The United States joined 18 other countries Monday in urging the United Nations to stop using terms like “sexual and reproductive health” in U.N. documents and resolutions, saying such phrases unite rather than divide member states.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar read the joint statement during a meeting on universal health coverage. 

“Such terms do not adequately take into account the key role of the family in health and education, nor the sovereign right of nations to implement health policies according to their national context,” Azar said, reading the statement. “There is no international right to an abortion and these terms should not be used to promote pro-abortion policies and measures.

“Further,” Azar said. “we only support sex education that appreciates the protective role of the family in this education and does not condone harmful sexual risks for young people.”

The other countries that joined the statement were Bahrain, Belarus, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Together, they represent 1.3 billion people, Azar said.

The 19 nations “support programs to improve the health, life, dignity, and well-being of women, men, children and families,” Azar said. But the…

A Christian missionary living in the Middle East says God is moving among Muslims in miraculous ways, including through “dreams, visions and personal visitations” by Jesus.

The missionary, known only as “Yazid” to protect his safety, spoke via voice call Sept. 18 during the “Something Needs to Change Simulcast” hosted by David Platt, pastor of McLean Bible Church in Virginia.   

Yazid and his wife serve in a “highly restricted” area where Islam is the majority religion and Christians face death for spreading the gospel, Platt said. Nevertheless, the God of the Bible is moving among Muslims, Yazid said during the simulcast. 

Yazid told the story of a Muslim man who lives about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) outside a Middle Eastern city who had an encounter with Jesus.   

“This man,” Yazid recounted, “said this to us when we visited him: ‘A man wearing all white knocks on my door every night, and I couldn’t look at him because his face was so shiny and bright. When he would come inside, he asked me to write down what he said. And as I wrote, I would fall asleep and then the next night, he would come again.’”

The visitations took place regularly for a month, the man told Yazid. Yazid asked him: “What did you write? May I see your notebook?”

“He showed me his notebook,” Yazid said. The notes…

A ministry founder in Ohio says city officials have denied him a permit to hold worship services in his ministry’s building because they fear the ministry will attract more homeless people.

According to the Christian Post, Melvin Navarro and his wife Angelina, operate Joseph’s Corner Outreach and Healing Wings International Ministries in the city of Lorain, Ohio.

The Healing Wings International Ministry’s Facebook page notes that the organization works to provide “worship services and Bible studies to the community of Lorain.” Joseph’s Corner Outreach– which is a Healing Wings International Ministry – works to “focus on meeting community needs by providing a place for Morale, Welfare and Recreation for the community of Lorain,” the organization’s Facebook page says. 

The ministry reportedly offers free clothes, shoes, toys, household goods and food – including hot meals – to families in need in the community.

About a year ago, the Navarros relocated the programs to their current location, 19 News reports. The ministry was able to obtain operations permit from the city’s fire chief and the Navarros hoped they would be able to obtain a permit to function as a church as well. The pair wanted to be able to host worship services in the ministry’s building.

Navarro anticipated that his request for a permit to hold worship…

Men have lower comprehension than women when using a digital Bible compared to a print edition, even though they are more likely to finish a Bible reading plan using an electronic version, according to a new study. 

The study in the Journal of Religion, Media, and Digital Culture found that women retain as much with a Bible app as they do with a print Bible, while men retain less information with a Bible app, Christianity Today reported. Men, though, are more likely than women to finish Bible readings on an app. 

The study used YouVersion’s app. 

Participants in the study often said they use both a print and digital Bible throughout the week, depending on the situation.

“Print and digital Bibles are usually framed in opposition to one another… but the data suggests the relationship is much more complex,” study author John Dyer said, according to Christianity Today. “Bible reading today is more of a multimedia experience, with readers using a combination of print, screen, and audio depending on [the] form of Bible engagement they are doing.”

Among all participants, 66 percent said they preferred print Bibles for long reading. Sixty-five percent said they would rather use a print Bibles for study.

One female participant wrote, “When reading on the phone I feel like I was less engaged than when reading a paper Bible. It felt a little more like…

Christian-based Television Network, TCT, has committed to abolishing $2.5 million of medical debt for 2,500 families across the United States.

“Across this country, there are people with medical debt and they simply don’t have any way to pay it,” TCT said in a press release, according to CBN. “Most of the people are living at a poverty level or below the poverty level and the situation is serious and hopeless for some.”

The statement notes that anyone from families to senior citizens or military veterans can be affected by “unforeseen illness leaving unsayable medical bills.”

It continues, “Medical costs are astronomical and a heavy burden to bear for someone who is already sick and struggling. Yet they have the added pressures of bill collectors calling, writing, and trying to collect. TCT saw this need and began to do something about it.”

Dr. Garth and Tina Coonce, president and founders of the network, spearheaded the idea to partner with a nonprofit called RIP Medical Debt. The organization has paid for over $800 million in debt for about 240,000 Americans and over $50 million specifically for veterans.

“Dr. Coonce heard about this particular non-profit organization and what they were doing. He contacted them and was impressed by their activities and decided this was a great need today for many less fortunate and hurting people,”…

Union Theological Seminary, which boasts its progressive theology, encouraged students to confess their sins to plants in chapel earlier this week.

“Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants in your life?” a tweet from the seminary read, according to Faithwire.

Today in chapel, we confessed to plants. Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor.

What do you confess to the plants in your life? pic.twitter.com/tEs3Vm8oU4

— Union Seminary (@UnionSeminary) September 17, 2019

The confessional, according to the seminary, was part of a class called “Extractivism: A Ritual/Liturgical Response.” The confessions were geared specifically towards harm committed against the environment.

“We are in the throes of a climate emergency, a crisis created by humanity’s arrogance, our disregard for Creation. Far too often, we see the natural world only as resources to be extracted for our use, not divinely created in their own right—worthy of honor, thanks and care,” the seminary said in its defense. “Churches have a huge role to play in this endeavor. Theologies that encourage humans to…

Evangelist Franklin Graham, an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, is urging the commander-in-chief’s detractors to “give it a rest” following allegations that the president used foreign aid money to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate the business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. 

The most recent accusations against the president were leveled by a whistleblower who maintains that Trump repeatedly asked that Biden’s son, Hunter, be investigated during a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Fox News, however, is reporting that a source close to the investigation says the whistleblower does not have “firsthand knowledge” of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky.

“I wish President @realDonaldTrump’s enemies would give it a rest. For 2 years all the American people heard was collusion. Not true. Then accusations seemed to come out of the woodwork by various women. Then all we heard was impeachment. Now it’s a whistleblower claim,” Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, tweeted on Monday, adding, “President @realDonaldTrump was elected to do a job. Let’s pray for him, that God will give him wisdom to make the right decisions for the American people and to do his job well.”

I wish President @realDonaldTrump’s enemies would give it a rest. For 2…

Ashley Bratcher, the star of the PureFlix film released earlier this year, Unplanned, shared the inspirational news earlier this month at an “Evening for Life” banquet and fundraiser in Overland, Kansas that she herself was nearly aborted by her mother.

According to TheLeaven.org, Bratcher, who gave the keynote address at the annual event, also shared her rise from being a single mother on WIC and Medicaid to being cast in the role of Abby Johnson, who is, Bratcher declared, “one of the greatest pro-life activists of our time.”

“We could barely pay our bills, but we fought tooth and nail to get back on our feet so we could provide for our child,” Bratcher continued.

Then, in 2015 God put the word “prepare” on Bratcher’s heart, which, given the events that unfolded in her life that year, proved prophetic. “I chose that word because God had put it on my heart that he wanted to take me somewhere that I was not yet ready to go,” she said.

Bratcher would soon find out that that somewhere was the role of Abby Johnson in Unplanned. After getting the news that she had been cast to play Johnson, Bratcher told her mother, and that is when she found that she had almost been aborted.

“It was really a profound moment. You see, I had accepted this role to play one of the greatest pro-life activists of our time, never knowing I was…