By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter Follow | Monday, October 05, 2020

California megachurch pastor Greg Laurie, who attended the Sept. 26 White House nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, has announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

Other prominent evangelical pastors who attended the event in which several other attendees have since tested positive for coronavirus say they have tested negative. 

Laurie, the 67-year-old author and senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, told the Christian Broadcasting Network Monday that he has the coronavirus. At first, he said, the symptoms started with fatigue, aches, pains and fever. He added that his sense of taste has been affected. 

“Then I found out the news that I didn’t want to find out that I have the coronavirus,” Laurie explained. 

He assured he is OK and now in quarantine. 

“I just wish that at a time like this we could not politicize this and show compassion to people that are struggling with this. It’s real,” Laurie stressed as much has been made in the media about attendees of the White House event contracting the virus. “It really is a pandemic that’s swept our…

The Trump Department of Justice is siding in court with a Washington, D.C. church that sued the city over a restriction prohibiting it from meeting not only indoors but also outdoors.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church, which had around 1,000 attendees on a typical Sunday prior to the pandemic, is prohibited from gathering either indoors or outdoors under restrictions by Mayor Muriel Bowser that ban in-person church gatherings of more than 100 people.

The city has refused to grant the church a waiver, even though the congregation has committed to requiring masks and to enforce social distancing of six feet between families. The church filed suit against the city in September, alleging violations of its rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution’s First and Fifth Amendments, including its rights to assemble and worship without government interference. The church’s pastor, Mark Dever, is a well-known author and speaker.

“Although the precise legal tests may change based on the specific restriction at issue, the bottom line remains the same: there is no pandemic exception to the Constitution and our fundamental rights,” the DOJ brief, a Statement of Interest, says. It was filed Friday.

“Individual rights set forth in the Constitution are always operative and restrain government action,” the brief ads.

The restriction likely “targets religious believers”…

Amazon Prime’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series has been eagerly anticipated by fans, but a new report claiming that the show may include Game of Thrones-type nudity has some of those same fans promising not to watch.

Amazon agreed in 2018 to a $250 million rights deal for a five-year series based on the Lord of the Rings books, which were written by the late Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien and include Christian themes.

Although the Peter Jackson-directed theatrical films from 2001 to 2003 contained no nudity or sexuality, such may not be the case for the Amazon series. The fansite TheOneRing.net reported it is “starting to see casting calls for actors ‘comfortable with nudity’” for the series. The entertainment news website Knight Edge Media linked to a casting call from BGT Actors Model & Talent it said was for the Amazon series.

The casting call sheet says the filmmakers in New Zealand “need Nude people based in Auckland — age 18 plus, all shapes and sizes.”

Knight Edge Media also reported it has “discovered that the series may indeed feature sexual scenes between characters.” That’s because Jennifer Ward-Lealand, an intimacy coordinator, apparently has been hired to work on the new Amazon series, Knight Edge Media reported. An intimacy coordinator ensures the safety and wellbeing of actors and actresses during sex scenes. Ward-Lealand…

A brand new exhibit, titled “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made” was recently launched at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky that provides a biblical case for the sanctity of human life amid the current issue of abortion.

The meaning behind the name originates from Psalm 139:14 which reads, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

“As a ministry, we’re all about biblical authority and a Christian worldview,” Ken Ham the CEO of the Creation Museum explained to The Christian Post. “Abortion is one of the key social issues of today, and we knew it would be an even bigger political issue this year because of the election. We wanted to make something that was powerful and stunning and would help people be more informed about this issue.”

Ham, who also leads the apologetics ministry, Answers In Genesis, argued that the Bible makes  clear that all of humanity is made in the image of God “and have inerrant value and worth.”

“We go through the biblical relevance of all of that,” he added.

Dr. David Mention, an award-winning professor from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, oversaw the research taken in the creation of the “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made” exhibit.

The exhibit features life-like models of babies throughout its 9-month development in the womb,…

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday turned down a much-watched case involving a county clerk who opposed same-sex marriage, although two of the justices criticized the U.S. legal system for suggesting Christians with traditional beliefs are bigots.

“By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment, and by doing so undemocratically, the Court has created a problem that only it can fix,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a four-page statement that was joined by Justice Samuel Alito.

The case involved Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk and a professing Christian who ordered her department in 2015 to stop issuing marriage licenses, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Although Davis’ order applied to all couples – and not just to same-sex couples – she was nevertheless sued by those who were refused licenses. Davis had requested an accommodation that did not require her name to be placed on the license of a same-sex couple, due to her strong Christian beliefs. (The state’s executive branch eventually honored her request.)

She lost in district court and at the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Liberty Counsel, which represented Davis, argued she had the legal right under Supreme Court precedent to stop…

Notable Cornerstone Church Pastor and author John Hagee has tested positive for COVID-19, according to an announcement made by his son, Pastor Matt Hagee.

During a livestreamed worship service on Sunday, Matt Hagee told those gathered in-person and online that his father was “diligent throughout this entire COVID pandemic to monitor his health.”

Matt Hagee said that his 80-year-old father tested positive for COVID-19 last Friday, adding that the virus was “discovered very early” and that “his medical team has him under watchful care.”

“He’s feeling well enough to be frustrated with everybody in a white coat and a stethoscope,” he said, getting applause and cheers from the in-person worshipers.

“He wanted me to tell you personally that he covets your prayers and that he asks you to pray for him daily, not only that he make a speedy recovery, but that he looks forward to seeing you again here at Cornerstone very soon.”

Matt Hagee then called upon the Cornerstone congregation to take time during the service to pray both for his father and for everyone battling the coronavirus.

“As it is a…