Top of the Week: Trump, Faith Leaders Take Bold Step

Following are snippets of the top stories featured this week on . We invite you to visit the links to read the stories in full.
Trump Faith Leaders Take Bold Step
In another sign Donald Trump is eyeing a run to regain the White House, the former president and his religious advisors announced the launch of a National Faith Advisory Board on Thursday (Sept. 2), apparently aimed at reinvigorating his conservative Christian base.

The new initiative, first reported by the Jewish Daily Forward, was formally unveiled on a conference call organized by Intercessors for America and led by longtime Trump adviser Paula White. The Pentecostal megachurch pastor said the new effort, which includes participation from “70 executives,” is intended to continue the “great work that we have done,” referring to efforts she oversaw as head of the Trump White House’s faith-based office.

White drew parallels to the creation of a previous “faith advisory board,” a likely reference to a group of largely evangelical Christian leaders who advised the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and operated as an informal council on religion matters throughout his presidency.

Christian Artist Says Mark of the Beast Looms on Horizon
Christian singer Danny Gokey posted a lengthy Twitter thread at the end of August explaining not only why he’s opposed to vaccination mandates but also voicing his concerns the “mark of the beast,” as it’s described in the book of Revelation, could be on the horizon.

The “Jesus People” singer—who is vaccinated against COVID-19—said people shouldn’t be forced to get inoculated against the virus if they don’t want to, calling out many in the government and news media who tout it as “a cure” when it’s not.

He also lamented the fact that people no longer have conversations because “the only topic discussed is COVID, and the only acceptable thought is vaccination,” a phenomenon he described as “very dangerous.”

Stunning: Kenneth Copeland, Glenn Beck Join Forces

Glenn Beck was aided in his travels last week by televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who lent his private jet to the conservative talk radio host as he worked to rescue endangered Christians in Afghanistan.

Beck’s operation, The Nazarene Fund, has resulted in the rescue of more than 5,000 Christian refugees, who have now been relocated in a handful of different countries—a Goliath task he said was accomplished with no help from the U.S. government.

Beck, who has been in the Middle East personally, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that none of his travel costs have been paid by The Nazarene Fund. Instead, Beck told the anchor, he is paying his own way.

Christian Firm Stands Up to Vaccine Mandate
Mat Staver and Liberty Counsel have faced some tough issues before, but this one is, Staver says, the toughest they have ever faced in their 30-year-plus history.

I was stunned when Staver told me that his office has been inundated with calls from individuals who are being forced to choose between taking the vaccine or losing their jobs. He says the volume of calls is unprecedented compared to anything his organization has come up against.

The ministry is receiving 300 to 500 requests a day for legal help regarding mandates to get the COVID shots. They are conducting telephone conferences each day and have over 500 people participating in these calls. Staver says they have spoken with over 15,000 people requesting help just in the last few weeks, falling into three categories—employment, schools and the military.

News Website Founder Refuses to Succumb to Facebook’s Censorship

The cancel culture has struck yet again, and this time its target, through Facebook, is a news site called . It is actually a secular news site, but it was founded by a very strong, committed Christian named Floyd Brown, so the news is from a conservative perspective.

While the Western Journal has approximately 40 million followers, Facebook recently suspended the news site’s page, and it comes at a big cost to Floyd’s organization. Floyd says that it is Western Journal’s primary model for sharing its content as it writes about 50 articles a day and produces 25 videos daily. More than 50% of the traffic to its site comes from Facebook, so Brown says it is an important part of its business model and, subsequently, his livelihood.

Facebook has scrutinized Western Journal’s posts for quite some time, and it recently came to a decision to suspend the site’s page for 30 days. {eoa}

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