A pastor in North Carolina has been arrested and charged in connection with nine armed robberies in the Charlotte area. John Thomas Lindsey, 47, who leads True Love Church of Refuge, was taken into custody on Wednesday and charged with nine counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, nine counts of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

He is accused of robbing four Circle K stores, two Sam’s Mart locations, two 7-Eleven stores and a Family Dollar outlet. WSOC-TV reports that the motive for the robberies was to obtain money to buy drugs. Lindsey has two prior drug convictions from the 1990’s.

“We, the leadership and membership of True Love Church of Refuge, are deeply saddened and disappointed that our leader and brother, John Thomas Lindsey, is facing charges associated with criminal activity. Though we denounce any involvement he may have had, we love him and will continue to pray for him,” his congregation said in a statement this week. “The ministry will continue to stand strong despite the latest allegations and will continue to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom,” it said.

Police were led to Lindsey after first arresting Fernando Carillo-Hernandez, 24, who was taken into custody on Tuesday for committing three of the robberies. Officials had released photographs from surveillance footage in asking for help in identifying the suspects. Carillo-Hernandez is not believed to be affiliated with True Love Church of Refuge.

Ellen Degeneres has cancelled a scheduled appearance on her talk show by Gospel singer Kim Burrell, after a video of the singer preaching against homosexuality last week was posted online, provoking a backlash.

In the sermon, delivered at the Houston church Burrell founded, the singer warned against homosexual behavior. “Anybody in the room who is living with a homosexual spirit, beg God to free you. If you play with it in 2017, you’ll die from it,” Burrell stated. “If you play with it in 2017 in God’s house, you’ll die from it. Y’all came to hear about carnal, I came to tell you about sin.”

“That perverted homosexual spirit is the spirit of delusion and confusion, and has deceived many men and women,” she said. “And it’s caused a stain on the Body of Christ.” She also listed specific homosexual acts and said acting upon them was perverted.

Burrell went on to criticize homosexuality in the church, citing Georgia megachurch Pastor Eddie Long, who has been accused of sexually abusing male members of his church, and Andrew Caldwell, who became an Internet phenomenon after a 2014 video of him declaring that he’d been delivered from homosexuality went viral.

The clip with this part of Burrell’s sermon was posted on YouTube with the title “Kim Burrell bashes homosexuals; implies they will die in 2017,” getting more than a half-million views by Monday and those numbers approaching one million at press time.

The following day, Burrell released a video message on Facebook live in which she stood by the message in her sermon, saying she came online to respond to the backlash because she cared about God’s creation. “I never said LGBT last night,” she stated. “I said S-I-N.”

Burrell pointed out that the focus was on selective portions of her sermon given at Love & Liberty Fellowship Pentecostal Overcoming Holy Church, saying this was the design of “the enemy” to make it look like she has a personal agenda against people.

“We’re not in a war against flesh and blood,” Burrell explained. “To every person that is dealing with the homosexual spirit that has it — I love you because God loves you,” she emphasized. “But God hates the sin in you and me, anything that is against the nature of God. I’m called to do what God called me to do and that’s it.”

She also clarified in the video she was addressing people who operate with that spirit in the church with deception. Nevertheless, the repercussions continued.

Burrell was supposed to sing “I See A Victory” Thursday on Degeneres’ show with music artist Pharrell Williams from the soundtrack of the new Hidden Figures movie. But DeGeneres, who is openly gay and was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November by Barack Obama for her influence on gay rights, announced Tuesday on Twitter that Burrell had been bumped, tweeting, “For those asking, Kim Burrell will not be appearing on my show.”

An online petition asking Williams and DeGeneres to cancel Burrell’s appearance was signed more than 6,000 times. Williams himself responded, though not naming Burrell, posting on Instagram, “I condemn hate speech of any kind.”

“There is no room in this world for any kind of prejudice,” he went on. “My greatest hope is for inclusion and love for all humanity in 2017 and beyond.” Singer and actress Janelle Monáe, who stars in the “Hidden Figures” film, was set to appear on DeGeneres’ show with Burrell and Williams.

She shared Williams’ post, stating, “My advice: If your religion is causing you to spew out words of hate, judge, or look down on others because of who one loves then you need to change it.”

Actress Octavia Spencer, another star of the film, shared Williams’ post as well, writing, “I agree. We are all God’s children equal in his eyes. Hatred isn’t the answer. Intolerance isn’t the answer.” A number of other music artists, celebrities and a Black Lives Matter activist criticized her on social media. Katonya Breaux, the mother of rapper Frank Ocean, with whom Burrell sang on his latest album, tweeted, “Me: Son, can we crop Kim Burrells voice out of your song?” One improbable supporter defended Burrell amid the backlash and shared his personal experience that conflicts with the current social media narrative.

“Kim Burrell loves people,” O’Rhonde Chapman said. “She supported me, embraced me, encouraged me and inspired me to be all that I have become today.” Chapman credits her with helping to change his life after Burrell encountered him eight years ago as a homeless former Houston high school student who struggled for acceptance while being transgender. Burrell welcomed Chapman with open arms at her church and pushed him to pursue his dream of attending design school and starting his own fashion line.

“I was openly gay at the time,” he said in a KHOU11 report. “So (Burrell) embraced me. She didn’t shun me. She didn’t have hatred towards me. She treated me in a way that I was supposed to be treated.” He first cringed when he saw the sermon clip, but he wishes Burrell was being judged by more than that, and was compelled to speak up after her “Ellen” appearance was cancelled.

Muslim Fulani terrorists reportedly killed over 800 Christians and moderate Muslims, as well as destroyed at least 16 churches, in the last few months of 2016 in Nigeria, representing a rising Islamic threat.

Although Christians in Nigeria have been heavily targeted by the Boko Haram terror group since 2009, the nomadic Fulani herdsmen have also been growing more violent in their attacks, with the last three months of 2016 resulting in the deaths of hundreds of believers, according to a local bishop.

“Fifty-three villages burned down, 808 people murdered and 57 wounded, 1,422 houses and 16 churches destroyed,” Bishop Joseph Bagobiri of the Diocese of Kafanchan told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, recounting the violence Christians have faced since September.

The bishop pointed out that the Fulani radicals target both Christians and moderate Muslims, and although the conflicts have partially been based on farming land disputes, the terrorists are now using “sophisticated weapons they didn’t have before, such as AK-47s of unknown provenance.”

“In addition to the social and economic issues that have fueled conflict since ancient times, such as the distribution of the land and shortage of grazing, the dimension of the problem has changed,” Bagobiri continued.

“The Fulani are Muslim and the land they are attacking belongs mainly to ethnic groups that are Christian; now there is religious hatred driving the violence.”

Theology students at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have been given “trigger warnings” and told they can leave class if depictions of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion are too upsetting for them.

The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that the university’s decision is part of a trigger warning trend for teachers to tell students in advance about potentially upsetting material in class.

The trigger warning was reportedly issued for the course titled “Creation to Apocalypse: Introduction to the Bible (Level 1),” with university documents warning that the lectures sometimes contain “graphic scenes of the crucifixion, and this is flagged up to students beforehand.”

Glasgow University explained its decision in a statement: “We have an absolute duty of care to all of our students and where it is felt course material may cause potential upset or concern warnings may be given.”

Former-Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, the Rev. David Robertson, told Premier’s News Hour that students in such courses should be prepared to encounter upsetting content.  “These are meant to be university students, they’re meant to be the leaders of the future, they’re meant to be our intelligentsia,” the chaplain said.

“If they can’t cope with basic stuff like that, then one wonders whether they should be studying it all.” Robertson said the crucifixion was indeed “utterly horrendous,” but that does not mean that it needs to be sanitized.  “It’s almost comedic and laughable, actually. I think my biggest problem with it is, ‘What do you expect in the crucifixion?’ The Cross is going to be horrible. Are you going to Disneyify it?” Liz Smith of the Scottish Tory education also challenged the university’s move.

Some members of a congregation in Houston, Texas are calling for their pastor to resign after he admitted to making multiple sex tapes while serving in the ministry when a woman came forward about the matter.

“He’d been preaching multiple times about fornication, about shacking up. And to find out that you’ve been making sex tapes throughout your whole adult life—[as] recently [as] two or three years ago—and you’re a man of God at the highest point in a church,” member Lecobeun Lewis told a local television station earlier this month.

He says that he won’t return to Salem Missionary Baptist Church, led by Hosea Stubblefield, 32, until Stubblefield steps down.

“I had been working with him for over a year before he became our pastor. I was sitting in different pastor sermons and it was just disgusting knowing I was betrayed,” Craig Davis, who serves as a deacon and trustee of the 100-member church, also remarked.

He asked Stubblefield to leave the church after learning that he had been making the tapes. Davis said his daughter had also been in a relationship with the minister, who just recently divorced.

Stubblefield, who confessed to the congregation and has also confirmed his sin to the media, refuses to resign. He says that his sins are a matter of the past—that while he had made five to ten tapes over a period of ten years, his last one was two years ago.

He also contends that none of the tapes were made while serving at Salem Missionary Baptist. Stubblefield has been at the location for the past year, but has worked in ministry for 12 years.

A woman who only identifies herself as “B. Coll” took to her blog to claim that she had been in a sexual relationship with Stubblefield, but broke it off when she allegedly discovered in September that he had tapes with other women. She posted some clips to her blog, but later took them down.

“Here I am thinking I’m the only woman he’s dealing with in a physical capacity and how dumb of me to believe that! Not only is he putting the lives of these women at risk, because there are tons more, but he uses his position of power as a pastor to do these things,” Coll wrote. “He gets up on Sundays and preaches against every sin he’s committing in these videos.”

Her blog, and the videos that were posted therein, are reportedly what resulted in Stubblefield’s confession to the congregation.

Stubblefield says that he had deleted the recorded files, but they were recovered somehow without his knowledge. He is considering filing criminal charges against those who obtained the videos and has kicked them out of the church.

The share of U.S. adults who describe themselves as Christians has been declining for decades, but the U.S. Congress is about as Christian today as it was in the early 1960s, according to a new analysis by Pew Research Center. Indeed, among members of the new, 115th Congress, 91% describe themselves as Christians. This is nearly the same percentage as in the 87th Congress (1961 to 1962, the earliest years for which comparable data are available), when 95% of members were Christian.

Among the 293 Republicans elected to serve in the new, 115th Congress, all but two identify as Christians; there are two Jewish Republicans – Lee Zeldin of New York and David Kustoff of Tennessee – who both serve in the House. Democrats in Congress also are overwhelmingly Christian (80%), but there is more religious diversity on this side of the aisle. The 242 Democrats in Congress include 28 Jews, three Buddhists, three Hindus, two Muslims and one Unitarian Universalist – as well as the only member of Congress to describe herself as religiously unaffiliated, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. In addition, all 10 members of Congress who decline to state their religious affiliation are Democrats.

Like the nation as a whole, Congress has become much less Protestant over time. The total percentage of Protestants in Congress has dropped from 75% in 1961 (at the beginning of the 87th Congress) to 56% today. During this period, the share of Catholics in Congress has gone from 19% to 31%.

Fully two-thirds of Republicans in the new Congress (67%) are Protestant, while 27% are Catholic. The breakdown between Protestants and Catholics is more even among the Democrats; 42% of the Democratic members are Protestants and 37% are Catholics.

The annual reception hosted by President Reuven Rivlin for spiritual and lay leaders of Christian communities in Israel has not only been an opportunity for the exchange of holiday greetings, but also for Christians to air their complaints via Greek Patriarch Theophilos III.

Though couched in the most diplomatic language to soften the barb, the Patriarch’s speech invariably contained elements of the dissatisfaction of the Christian community with the status quo.

This year, with the exception of a reference to “all peoples to have their own legitimate rights to self-determination and freedom,” there was not even a hint of criticism of Israel, and even this remark could easily have related to Syria and other countries in the region, as it did not specifically mention the Palestinians.

Overtures made by Rivlin and Interior Minister Arye Deri over the past year to the leadership of the various Christian denominations have obviously borne fruit.

Addressing Rivlin directly, Theophilos said: “We take the opportunity of this holiday gathering to express our gratitude to you for the firmness with which you defend the freedoms that lie at the heart of this democracy – especially the freedom of worship.”

The Patriarch went on to speak of how encouraged Christians are by Rivlin’s commitment to the sacredness of life, and his condemnation of all forms of terrorism.

Sounding almost like Rivlin himself, Theophilos said: “The State of Israel takes pride in the fact that this state was founded on democratic principles in the Middle East and that it guarantees full freedom of worship; and we are confident, Mr. President, that you will continue to resist any restrictions on religious practices” Earlier, Rivlin had spoken of the suffering of the Syrian population and asked his guests to join him in praying for their well-being. He recited the prayer in both English and Hebrew – donning a kippa for this purpose.

Theophilos also referred to the atrocities across the border, albeit not as directly.

“We are keenly aware at this season of the unspeakable experiences of those who suffer around the world, and especially those who suffer in the countries around us. So many are suffering for the mere fact of their religious allegiance, and as those who serve the moral values of our respective religious traditions, we are deeply concerned. We appeal to all people of good will for an end to violence and for all peoples to have their own legitimate rights of self-determination and freedom.”

In his address, Rivlin spoke of the ongoing effort to build good relations between Christians and Jews, saying that Jews, Christians and Muslims alike share many common values and a deep respect for mankind “created in God’s image.”

For all that, Rivlin termed the current period, “a challenging time for anyone who loves Jerusalem and the justice and peace that this holy city stands for. Terrorism and death are less present today than a year ago, but the situation could still be better,” said Rivlin. “Fear has not left us, and I am sad to say intolerance, mistrust and hatred are still high.”

Linking himself to the men and women in front of him, Rivlin said: “Like each of you, I see my role and the role of the State of Israel as guardians of this city. As guardians, our sovereignty over Jerusalem will never compromise the freedom of worship and religion for all believers.” Then building up to his condemnation of the United Nations Security Council, Rivlin said: United Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel and it will remain so. There is no international body with the power to revoke this.”

Rivlin also spared a thought for “our neighbors just a few miles down the road in Bethlehem, King David’s other city,” and said that Israel is committed to finding a way to ending the tragedy between her and the Palestinians. “Time and again we have held out our hand in peace and called for direct negotiations without preconditions and without any delay. The decision to take Israel to the UN Security Council was wrong in trying to force preconditions, but also in the way it was done. The international community’s most important job in helping us solve the conflict is to build trust between the sides.” Rivlin emphasized that a new page in the history of the Israelis and the Palestinians cannot be written without mutual trust.

“The Security Council vote was a blow to peace, and it was a blow to trust,” he said.

He then focused on neighboring Syria and the bloodshed “in the name of politics and religion” that have led to so much misery pain and loss.

“In these times, silence is not an option,” Rivlin asserted.

“The whole free world must act to help the innocent.”

While Israel has never been able to attain peace with Syria, he said, “we see the pictures and hear the voices of the people suffering, and as Israelis of all faiths, we feel the duty to try to help.”

Rivlin was proud that Israel has been able to provide humanitarian and medical help, but conceded that what Israel does is only a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed.

Deri, like Rivlin and Theophilos, noted that Israel is the only country in the region where freedom of worship is not only permitted, but protected, and the only country in which the Christian population is actually flourishing.

Whereas Christian communities throughout the Middle East are declining, in Israel they are growing and now number 120,000.

Deri said that his ministry is committed to ensuring the strength and prosperity of the Christian communities, and mentioned various budgetary allocations that he had made to them. He also explained the benefits of the launch this week of the plan to strengthen the northern region of the country, which is where 70% of Israel’s Christians live.

A young Catholic immigrant who was fired from her job in healthcare for being unwilling to promote contraception may finally receive justice, thanks to the efforts of First Liberty Institute.

According to a press release shared with The Gospel Herald, First Liberty, the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans, on Wednesday filed a complaint on behalf of Alexia Palma charging her employers with religious discrimination.

The incident occurred in June 2016, when Palma, an immigrant from Guatemala, worked as a health educator at LCH, a clinic for low-income patients in Houston’s inner city.

“I emigrated from Guatemala to America as a child,” Palma said. “Finding this job, where I could serve those in need in my community, was my American dream come true. ”

While she taught a number of health classes, as a devout Catholic, Palma asked her supervisors if she could refrain from teaching a class about contraception, and instead show a video on birth control. Her supervisors agreed, and the arrangement worked for a while – until Palma was placed under new management.

A short time later, Ms. Amy Leonard, the Vice President of the Public Health Department at LCH, gave Palma an ultimatum – “put aside” her religious beliefs or be terminated.

According to First Liberty, Palma reminded Ms. Leonard that teaching the birth control class was less than 2% of her job, and requested an accommodation to allow her to continue showing the video or to allow another employee, who had volunteered to teach the class, to substitute teach the class for her. Nevertheless, despite her sterling work record, Palma was terminated.

“I really loved my job and my patients, but I couldn’t do what the company was asking,” Palma says. “Through my difficult childhood of abuse and abandonment, God has always been faithful to me, so I must be faithful to him. My faith comes first.”

Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute, called Palma’s firing “blatant religious discrimination”.

“The company gave Alexia an ultimatum – violate your faith or be fired,” he said. “That’s a violation of federal law and it is blatant religious discrimination. No one should be fired over their religious beliefs.”

German Truck Massacre

German authorities scoured the nation and other European countries for a Tunisian asylum seeker who is being sought in the truck rampage at a Christmas market here that killed 12 people and injured 48.

Mourners in Berlin hold a candlelight vigil near the site where a truck ploughed into a Christmas market crowd at night, killing 12 people and injuring 45 others.Investigators looking into Monday’s (Dec. 19) attack don’t know if there is more than one perpetrator at large. The new suspect emerged after documents were found in the truck belonging to a 24-year-old Tunisian national identified by police as Anis Amri.

He was described as average height and weight, with black hair and brown eyes. German authorities are offering a reward of up to 100,000 euros for his arrest.

Police released a picture of him.

Amri was apparently under covert surveillance for several months following a tip from Germany’s federal security agencies, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities thought that he might be trying to buy a weapon to use in an attack. The surveillance was called off in September.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said the search for the suspect extended to other countries in Europe’s border free zone.

German lawmaker Stephan Mayer said after being briefed by security officials Wednesday that Amri, whose wallet was found in the truck, is thought to have links to Islamic extremists. He said he was supposed to be deported from Germany earlier in the year.

Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the Amri registered for asylum, said authorities rejected his asylum application in July.

German weekly magazine Spiegel reported that Amri is known by several aliases and has three nationalities.

A previous suspect, a 23-year-old Pakistani asylum seeker, was released Tuesday evening because prosecutors did not find enough evidence linking him to the incident. He denied any involvement in the assault.

A further suspect was held overnight and released Wednesday due to insufficient evidence, the RBB broadcaster reported.

Germany is treating the attack as terrorism, which the Islamic State said was carried out by a “soldier.”

No evidence has emerged establishing a connection to the militant group, which has staged and inspired assaults across Europe and the United States.

German President Joachim Gauck met injured victims of the attack at the Charite hospital in Berlin on Wednesday.

He told reporters that his meeting with a man who was hit by a beam while helping an injured person “reminded (the victims) of their innate strength.”

Locals and refugees sang together in memory of the victims Wednesday near the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, close to the scene of the attack.

Berlin police urged people to be especially alert and warned that the person or persons responsible were likely armed and dangerous. As of Tuesday night, police had received more than 500 tips about the attack. Security has been tightened across European capital cities.

Six of the dead have been identified as German nationals, according to German news agency DPA, citing police. Another five have not yet been identified. The Polish driver was found dead in the truck’s passenger seat. A woman from Italy and another from Israel were missing after the attack, according to DPA.

“We will not let cosmopolitan Berlin be taken by such a cowardly attack, by fear and terror,” Berlin Mayor Michael Müller said at a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Tuesday evening.

The prospect that the perpetrator is a recent migrant is fueling an anti-immigrant backlash in Germany, which has admitted nearly 1 million people fleeing conflicts in the Middle East and Africa under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal migration policy.

Prince Charles

In his Christmas message this year, Prince Charles reflected on the religious persecution that Christians and other religious minorities face throughout the world, calling it “beyond all belief” that it still continues even after the horrors of the Holocaust were exposed.

“I was born in 1948, just after the end of World War II in which my parents’ generation had fought, and died, in a battle against intolerance, monstrous extremism and an inhuman attempt to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe,” the Prince of Wales said in his message, released on Thursday.

“That, nearly 70 years later, we should still be seeing such evil persecution is, to me, beyond all belief. We owe it to those who suffered and died so horribly not to repeat the horrors of the past,” he added.

Charles said he recently met with a Jesuit priest from Syria who told him that unless major action is taken, it’s possible that there might not be any Christians left in Iraq in five year’s time.

He pointed to statistics from the United Nations that show the world’s refugees now number close to 65.3 million people, which is close to the entire population of the U.K.

Charles said that Christians think about the birth of Jesus Christ during Christmas, and this year they are reminded of the full story surrounding why Joseph and Mary fled to Bethlehem.

“I wonder, though, if this year we might remember how the story of the Nativity unfolds — with the fleeing of the Holy Family to escape violent persecution. And we might also remember that when the [Islamic] prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina, he did so because he, too, was seeking the freedom for himself and his followers to worship,” he insisted.

Charles suggested that regardless of one’s religion, people should seek to value and respect other people, “accepting their right to live out their peaceful response to the love of God.”

The Prince of Wales attended the consecration of a Syriac Orthodox Church in London in November, where he also spoke about the persecution Christians are facing at the hands of the Islamic State and other terror groups.

“It is surely deeply encouraging, at a time when the members of the Syriac Orthodox Church in their homelands of Syria and Iraq are undergoing such desperate trials and such appalling suffering, that in Britain the Syriac Church is able to expand and gain in strength,” Charles said in a speech during the ceremony at the Cathedral of St Thomas in Acton.

The future king of England has talked about the disappearance of Christians in Syria and Iraq on a number of occasions, and in December 2015 also warned that Christianity might be entirely erased from the land of its birth in the Middle East within five years.

“This affects us all, consequently the greatest challenge we face is how to ensure the spiritual and cultural heritage of Christianity in the Middle East is preserved for future generations,” Charles said.