Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

Religious liberty advocates are rejoicing after winning the fight to keep a cross at Veteran's Memorial Park in Minnesota after officials decided to create a "free speech zone" to allow the cross to stay.

Muslims radicals punished the daughter of a Christian missionary for her faith by subjecting her to brutal female genital mutilation. Currently, the young woman remains in a coma, struggling for her life.

No one is more afraid of the consequences of President Donald Trump's executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority states than Christians within those designated countries, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Residents of Rienzi, Miss., rallied Saturday after the town's mayor said he was forced to remove a Christian flag from Veterans Memorial Park, following the threat of a lawsuit by an atheist organization, Freedom From Religion Foundation. More than 100 supporters united at the park, where the group waved Christian flags. FFRF representatives said the flag in question needed to come down to avoid unconstitutionally endorsing religion on public grounds.

Wednesday night on The Late Show, host Stephen Colbert and his guest, actor and comedian Ricky Gervais, proved it's possible to have a civil, yet robust, discussion about different viewpoints regarding religion. Colbert, a devout Catholic, started off by asking Gervais, an outspoken atheist, "Why is there something instead of nothing? Why does the universe exist at all?"

Milo Yiannopoulos has seen a dramatic increase in book sales after the University of California, Berkeley cancelled a scheduled talk by the controversial conservative following violent protests.

American filmmaker, actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, who also serves as a special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, stated in an opinion-editorial in the New York Times Thursday it is simply not true that U.S. borders are overrun, or that refugees are admitted to the United States without close scrutiny.

"The only explanation for this [immigration/travel ban] order is that refugees are being used by the president to appeal to his base at the expense of U.S. security," stated Natasha Hall, a former immigration officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in an opinion piece published Tuesday in The Washington Post. "Such a move is not only despicable and devastating to the people who desperately crave the safety of our country -- it erodes the American legal system by turning it into a political tool."

Proclaiming that he believes U.S. religious freedom is "under threat," President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to repeal a rarely enforced IRS rule that indicates pastors who endorse political candidates from the pulpit risk losing their tax-exempt status.

Former first daughter Jenna Welch Bush Hager shared her thoughts on President Donald Trump's controversial immigration ban on Tuesday, saying the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. "That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war."

After acting attorney general Sally Yates issued a memo Monday ordering U.S. Justice Department lawyers not to defend President Trump's controversial immigration executive order, he "relieved" her of her duties," according to a White House statement late Monday evening. Yates, 56, a career official with a history of bipartisan support and former U.S. President Barack Obama appointee, said she was "not convinced" Trump's immigration order is "lawful" and that the Justice Department would not defend it in court "until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so." The Washington Post reported Yates was informed of her dismissal 2 minutes before the statement announcing it was sent to reporters.

President Donald Trump's decision to prioritize Christian refugees over Muslims will only hurt - and not help - those persecuted for their faith in the Middle East, a leading Christian patriarch has warned.

Prince Charles has weighed in on President Donald Trump's executive order that places a temporary halt on refugees from seven different countries entering the United States and said he believes it is important to help people regardless of their faith wherever possible.

After coming under fire for supporting Donald Trump's controversial refugee ban, Franklin Graham has explained that while he believes Christians should care for the poor and needy, the president's job is "not the same as the job of the church".

President Donald Trump defended his controversial executive order that bars the citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States, as thousands of protesters chanted outside of the White House and at multiple, major U.S. airports on Sunday in opposition of the president's sudden immigration policy change. Trump denied the ban was religiously-driven, but confused matters by also announcing Christian refugees would get first priority for U.S. entry. Many people now are seeking answers about why Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are not on Trump's immigration ban, which are countries in which Trump companies do business.

The state of Terengganu in Malaysia has seen its religious authorities clamp down on unmarried Muslim couples who ride on the same motorcycle in a move that is spiraling the country towards a stricter version of Islam.

Franklin Graham, evangelical pastor and president of international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse, said this week President Donald Trump's attempt to protect America from harm is "not a Bible issue." During an interview about Trump's executive orders issued on Friday to impose a four-month refugee freeze into the United States, Graham said there is a difference between showing love and putting lives at risk.

After Steve Bannon was promoted to a role on the National Security Council on Saturday by President Donald Trump, the hashtag #StopPresidentBannon hit the top of Twitter's U.S. trending chart as thousands objected to President Trump's chief strategist. Before his political career, Bannon served as executive chair of Breitbart News, which is considered a far-right news, opinion and commentary website that Bannon described as the platform of the Internet-based alt-right, anti-mainstream movement. Associated Press sources from the White House stated Bannon's addition was "essential to the commander in chief's decision-making process."

Two Christian families from Syria who had been working for nearly 15 years to join relatives in the United States were stopped Saturday at the Philadelphia airport and told to return to Doha, Qatar, due to the immigration travel-related executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday. Syria was one of seven countries on Trump's list for short-term banning of entry into the U.S., along with Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. These two families are not refugees, but Christian Syrians, who according to US relatives, had paid for and had earned their visas.

Silicon Valley leaders immediately expressed concern and denounced an executive order signed on Friday by U.S. President Donald Trump that temporarily banned immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, even if they already were approved to do so. However this ban was temporarily overturned on Saturday after American Civil Liberties Union officials won an emergency stay in federal court, meaning those affected with valid visas cannot be deported and sent back to their home countries.

For the first time in history, scientists were able to successfully create a hybrid of a human and an animal.

"Banning all Madonna songs at HITS 105 is not a matter of politics, it's a matter of patriotism," Terry told Billboard, "It just feels wrong to us to be playing Madonna songs and paying her royalties when the artist has shown un-American sentiments. If all stations playing Madonna took their lead from us, that would send a powerful economic message to Madonna."

The truth is as I'm sure some of you have surmised by now, this isn't your great-great-great grandmother's suffrage. While it is tempting and even seemingly noble to empower women---and, don't get me wrong, there is an appropriate time and place for it---the very women cited for their movement of suffrage would cringe at the subjects deemed "rights" now.

A WhiteHouse.gov page previously about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights is non-existent after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in. The whitehouse.gov/lgbt page reportedly was gone within an hour of Trump taking office. It was replaced by a Trump "transitionsplash" page. Other previously available White House webpages about climate change, civil rights and health care, also were taken down.

Two of the top divinity schools in the United States have asked faculty to use "more inclusive" language when talking about God - meaning professors must now use "gender-neutral" terms when discussing Him as to not offend students.