further, the Los Angeles Times reported. John MacArthur serves as the church’s pastor.

The Houses of worship are required under county rules to report to the health department when three individuals among the staff or attendees test positive for the virus within 14 days. It is not known if the individuals work at the church or are members or attendees.

The congregation, which has several thousand members, has battled the county in court over restrictions that limit the church to outdoor worship and require the wearing of masks. Grace Community has defied the county’s rules and has met indoors, without social distancing and without requiring masks.

A judge in September upheld the county’s health restrictions and issued an injunction prohibiting indoor worship at the church. Grace Community subsequently defied the order.

MacArthur has said he’s willing to go to jail over the church’s stance.

“We received a letter with the threat that we could be fined or I could go to jail for a maximum of six months,” MacArthur said last month on Fox News’ The…