Persecution of Christians in China by the Chinese Communist Party has continued to rage on, despite COVID-19 restrictions.

Local officials have removed crosses from the rooftops of hundreds of churches, religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter reports.

In August, Two Chinese Christian Councils in a county managed by the prefecture-level city of Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province ordered over 70 affiliated churches to replace all cross symbols from their official seals with China’s five-pointed star.

According to Britannica, the Chinese flag and national emblem features one large star surrounded by four small stars, which represents the CCP as the guiding force of the nation.

Additionally, the star is utilized in all other state-run institutions.

In early September, Jiujiang’s Religious Affairs Bureau ordered official churches to remove Chinese characters for “Christianity” from church seals.

“All official churches were ordered to replace their seals so that believers accept the Party as the main leader and follow only it,” a Three-Self Church venue director from Jiujiang said.

Another Three-Self venue director explained how the cross was inscribed on its church seals as “the symbol of our faith,” but “the government replaced it with the five-pointed star to show its power.”

The latest directives were made on the churches…

By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Friday, October 09, 2020

Controversial founder of Harvest Bible Chapel in greater Chicago, James MacDonald, is no longer in danger of losing his sprawling $1.6 million custom-built home in Elgin, Illinois, after the bank holding his mortgage withdrew a foreclosure lawsuit against him Wednesday.

Republic Bank of Chicago filed an order in Kane County court saying it agreed to dismiss the suit because it reinstated MacDonald’s mortgage but did not specify why, the Daily Herald reported.

MacDonald had previously owed $947,546.34 on his five-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom home that sits on 10 acres along Highland Avenue. He allegedly borrowed $990,000 from Republic Bank of Chicago to purchase the home in 2016. Since last December, it was reported that MacDonald hadn’t made a mortgage payment up to the time of the foreclosure lawsuit and had owed $925,902.96 on the loan, $20,669.34 in unpaid interest, as well as $974.04 in late charges. MacDonald’s LLC, Vanilla Bean, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The dismissal of the foreclosure lawsuit comes just over two months after MacDonald settled a legal dispute with Harvest…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin introduced a bill Friday that would set up a bipartisan, bicameral commission that would have the power to relieve the president of his or her powers under the 25th Amendment, provided the vice president agrees.

Pelosi, though, said the bill is not directed at the current president.

“This is not about President Trump,” Pelosi said. “He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”

Under the bill, the commission would consist of 16 members appointed by the speaker of the House, House minority leader, Senate majority leader, and Senate minority leader, each of whom would select a physician and a psychiatrist for the commission. Those same congressional leaders also would select former Executive Branch officials. The result is the commission would consist of eight Republican-appointed and eight Democratic-appointed members. The 16-person commission then would select a 17th member to serve as chair.

None of the members can be current elected officials or federal employees under the bill.

It would be called the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment gives two separate groups the power to decide if “the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”: 1) a…

Canaan Baptist Church is suing the City of Duncanville, Texas in an attempt to keep its property from being obtained by the city under eminent domain, The Christian Post reports.

The church owns a vacant lot in East Texas, which the church plans to build on and use for other purposes. According to the lawsuit, the church, which is predominantly African-American, was called “to be a ‘city on a hill,’ (Matthew 5:14), by spreading his love and Truth to the people in the community where they live, both in words and in acts of service.”

The suit alleges that, according to the Texas Property Code and Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 91a, they should be allowed to keep their property despite the petition by the City of Duncanville. The suit alleges the church was going to build on the property to further its ministry to the surrounding area while also practicing its religious beliefs. The congregation is allegedly small, so they anticipated it would take several years to raise the funds necessary to build the structure. They also would need to rezone the land for church use.

The lawsuit claims that “The City of Duncanville’s condemnation petition infringes upon Canaan Baptist’s foundational right to freely exercise its religion.”

It continues, “Under the Texas Constitution, ‘All Men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday turned down a request by the Trump administration to halt so-called “abortion by mail,” letting stand a lower court ruling that allows women to have the abortion pill delivered to their home during the pandemic.

It was a setback for the Trump administration, which had asked the Supreme Court for an injunction blocking a district court ruling from July that overturned Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restrictions. Those FDA rules require mifepristone – one of the two drugs involved in the abortion pill procedure – to be dispensed in-person “by or under the supervision of a certified prescriber.”

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in July said the FDA rules imposed a “substantial obstacle” to women during a pandemic. He was nominated by President Obama.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it wanted “a more comprehensive record” at the lower court before ruling. It asked the lower court to look again at the issue and rule within 40 days on the grounds that circumstances may have changed. The high court said it was holding the administration’s request “in abeyance” until the lower court ruled.

The abortion pill includes two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, causing the lining of the uterus to break down in order to kill the unborn baby. Misoprostol sparks contractions and a delivery of…

(RNS) — Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, announced a 33 percent tuition cut Thursday (Oct. 8), joining two other Council for Christian Colleges and Universities members that have reset their tuition in the last two weeks in an effort to make private Christian education more accessible.  

The cut will go into effect in fall 2021, reducing Gordon’s tuition to $25,250 and its annual “sticker price” — including tuition, room, board and comprehensive fee — from $50,650 to $37,950. According to the results of a 2019 CCCU survey, the nondenominational Christian college is now one of only 11 CCCU schools to ever reset its tuition.  

“We’re hoping that we’re at the leading edge of a larger movement whereby Christian higher education makes a larger commitment to becoming more affordable for more families,” Gordon President Michael Lindsay told Religion News Service. “We’re also hoping that this major push will increase access opportunities for students who are the first of their families to go to college, as well as students from underrepresented groups.”

The announcement follows an anonymous $75.5 million donation to the college last year, the largest donation ever made to an evangelical college. Those funds — coupled with another $50 million raised — are going directly to support scholarships, freeing up other resources.

The school intends to retain…

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden refused again Thursday to disclose his position on adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying voters won’t know where he stands until after the election.

Several Democrats have suggested the party should add seats to the court if it wins the White House and the Senate as a way to counter the impact of President Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, who is expected to join the court’s conservative bloc.

Her confirmation would mean six of the nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents, including three by President Trump – the most by a single president since Richard Nixon. The five current members who comprise the conservative bloc have sided with the conservative position on a host of issues, including abortion, religious liberty and LGBT rights, even if the bloc has had a few defections in recent months.

The Supreme Court has had nine justices since 1869.

“You’ll know my opinion on court-packing when the election is over,” Biden told reporters Thursday. “…. I don’t blame you for asking, but you know the moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers, will be about that – other than focusing on what’s happening now.”

Biden says the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death should be filled by the winner of the November election. Republicans, he said, are “denying the…