Tennessee

The second annual Christmas country music extravaganza, "CMA Country Christmas," featured top stars of the genre performing Christmas carols for a live audience. Some of the performers talked with ABC, which aired the program Thursday night, about their perspective on the holiday and how faith plays a part.

Hosted by Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles, the two-hour holiday special attracted such country personalities as "American Idol" runner-up Lauren Alaina, Amy Grant, Faith Hill, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, "American Idol" winner Scotty McCreery, Kellie Pickler, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, Sugarland, Keith Urban, and Vince Gill, who sang a special duet with Miss Piggy.

Here is what some of the stars had to say about Christmas and their Christian faith in video interviews produced especially for the network. more >>

Anti-Sharia groups said their right to free speech is being compromised after a Tennessee Hotel canceled their conference, where they planned to discuss possible measures to protect the U.S. Constitution against Islamic laws.

The Sharia Awareness Action Network is "following a dual track of legal action and seeking a new venue" for its first national conference on Sharia, titled "The Constitution or Sharia: Preserving Freedom Conference," according to the group’s website. The conference's host, Hutton Hotel, reneged on its $8,000 contract to accommodate the event scheduled for Nov. 11, citing a potential risk to their employees.

SAAN Chairman William J. Murray believes the change of heart infringes on the group's right to express their sincerely-held beliefs. more >>

Sumner County residents expressed their outrage over repeated attacks on their Christian faith at a town hall meeting in Tennessee and on Facebook.

Monday night, more than 1,200 parents, students and community members gathered in the gym of the Volunteer State Community College to express their anger over what has escalated into continued limitations of community members' religious rights.

Town hall attendees waved signs that read, "Evil thrives when good men and women do nothing" and "ACLU – Your freedom of religion is violating ours." more >>

Taking extra precautions for Wednesday's See You At The Pole day prayer, school officials in Sumner County, Tenn., forbade teachers and administrators from bowing their heads to pray while students were watching.

The decision was made after a principal at Westmoreland Middle School previously witnessed football coaches at the school bowing their heads during a post-game prayer in the end zone.

Though the coaches did not pray aloud, Principal Danny Kay Robinson complained of the coaches’ public participation in a student-led prayer. more >>

The Tennessee pastor who welcomed an Islamic center to his block a year ago is now urging Christians everywhere to let go of fear and ignorance this Sept. 11 and love their Muslim neighbors.

On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Christians and Muslims will come together to hold a community blood drive in Cordova, Tenn.

Steve Stone, pastor of Heartsong Church in Cordova, said he was hesitant when he first learned in 2010 that the Memphis Islamic Center (MIC) would be moving across the street from the church. But after praying about it, Stone felt led to purchase and post a red lawn sign proclaiming, "Heartsong Church welcomes Memphis Islamic Center to the Neighborhood." more >>

For nearly four decades, the University of Tennessee's head coach Pat Summitt has kept the Lady Vol basketball program among the nation's elite. Today, she faces a new battle off the court and thousands of fans are on the sidelines cheering on this woman who has put her life story on the front pages.

Summitt, already the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, recently received a stunning diagnoses from her doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

At age 59, the diagnosis was the early onset of dementia, Alzheimer’s type. more >>