Republican senators during the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Monday defended Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s Catholic faith and said she had been a victim of “religious bigotry” in recent days.

The comments from GOP Sens. Ben Sasse (Neb.), Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Joni Ernst (Iowa) came amidst a media infatuation with Barrett’s membership in a Christian community, People of Faith, and a spotlight on her devout Catholic beliefs as a former professor at the University of Notre Dame. In 2017, when Barrett was confirmed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif) famously told Barrett, “The dogma lives loudly within you.”

President Trump nominated Barrett to fill the seat held by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“Whatever you or I or Judge Barrett believe about God isn’t any of the government’s business,” Sasse said.

Religious liberty, he said, “is the default assumption of our entire system.”

“We don’t have religious tests,” Sasse said. “This committee isn’t in the business of deciding whether the dogma lives too loudly within someone. This committee isn’t in the business of deciding which religious beliefs are good and which religious beliefs are bad, and which religious beliefs are weird.

“And I just want to say, as somebody who’s self-consciously a Christian, we’ve got a whole…

A group of Catholic women in Britain are supporting an online petition that asks the Church of England and Wales to reverse the decision to use the “gender-exclusive” English Standard Version of the Bible instead of the Jerusalem Bible translation at mass, The Christian Post reports.

“In choosing this translation over the inclusive Catholic version of the New Jerusalem Bible, the Bishops have chosen to exclude at least 50% of the ecclesial community,” reads the petition to Cardinal Vincent Nichols (Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

“Their choice of Bible translation can but speak of an attitude that continues to judge women second class citizens in the Church,” it adds. “Language shapes thoughts and attitudes, and the impact of rendering Holy Scripture in this way is to deny the inclusion of female disciples of Jesus, not only in the language of the liturgy, but in the good news of salvation.”

More than 350 people had signed the petition as of Monday morning.

The woman who started the petition, Bridget Kennedy, said there is an importance to the woman’s role in the Bible.

“It was a woman Jesus commissioned first Apostle of the Resurrection. It was the stories of the women of faith that Jesus heard the men repeating as they made their way together to Emmaus. The Bishops might have taken their lead…

Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California is calling pastors and church leaders across America to reopen their churches despite COVID-19 restrictions by “leftist and secular government officials” who seek to “shut us down.”

According to The Blaze, MacArthur released the video on his official Twitter account on Wednesday, which has since gone viral with over 550,000 views.

OPEN YOUR CHURCH.
Hebrews 10:25; Matthew 16:18#ChurchIsEssential pic.twitter.com/CH28pwcWpL

— John MacArthur (@johnmacarthur) October 7, 2020

“Today’s current crop of politicians are trampling on the Constitution and on the resolve of citizens to demand their rights under the pressure of a manufactured fear,” MacArthur said in the video. “The reality is that the COVID data just doesn’t match the government’s COVID narrative.”

MacArthur, who is in the midst of an ongoing legal battle with California officials for holding church services amid coronavirus restrictions, claimed that people have a high rate of surviving the disease.

“You have a 99.99 percent chance to survive COVID,” the California pastor claimed. “It’s just not what they’re saying it is.”

“That absolutely does not warrant shutting down anything,” he continued. “But especially, absurdly, and arbitrarily, churches that have a special protection from the Constitution. Oh, and at the same…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Monday, October 12, 2020

Crediting the prayers of his supporters with his quick recovery from COVID-19 symptoms that “were never that bad,” Harvest Christian Fellowship Senior Pastor Greg Laurie said he expects to return to his pulpit on Sunday.

Laurie, who was among several high-profile leaders diagnosed with COVID-19 after attending the Sept. 26 White House nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, made the announcement in a video statement on his Facebook page Friday.

“As you know I’ve been dealing with COVID-19 and so many of you have taken the time to pray for me and let me know that you’re praying for me so I’m happy to report that I’m doing great and feel great,” the California pastor said, noting that he had successfully completed 10 days of quarantine.

“The fact of the matter is, my symptoms were never that bad. Thank God for that. I know it isn’t that way for everyone and I attribute that to so many people praying. Let’s remember to continue to pray for all of those infected with the coronavirus that they have a quick and complete recovery,” he…

HYDERABAD, India, October 12, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A Christian and his 20-year-old son have taken refuge at an undisclosed location since an attack on Sept. 2 in Chhattisgarh state left the father with permanent damage to his hearing, sources said.

Jagra Kashyap, 45, and son Asharam Kashyap had to leave their families at home in Badrenga village, Bastar District, as they fear for their lives if they return, pastor Vishwanath Kawasi said.

“Their families back home are also feeling unsafe, but if Kashyap and his son return there, they could be attacked any time again,” Pastor Kawasi told Morning Star News.

Demanding that Kashyap and his son renounce Christianity and return to Hinduism, a mob of about 60 Hindu extremists stormed their home at 10:30 a.m. and struck the elder man’s ear until it bled while delivering severe blows to his son’s back, the pastor said.

Doctors at the district government hospital said the impairment to his ear is permanent, and that he will need a hearing aid for the rest of his life, according to an allied lawyer for legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom India.

Pastor Kawasi said more than 10 Christian families in the village have come under attack in the past month.

“Only seven or eight members muster the courage to attend Sunday worship service,” he told Morning Star News. “The village president and elders from the village go…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Monday, October 12, 2020

Redemption Church Pastor Ron Carpenter has announced that he is returning to Greenville, South Carolina, with a new campus in 2021 to provide a spiritual home for former congregants who are now in distress after a botched handover of his longtime church in that city to fellow megachurch leader John Gray.

“I … want you to be ready to welcome a new addition to the family. I think many of you know Hope and I spent 27 years on the East Coast before we were blessed and privileged to come and be your pastors on the West Coast. But we had some things that we felt like we were responsible for and that we needed to go back and pick up. They were not handled exactly like we thought they were going [to] in succession and it left a lot of people who love Redemption, who love this ministry kind of disenfranchised and without a home,” Carpenter said in an announcement posted on YouTube Friday.

“You’ll find out something about me. I’m a very responsible person. And I don’t like people to live within decisions that I made that has caused them to be distressed….

A judge denied a Brooklyn diocese’s request for a temporary restraining order on COVID-19 restrictions.

According to ABC 7, the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn had filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state of New York, saying that COVID-19 restrictions were a violation of the right to free exercise of religion.

The decision follows a statement from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said he would close churches and synagogues in the city if they did not “agree to follow the rules” of social distancing and masks.

“If you do not agree to follow the rules, then we will close the institutions down. I am prepared to do that,” Cuomo said, according to The Christian Post.

The judge wrote in his decision that it was a “difficult decision.”

However, the Brooklyn Diocese said they were disappointed in the ruling.

“We are seeking what is just. And we have kept parishioners safe and will continue to do so,” Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said. “Thus, there is no reason for this latest interference with our First Amendment right to celebrate Mass together, so we will continue to press the courts and our elected officials to end it as soon as possible. We are left with no choice but, for now, to abide by the new restrictions that limit Mass attendance to 10 people in the red zones and 25 in the orange zones. But we will continue to fight to vindicate our…

Hurricane Delta made landfall in Lake Charles, Louisiana, just six weeks after Hurricane Laura touched down, Fox News reports.

Hurricane Delta reportedly left downed power lines, mangled metal, and scattered tarpaulins.

However, the community is not filled with despair. Utility crews across the area were quickly deployed to restore electricity to the residents who lost power, but residents returned home on streets lined with debris and even saw houses with no roofs on them. Around 350,000 residents lost power due to the hurricane.

Sadly, one 70-year-old woman died of a fire caused by a gas leak due to the hurricane’s damage. An 86-year-old man also died from the hurricane after a generator he refueled at St. Martin Parish caught fire. Further, a 19-year-old was drowned after getting caught in a rip current caused by the storm.

The storm also reportedly caused a train in Atlanta, Georgia to derail from the tracks causing a small fire. The fire briefly forced some residents from their homes.

The hurricane reached a wind speed of up to 100 miles per hour, which was not as bad as Hurricane Laura’s 150 mile-per-hour winds, but still damaging as the town was still making repairs from Hurricane Laura. Hurricane Laura killed 32 people, many from carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.

Hurricane Delta’s remnants have caused rains to pour in Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas. One of the…