National News

WASHINGTON (BP) – President Donald Trump spent more than three hours with Christian pastors and ministry leaders marking the importance of Holy Week during a White House event Wednesday night (April 16).

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (BP) – Police have apprehended a suspect after a shooting on the campus of Florida State University that resulted in one fatality and sent five others to the hospital.

NASHVILLE (BP) – The Colorado House of Representatives has passed a law that would create legal grounds for the state to strip custody from parents who legislators say “misgender” their children.

MAYFIELD, Ky. (KT) – “The building is nothing. Twenty-two million dollars, a newly renovated facility, it means nothing because in 15 seconds it can all be gone again. It really helps guide our perspective and keeps us grounded to what our mission is: making much of Christ,” said Paul Wilkerson, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Mayfield.

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. (BP) – A church secretary in Florida has been arrested and charged with grand theft after it was discovered she had racked up more than $570,000 in personal charges on a church credit card over a period of years.

On April 22, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments regarding parental rights and religious freedom in the case Mahmoud v. Taylor. This case will determine whether public schools infringe on parents’ religious freedom by requiring elementary school children to participate in instruction on gender and sexuality without parental notice or the ability to opt out, despite religious objections.

PASADENA, Texas (BP) – Barry Wilmore attended his first elders meeting in nearly a year at Providence Baptist Church on April 10. His absence was understandable.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump has nominated Mark Walker, a former congressman and pastor from North Carolina, as the new U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

AUSTIN, Texas (BP) – The Texas House passed a bipartisan bill banning nondisclosure clauses in sexual abuse settlement agreements April 8, championed on the House floor by Rep. Jeff Leach, a Southern Baptist who is among the bill’s five authors.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Five cases addressing religious liberty ranging from parental rights to age verification on pornographic sites will be decided when the Supreme Court announces its decisions in the coming months.