Sept. 12, 2019: Pastor suicide, Hindu mob rapes Christian child, Benny Hinn admits he's done 'damage'
Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019:
Here are the latest headlines, brought to you by The Christian Post.
— Pastor Jarrid Wilson took his life hours after officiating funeral of suicide
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Pastor Jarrid Wilson, an associate pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, died by suicide Monday night, just hours after he officiated the funeral of a Christian woman who took her own life.
Wilson was an advocate for people struggling with mental health, and he and his wife, Juli, founded an outreach to help people dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts, called Anthem of Hope.
Pastor Greg Laurie relayed the news of Wilson’s death to the public, saying in a message on the church’s website that: "At a time like this, there are just no words.”
Wilson joined the church as an associate pastor at Harvest 18 months ago.
— India: Hindu extremists rape pastor’s 4-year-old daughter
Hindu extremists raped the 4-year-old daughter of a pastor in central India after he refused to stop sharing the Gospel.
Pastor Samuel, an Open Doors USA partner on the ground in India, told The Christian Post that when the pastor’s daughter began kindergarten the men cornered her inside a bathroom at her school where they raped her.
Despite repeated attempts to launch a complaint with the police, the pastor and his wife were ignored.
India ranks as the 10th-worst nation in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List.
— Benny Hinn admits his teachings on prosperity 'damaged a lot of people'
Televangelist Benny Hinn is admitting that his teachings on prosperity theology that made him millions “got out of hand” and “damaged a lot of people.” He now says he wants the remaining years of his ministry to focus on evangelism and the Gospel.
Since the 1980s, Hinn has been one of the most notorious purveyors of the prosperity gospel, which teaches that God rewards active faith and faithful payments of tithes and offerings with health and wealth.
In his first TV interview since publicly renouncing prosperity theology earlier in September, Hinn told Encounter TV host David Diga Hernandez that when he entered the ministry at age 21, his goal was to share the Gospel. However, as he gained popularity in the '90s, Hinn admitted he became “distracted.”
Hinn said: “I don’t want to be known as the prosperity teacher.”
— Judge denies gag order in Daleiden hearing after testimony on harvesting intact babies
A California judge denied a gag order that would have blocked pro-life activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merrit and their attorneys from speaking to the public about the preliminary hearing that is underway.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had asked the Superior Court of California for San Francisco County to “limit the statements” of the parties, days after the head of a biotech company allegedly admitted in court to procuring intact babies’ heads and beating hearts from abortions.
Judge Christopher Hite denied the request on Wednesday.
Becerra filed criminal charges against Daleiden and Merritt over their undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the trafficking of baby body parts. The preliminary hearing, which began last week, is to determine whether the case should go to trial.
— Tony Perkins, USCIRF urge Trump to extend religious freedom to refugees
Evangelicals leaders are urging President Trump to stop plans to cut the number of refugees allowed into the United States.
Administration officials are weighing different options as the president has the discretion to decide how high or low to set the refugee cap. Under Trump, the refugee ceiling has been set at its lowest point since the U.S. refugee resettlement program began in 1980.
In the fiscal year 2018, the U.S. resettled 22,491 refugees. In the fiscal year 2019 (which ends on Sept. 30), the Trump administration has resettled 28,677 refugees, which falls just short of the 30,000-refugee cap that Trump set for the fiscal year.
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