Virginia

Thousands of students at the world’s largest evangelical university on Wednesday kicked off a week filled with high-profile speakers, including “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, to celebrate pro-life week.

The Pro-Life Conference, sponsored by Liberty University Student Government Association, began Wednesday morning with an address by Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, to more than 10,000 people in Lynchburg, Va.

Staver will also hold a lecture with a question and answer session on abortion and the courts later in the afternoon in the Supreme Courtroom at the School of Law. The school has the nation’s only replica of the U.S. Supreme Court’s nine-member bench. more >>

The Supreme Court of Virginia has agreed to hear the appeal of The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia nearly a year after breakaway Anglicans came away with a court win in church property disputes.

In an announcement Wednesday, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia said the state high court will review every issue raised for appeal by the diocese and the national church without oral argument.

"We welcome this next step to bringing exiled Episcopalians closer to returning to their church homes," said Henry Burt, secretary of the diocese, in a statement. more >>

Hanging out, goofing off, and avoiding responsibility may be what teens do best – at least, that's the kind of behavior that is usually expected of young people.

And it's those very low expectations that have left many teens today idle, immature and unprepared for what God has planned for them, says two young brothers.

"Our culture tells us it doesn't matter how you spend the teen years; this is a time to have fun," Brett Harris, 20, said in a recent interview with Focus on the Family. "We've been culturally conditioned to give up when things feel hard and to miss out on the glorious purpose that God has for the teen years because we've been trained to believe what is false." more >>

Family and friends are gathering at Heritage Baptist Church in Lynchburg on Monday to mourn the deaths of two "godly" Virginia Tech students.

David Lee Metzler, 19, and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, were found shot Thursday morning in the parking lot of a campground located about 15 miles from the Blacksburg campus.

Investigators said on Friday that the murders appear to be a random act of violence, as reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. more >>

Lesbian-turned-Christian Lisa Miller does not need to go to jail nor pay fines for failing to deliver her seven-year-old daughter to her former girlfriend in Vermont for visitation, a Virginia judge ruled on Tuesday.

On behalf of Janet Jenkins, Miller’s former lesbian partner, the ACLU of Virginia had asked the state’s court to order the defendant to jail and pay attorney fees and costs.

But the judge ruled that although Miller violated a Vermont judge’s visitation order, no fines would be assessed against her. The court ordered Miller to pay $100 per day for pending visitation orders issued in Vermont, but there are none at this time. more >>