| | Survey shows Christians continue to dominate Congress | | Curated for you byCP Editors | | Good afternoon! It's Friday, Jan. 6, and today's headlines include a survey showing that the majority of the incoming members of Congress identify as Christians, a selection of highlights from Passion 2023, and details on Journey founder Neal Schon calling for the removal of Paula White-Cain as an authorized signatory on the band’s bank accounts. | | Pew Research Center’s latest Faith on the Hill report has revealed that an overwhelming majority of the incoming members of Congress identify as Christians. The report shows that Christians will comprise 88% of voting members whenever the lower chamber of the 118th United States Congress is sworn in, which is pending the election of the next House Speaker. The figure, which remains unchanged from the 117th session, is noticeably higher than the share of Christians in the general U.S. population, which has declined from 78% to 63% since 2007. The figure also represents the second-highest percentage since 1979-’80, when 91% of members of the 96th Congress identified as Christian. | | The Pew report shows that the actual number of Christians at the start of the 2023-2024 session makes up the lowest number since Pew first started surveying the religious affiliation of the House and Senate for the 2009-2010 session, with the current figure standing at 469 in total compared to 470-plus during the last eight sessions. There are 65 lawmakers who do not identify as Christians, a slight uptick from 64 in the 117th Congress. Of those, 33 are Jewish, three are Unitarian Universalist, another three are Muslim, along with two Hindus and two Buddhists. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., identified as religiously unaffiliated, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., identified as "humanist," and another 20 members were categorized as having unknown religious affiliations. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., identifies as a Messianic Jew and has also publicly identified as a Christian; it's unclear whether Pew counted her as "Christian" or "Other." Continue reading. | | P.S.Want to listen to the day’s headlines? Check out The Christian Post Daily, a podcast featuring the day’s top headlines. Listen now on Apple, Google, Spotify, Edifi, or wherever you stream your favorite podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an update. |
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| Former youth pastor in prison for child sex trafficking set to be released next month | | Robert Shiflet, a former youth pastor at Denton Bible Church in Texas who was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison in June 2021 for child sex trafficking charges, is set to be released next month. He will spend the rest of his life under federal supervision. Shiflet was sentenced in June 2021 on charges of sexually abusing 14 young girls placed under his pastoral care 20 years earlier. The sentence was made after Shiflet made a plea deal which U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky lamented. "You are a terrible person," Rudofsky told the former youth pastor at the time, per the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. "I don't believe that you are sorry in the slightest. I don't believe you have rehabilitated yourself. I believe you haven't been caught again but I don't believe you have rehabilitated yourself." The judge further added, "If it was up to me and you had been found guilty after a trial, I would have sent you away for 25 years." Denton Bible Church's 15-member, all-male elder board told its congregation following an investigation that they failed to prevent Shiflet's abuse because they didn't involve women leaders when evaluating abuse allegations. They also admitted to failing to provide adequate care for the victims. Read more. | | Idaho, South Carolina supreme courts issue divergent rulings on abortion bans | | Supreme courts in Idaho and South Carolina issued divergent rulings on state laws restricting abortion this week as several states have enacted measures in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade last June. On Thursday, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld pro-life laws in the Gem State, including Senate Bill 1385 and Senate Bill 1309, by a 3-2 margin. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state's six-week abortion ban. Read more. | | Biden shifts blame for immigration crisis ahead of first border visit | | During a speech on immigration at the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden announced he will be traveling to Mexico and the border city of El Paso, Texas, next week as the Southwest border grapples with hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossings on a monthly basis. When a reporter questioned Biden about why he thought right now constituted the "right time to visit the southern border," recalling how "Republicans have been begging you to do this since the beginning," Biden responded by insisting that Republicans "haven’t been serious about this at all." The president added that he wanted "to make sure that I knew what the outcome … was on Title 42 before I went down." The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered Title 42, which enabled border officials to quickly turn away migrants seeking entry into the U.S. due to public health concerns arising from the coronavirus pandemic, to remain in place as the justices are set to hear a case seeking the reversal of a lower court order vacating the policy. Read more. | | Also of Interest... | | Biden admin. ramps up deportation flights after migrant encampment at border swells to over 15,000 Illegal immigration numbers surpass 2 million, nearly 800 border deaths in 2022 top record highs 'Troubling': Christian groups condemn Biden's new policy for Venezuelan migrants2022 sets records for number of border crossings, migrant deaths |
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| 5 things you should know about Heaven | | Heaven is a fascinating topic in both the Church and pop culture. In this op-ed, Rev. Robert Rothwell of Tabletalk magazine utilizes Scripture to detail five truths about Heaven, including that it is where the souls of believers go when they die and its present locale will not last forever. Read the full list now. | | Spiritual growth and new year: What I realized | | Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network's Oscar Amaechina reflects on spiritual growth in light of the new year and shares the importance of striving for more spiritual growth and maturity in 2023. "[W]e should also desire to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. We need to pray often and ask the Holy Spirit to help us because we cannot grow spiritually through human efforts. With the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives, we can be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, which will help us to live a life worthy of Christ and please Him in every area of our lives," he writes. Read more. |
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| Rest is a gift from God | | How can you keep your energy, happiness, creativity, and relationships fresh and thriving in the midst of never-ending family demands, career pressures, and the stress of everyday life? In Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, reveals why rest can no longer remain optional. Learn more | | |
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| Tim Tebow issues challenge to youth at Passion 2023 | | Christian athlete Tim Tebow took to Passion 2023 to open up about his tendency to prioritize sports over his walk with Christ, and he challenged the thousands of young people gathered at the conference to live their lives defined by a passion for sharing the Gospel with the lost. "Will our greatest passion at the end of our life—will it be for the cause of Christ?" he asked. Tebow also said many don't truly pursue their passion for the cause of Christ due to their apathy and passion for the world, and he admitted he had prioritized sports more than Jesus. The athlete further encouraged the crowd by citing Hebrews 12:1, which reads: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Read more. | | Louie Giglio urges Christians to break free from TikTok, economy of attention | | Louie Giglio of Passion City Church in Atlanta told the audience at Passion 2023 that social media is "absolutely pointless" and called out TikTok as a platform that is profiting off viewers' and users' time. "People are getting paid and they're counting on you to pay them. … We wake up and start paying people because we are caught up in this economy of attention," Giglio said, adding that social media is designed to make it difficult for people to stop watching and clicking. Instead of spending excessive amounts of time on social media, the pastor encouraged the mostly Gen Z audience to "guard their time" by devoting more of it to God. Read more. |
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| Journey founder raises alarm over Paula White-Cain’s access to band’s bank accounts | | Journey founder Neal Schon is calling for the removal of Paula White-Cain as an authorized signatory on the band’s bank accounts, arguing that it violates an agreement he has with White-Cain’s husband, Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain. Schon's attorney alleges that despite a mutual agreement between Schon and Cain "that the business of the band and the Journey Related Entities would be handled only by Mr. Schon and Mr. Cain as individuals," White-Cain's name "appears as an authorized signatory on the City National Bank accounts of Freedom JN LLC" in which Schon is a co-owner. A spokesperson for Schon said in a statement to CP that Schon previously alleged that "Cain and Paula herself have been accessing the band's financial resources, including the Journey American Express account, and obscuring information, even to the point of blocking Schon's legitimate access to those accounts." The spokesperson cited multiple media reports on White-Cain's history and painted the televangelist as a "national level con artist" focused on gaining wealth and what it brings. Read more. | | | | | | | | Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We look forward to seeing you again on Monday! -- CP Editors |
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