New York has approved a law that prohibits churches and other nonprofits from campaigning in support or against political candidates.

According to The Christian Post, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Senate Bill S4347 into law last week. The law is a state-level equivalent to the current Johnson Amendment, which prohibits nonprofits from campaigning.

The Johnson Amendment, passed in 1954, has recently been criticized for limiting the rights of nonprofits, including churches. Then in May 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that called for the federal government to stop enforcing the amendment, so nonprofits could publicly support or not support political campaigns. Officially, the Amendment has not been repealed.

The New York law says nonprofit groups, secular or religious, cannot participate in “any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”

“For too long we have listened to the Trump administration threaten to remove common sense protections prohibiting tax-exempt organizations from engaging in inappropriate political activities,” Cuomo said.

“New Yorkers have a right to free and fair elections, and this law will further protect our democracy from unjustified interferences once and for all.”

Ryan Tucker, of the Alliance Defending Freedom, however, wrote in a New…

President Donald Trump met Tuesday with 25 evangelical leaders who prayed with the commander-in-chief in the midst of a persistent push for impeachment by House Democrats.

Just this morning, the House passed a resolution to formalize its impeachment inquiry. The 232-196 vote included all but two Democrats in favor, and all Republicans against.

After the meeting with the president, several pastors said he was faring well amid the inquiry.

“It was abundantly clear, he’s totally unfazed by this,” the Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, told Fox News.

“Everybody felt this way. This isn’t actually about Donald Trump. … It’s about the agenda that he’s put forward, the success he’s had in advancing the agenda.”

Moore and others said the evangelical leaders fully support the president.

“Evangelical leaders see this, not as impeaching Donald Trump, but they’re trying to impeach me and my values,” Moore said, adding, “Donald Trump is pretty good at fighting alone—but he isn’t going to have to on this one.”

Pastor Jack Graham, senior pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, echoed Moore’s comments.

“We take it very personally because they’re going after our values,” Graham said, calling the ongoing House impeachment inquiry a “sham of an investigation.”

Despite its significance for the nation, impeachment was not the…

Tennessee pastor Bryan Nerren has been arrested and incarcerated for alleged religious targeting in India, according to the Tennessean.

Nerren, leader of the International House of Prayer Ministries in Shelbyville, was initially detained in New Delhi when police discovered that he was carrying large amounts of cash. When questioned, he explained that the funds were to cover expenses for two conferences. But authorities also asked him if he was connected to any Christian causes and eventually allowed him to fly to Bagdogra.

Nerren’s attorney claims that the pastor was permitted to fly to Bagdogra but not given a form to claim the money, causing officials to flag and arrest him upon his arrival. He was denied visitation from the U.S. Consulate or his attorney. After six days in jail, he was offered a hearing and released on bail; however, authorities took away his passport, thereby detaining him in the country.

“Pastor Nerren is trapped in India with no passport, making even the most mundane of tasks difficult,” the ACLJ, a religious freedom advocacy group, said in a statement according to Faithwire. “He cannot leave. He cannot come home to his wife, children, and young grandchildren who surely can’t comprehend what’s happening to their grandfather. He cannot care for his special-needs daughter here in the United States who needs…

HYDERABAD, India, October 31, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Police in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state have put several house churches under surveillance in order to stop worship, in violation of the country’s secular constitution, sources said.

Police have told congregations to stop worship in homes in Anuperpalayem, Velampalayem, Kangeyam and several other villages in Tiruppur District, the Rev. Vijaya Kumar of The Synod of Pentecostal Churches told Morning Star News.

“We are going through a tough time – there is immense pressure from the police administration in Tiruppur District that Christians are not allowed to gather for prayers even within the four walls of their homes,” Pastor Kumar said. “The pastors of these small churches have been harassed to seek permission from district officials to conduct prayer services.”

Courts in India have repeatedly held that no permission is needed to worship in homes, said Nehemiah Christie, Tamil Nadu state coordinator for legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)-India.

“This level of opposition from government officials is undermining the secularistic values inscribed in the Indian constitution and could lead to deprivation of Christians’ right and freedom to practice their faith, which was upheld time and again in several judgments delivered by the Madras and Madurai benches of the high…

After a harrowing near-death experience in 2015, former NBA star Lamar Odom said he’s been saved. Odom says that Pastor R.A. Vernon of the Word Church in Warrensville, Ohio, helped him understand God’s salvation, according to the Christian Post.

“Nowadays I’m doing the best I can in walking with the Lord,” he said in an Instagram post. “Thanks to Pastor Vernon, I got saved at the Word Church this weekend.”

His girlfriend, Sabrina Parr, stood beside him at the service and later praised him on Instagram for his commitment.

“Nothing better than a man of God!” she said. “Keep pushing through life baby!! God willing I’ll be right here by your side!!!!”

Odom credits God for keeping him alive after he overdosed on drugs at a Nevada brothel in 2015. He was found unconscious and placed on life support. Doctors only gave him a 50 percent chance to survive. But the athlete rallied and is now back to good health.

As he recovered, he began to open up about his struggles to The Players’ Tribune in 2017 and credited his teenagers for encouraging him to go to rehab and stay sober.

“My daughter, Destiny, is 18. She’s beautiful and smart…When I was able to talk again, she told me straight up, ‘Dad, you need to get yourself help or I’m not going to talk to you again.’

“So I went to rehab, and in rehab…

Earlier this week, comedian Kevin Hart posted an emotional and inspiring video thanking God for saving his life after a devastating car crash.

“Basically, what you realize is that you’re not in control,” he says at the beginning of the two-minute video, according to Faithwire. “No matter how much you think you’re in control, you’re not in control. At the end of the day, it can all be over, man.”

In September, Hart was seriously injured after the car he was in careened into an embankment and slammed into a tree as reported by CNN. Both Hart and the driver were transported to the hospital for serious back injuries.

The accident has brought perspective to the comedian and actor. “When you’re moving too fast, and you’re doing too much, sometimes you can’t see the things that you’re meant to see,” he said. “After my accident, I see things differently.

“You know when God talks, you gotta listen. I swear, life is funny. Because some of the craziest things that happen to you end up being the things that you needed most. And in this case, I honestly feel like God basically told me to sit down.”

The video highlighted Hart’s determination to continue physical therapy in light of his accident. He also credits his family and friends for his recovery, but “more importantly”, God.

“I’m…

A Florida county’s placement of “In God We Trust” decals on patrol cars is an “inappropriate” inclusion of religion in the public square, an atheist group says.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page over the weekend that its new vehicles in the coming months and years would include a “patriot theme,” with an American flag on the side and the phrase “In God We Trust” on the back. The latter is the national motto. 

“To us there is no greater honor than to live in the greatest country in the world and serve as a law enforcement officer in Brevard County where our citizens love us, trust us and protect us just as much as we love, trust and protect them,” the Facebook post said.

But the Freedom From Religion Foundation – a coalition of atheists, agnostics and skeptics – is urging the sheriff’s office to abandon the plan and to remove the stickers. 

“Spending taxpayer time placing religious messages on patrol cars is beyond the scope of secular government,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the group, wrote in a letter to Sheriff Wayne Ivey. “Further, in a time when citizens nationwide are increasingly distrustful of law enforcement officers’ actions, it is frightening and politically dubious for the local police department to announce to citizens that officers rely on the judgment of a deity…