“Let’s go! Jesus is King!” That’s what Canadian skateboarder Cordano Russell shouted this week as a camera panned across him and his Olympic competitors. Russell, who turns 20 on Aug. 4, didn’t medal at the Paris Games. But the devout Christian is looking ahead to 2028, when the Summer Olympics will be held in his adopted home state of California.

Russell was born in Ontario and spent part of his childhood in St. Louis. At age four, he found an old skateboard tucked away in a bush, and with his dad’s help, he learned everything he could about the sport. Asked whether that was fate, Russell replied, “Honestly, I feel like it was truly divine.”

RELATED: Olympic Swimmer Hunter Armstrong: Pain Has Deepened My Faith in God

By age eight, Russell talked his parents into moving to Southern California, with its world-famous skateboarding scene. As his skills grew, so did his stature. Russell’s 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame might seem more fitted to the football field—where he excelled in high school. But after “a lot of praying,” the athlete said, God showed him “that my love and my heart was set in skateboarding.”

Olympic Skateboarder Is Set Apart

Cordano Russell’s size allows him to gain tremendous power for skateboarding tricks. It also means he “burns through boards as fast as a sick person burns through tissues,” according to reporter Kelsey Grey. But Russell told her, “I like being unique; I like being different. I always try to be as authentic as I can.”

The Olympian also stands out because of his faith. He was raised in a Christian home, attending church and youth group. Russell doesn’t swear, and he listens to Christian musicians such as Lecrae.

The outgoing athlete also gives back, coaching and mentoring young basketball and flag football players. “I want to use my faith and talents to inspire others,” Russell said.

Maintaining balance and giving back helps the skateboarder “elevate” his game. “Honestly, it empowers me,” he said of serving. “I know where my true identity is, and that is in the Lord. So I wanted to use my time, talents, and treasures and ultimately be able to inspire others through that, through my faith, through who I am.”

Failure also helps the super-competitive Russell grow. “You’re going to fall on that ground so much,” he said. “But honestly, it creates in yourself this determination, this grittiness, this ability to withstand failure while still trying to go through and accomplish your goal.”

Cordano Russell’s Journey Has Been ‘Such a Blessing’

Cordano Russell, who graduated from high school with a 4.2 GPA, plans to study business-finance at the University of San Diego. “In skateboarding, you have to know how to manage your finances and grow your brand, so it’ll be very personal for me,” said the athlete, who will be the first in his family to attend college. “And eventually, I want to own a business with my family.”

Jonathan Roumie and Dallas Jenkins have revealed what the Last Supper will look like in Season 5 of “The Chosen,” with Roumie alluding to the recent controversy at the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games. In a separate post, Roumie described what filming Season 5, which wrapped this week, has been like for him.

“Filming Season 5 of @thechosentvseries has been…something of a beast,” Roumie said in an Instagram post July 26. “Some of the hardest and most intense moments of the series (and my career) have been in this season, and we ain’t done yet. It’s been a ‘Camino’ of sorts.”

“But…I’m smothered in prayer,” he continued. “I’m surrounded by love. I’m saturated in warmth. And goodness. And throughout, I’m constantly reminded of what it’s all about. Who it’s all for. And Who’s in charge, ‘cause it sure as heck ain’t me.”

Jonathan Roumie Thankful for ‘Moments of Mirth and Humor’

The Opening Ceremony of this year’s Olympics generated controversy for featuring a drag performance inspired in part by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, “The Last Supper.” Despite the artistic director stating at one point that the performance portrayed pagan celebrations and Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, organizers acknowledged the portrayal was indeed inspired by da Vinci’s painting and apologized for causing offense.

RELATED: ‘God Will Not Be Mocked’—John Cooper, Andy Stanley, and Candace Cameron Bure Outraged Over ‘Blasphemous’ Olympic Opening Ceremony

 On July 29, Roumie posted a photo of “The Chosen” cast portraying the Last Supper and said, “Yeah…I prefer our version…”

Sadie Robertson Huff liked Roumie’s post, and Candace Cameron Bure, who had published a video critiquing the Opening Ceremony performance, responded to Roumie with heart and clapping emojis. 

Prior to filming Season 5, Roumie said that Season 4 of the hit show was the hardest to act “hands down.” As the storyline of the series draws even closer to Jesus’ death, it seems that filming is only growing more challenging for the actor, who is arguably tackling the most challenging role of his career. 

In July, Elizabeth Tabish, who plays Mary Magdalene, described the personal cost that Roumie and the rest of “The Chosen” cast experience bringing the story of Jesus Christ to the screen. “Just being friends with Jonathan and knowing what he’s going to have to go through, performing this, and seeing the weight of this role on him,” she said, “is just like devastating, you know?”

The elders of Cross Timbers Church in Argyle, Texas, have provided more details regarding the circumstances of Pastor Josiah Anthony’s resignation, as well as an amended plan for interim leadership. 

On Sunday (July 28), church elder John Chalk announced Anthony’s resignation during service, saying that Anthony had been battling mental health issues for some time and that some of his “decisions and actions were inappropriate and hurtful to current and former members of the CT family and staff.”

The church announced that Byron Copeland, Cross Timber Church’s executive pastor, would step in as interim lead pastor. Before coming onto staff at Cross Timbers Church, Copeland was on staff at Texas megachurch Gateway Church in various executive level pastoral positions from 2003 to 2023.

Gateway Church has been embroiled in scandal since June, when allegations that Robert Morris, the church’s founding pastor, had sexually abused a child in the 1980s became publicly known. Morris resigned in disgrace on June 18.

Several lawsuits involving abuse claims have been brought against Gateway, including a 2023 suit in which Copeland was named. 

In the lawsuit, a former church employee said that when she came to work as an administrative assistant at Gateway in 2018, she had just undergone treatment for cancer and claimed that she “was subjected to ongoing disparaging comments about her appearance and unwanted romantic advances” from the pastor she reported to. 

The former employee said that when she spoke to Copeland, then-executive pastor of Gateway Church, he “sympathized with her but did nothing.” The former employee further claimed that sometime later, Copeland “aggressively confronted” her and “threatened to fire her if she didn’t shut up and stop stirring up drama.”

In an email on Thursday (Aug. 1), elders of Cross Timbers amended their original plan to have Copeland serve as the interim pastor and provided more details into the “events and circumstances” that led to Anthony’s resignation. 

In the email, elders acknowledged “that we have made mistakes along the way. We should have communicated more directly and clearly early on. The assumptions that some made about our church, due to our lack of clarity, were far more extreme than the facts.”

“We caused unnecessary speculation and distress, and we are sorry,” the email continued.

RELATED: Former Texas Pastor Charged With Soliciting Prostitution

The elders then disclosed that they had “received a concerning report of inappropriate communication on social media with a woman who is a former member of our church. This was taken very seriously by the Elders, and we were grateful it was brought to our attention.”

Last month, Michael Paustian (53) was sentenced to eight years to life in prison for child sexual assault after he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a six-year-old.

Paustian was the creative director at Group Publishing, a Christian company known for publishing curriculum for churches.

According to its LinkedIn account, Group Publishing specializes in “creating experiences that bring Children, Youth, and Adults into a closer relationship with Jesus,” which includes curriculum for “vacation Bible school, ministry resources, Sunday school resources, children’s resources, adult resources, and women’s ministry resources.”

RELATED: Robert Morris Resigns as Gateway Church’s Senior Pastor Following Sexual Abuse Allegations

According to The Loveland Reporter-Herald, “Paustian pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault of a child from a position of trust for a victim under the age of 15 and sexual exploitation of a child, both class 3 felonies, in mid-May, according to a release from the 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.”

“Several other charges, including seven other sexual assault charges, were dismissed in the plea agreement, according to court records,” The Loveland Reporter-Herald added.

Paustian won’t be eligible for parole until eight years of his sentence has been served. If released, Paustian will be required to complete 10 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation, will be a registered sex offender for life, will be required to receive approval to have access to the internet, won’t be allowed to have any contact with children unless approved, and will have to undergo both mental health and substance abuse evaluations.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office first learned of Pautsin’s abuse after the survivor, who is now an adult, brought allegations to authorities in September 2022. She was six years old at the time of the abuse.

RELATED: Prosecutors Characterize SBC Youth Pastor as Serial Sexual Abuser Who Moved From Church to Church

During their investigation, authorities learned that Paustian had not only admitted to sexually abusing the six-year-old but also that the survivor’s family members were aware of the abuse and never reported it.

The survivor gave a statement to the judge to be read during Paustian’s sentencing hearing.

“I did what I was supposed to do. I told multiple adults, but now I am here still having to advocate for myself and any other children that might be in harm,” the statement said. “I have waited 17 years to get justice for my 6-year-old self, and I can’t wait to bring her peace and justice.”

U.S. swimmer Hunter Armstrong, now the owner of two Olympic gold medals, loves to compete and perform. But the athlete knows what matters most. “I keep God as a priority,” he recently told Baptist Press. “I can’t really live without him. I can live without swimming or being an Olympian or any of that stuff.”

Armstrong, who’s also passionate about magic, musical theater, and acting, proclaims “GOD FIRST!” on his Instagram bio. The 23-year-old said his Christian faith is “the first thing I want people to see and know about me.”

At the Paris Games, Armstrong’s standout leg in the 400-meter freestyle relay on July 27 helped Team USA win gold. The Ohio native, a backstroke specialist, also won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Last weekend in individual competition, Armstrong didn’t advance to the 100-meter backstroke finals.

RELATED: Some Christians Labeled Simone Biles a ‘Quitter,’ ‘Selfish,’ ‘Sociopath’—But Pastors Should Applaud Her

US Swimmer Hunter Armstrong: Pain Is ‘Catalyst for Change’

Although Hunter Armstrong has been a Christian for years, he admitted to being “sort of on the edge” of faith. “When I’m in competition, I’ll pray, and that will last for a little bit,” he told Baptist Press. “Church camp, same kind of thing. But as soon as I didn’t need [God] anymore, it would fade.”

Several major upheavals in Armstrong’s life changed that. Last June, the coach he’d followed to California left for Michigan. In July, just before Armstrong won his first world title, his grandfather died.

Then in February, days before the 2024 World Championships, the swimmer’s longtime girlfriend broke up with him. “That was my first real relationship. I had a proposal planned out. I was already preordering the ring,” Armstrong said. “I was certain that I was going to marry this girl, and I quickly watched it all crumble.”

Afterward, the swimmer struggled to get out of bed. He missed practices, ordered food deliveries, and binged movies “because that was really the only thing that I knew could distract me.” Armstrong credited his coaches and teammates for encouraging him to seek counseling and spiritual mentoring.

“It truly made me a better person,” Armstrong said of the challenging time. “I learned and grew so much from that experience.” He added, “The biggest catalyst for change in life tends to be pain. Sometimes God will put you in a position where you have no other choice than to turn to him.”

Olympian Hunter Armstrong Wants to Represent God Well

Hunter Armstrong also credited his teammates for nurturing his spiritual growth. Fellow U.S. swimmer Michael Andrew has prayed with him and shown him “how you use faith in competition.” Armstrong also accepted Andrew’s invitation to attend Bible studies with other athletes.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s decisive victory over Italian Angela Carini at the Olympics on Thursday has resulted in a wave of criticism about Khelif’s eligibility as it relates to her gender identity. 

Khelif won when Carini abruptly forfeited the contest after the pair exchanged only a handful of blows. Later, Carini indicated that the pain caused by Khelif’s blows made it impossible for her to continue. 

“I felt a severe pain in my nose, and with the maturity of a boxer, I said ‘enough,’ because I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to, I couldn’t finish the match,” Carini said after the fight. 

“I am not here to judge or pass judgment,” Carini added. “If an athlete is this way, and in that sense it’s not right or it is right, it’s not up to me to decide. I just did my job as a boxer. I got into the ring and fought. I did it with my head held high and with a broken heart for not having finished the last kilometer.”

On social media, a number of Americans, including some Christian leaders, expressed outrage that the Olympics allowed Khelif to fight Carini. 

“The world is at war against Nature and Nature’s God, and you are a fool if you don’t think it has entered a new stage of hostility,” said Colin Smothers, executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW). 

“The feelings of weak men now mean more than the safety of REAL women,” said worship leader and right wing activist Sean Feucht. “This is sick. This is demonic. The Olympic committee and every democrat politician supporting this should be called out.”

“Your conscience should be telling you that it’s wrong for a man to beat up a woman,” said Denny Burk, president of CBMW and professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Don’t ignore or suppress your conscience on this. It’s telling you the truth, even if the International Olympic Committee says otherwise.”

Referencing the Olympics’ controversial Opening Ceremony, which featured a drag parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” Mike Cosper of Christianity Today said that “the revaluation of values dramatized in the opening ceremonies has real-world consequences. In this case, today, a biological male breaks a female athlete’s nose in competition and is rewarded for it by advancing to the next round.”

“Think about it. In the name of sport, we’re rewarding violence by men against women. We’re setting a standard that will almost surely, in many categories, [crowds] biological women out of the games,” Cosper said. “It’s not just about blasphemy and respecting sacred symbols. It’s about culture and civilization and norms that safeguard women and children.”

RELATED: Retired NFL Player Benjamin Watson Lauds Simone Biles for Olympic Comeback, Humility and Resilience

“Men are beating up women and they’ll be rewarded with Olympic medals. It makes me sick,” said Christian blogger Samuel Sey. “This is what LGBT ideology does to society. Feminists don’t care, but it ultimately protects depraved men and punishes women.”

(RNS) — Known for its original Moravian architecture and annual Christmas festivities, the Historic Moravian Bethlehem District in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is now the 26^th U.S. site to be included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, joining the Statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon National Park and the San Antonio Missions, among others.

The designation, announced Friday (July 26), was over two decades in the making and is expected to significantly boost tourism to the city, located roughly 90 miles from New York City in eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Moravian church settlements in Germany, Northern Ireland and Denmark are also included in the World Heritage listing, which is the first transnational listing put forth by the U.S.

“It comes down to the outstanding universal value of this site, and the preservation effort to protect and preserve the structures and story,” said Craig Larimer, a spokesperson for Moravian University in Bethlehem. “But it’s really about the Moravians. You can’t tell one part of the story without the other. Without the Moravians and their ingenuity, industry and sense of community, this wouldn’t be a thing at all. There wouldn’t be a Bethlehem.”

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland applauded the news in a Friday statement, calling it an honor for the World Heritage List to include a U.S. site “where visitors from around the world are able to learn about the rich history of Moravian settlements, their cultural tradition and spiritual ideals.”

In 1741, Bethlehem was founded by a small band of Moravian Church immigrants hoping to spread Christianity in the region. Known for their communal living, personal piety, sense of spiritual revival and unique liturgical practices — including lovefeasts, simple meals served during a song service as a form of fellowship — the Protestant group was considered radical by many of its Christian peers. The Bethlehem settlement completed the Gemeinhaus in 1743, a community building used for worship and shared meals, and soon erected a network of other buildings for the choirs, or groups, that comprised the community, including the single sisters’ house and single brothers’ house.

The historic district, which was named a National Historic Landmark in 2012, spans 10 acres and includes nine structures, four ruins and a cemetery. It contains North America’s first pumped municipal water system, the world’s oldest surviving Moravian example of a Gemeinhaus and a 1761 tannery, the only 18^th-century Moravian industrial building still existing in the world, according to Charlene Donchez Mowers, senior adviser/historian of the Bethlehem World Heritage Council and Commission.

“The first school to educate women with the same curriculum as men was founded here in Bethlehem in 1742, less than a year after the founding of the community,” Donchez Mowers added.

The process for landing on the World Heritage List was complex and took more than two decades. The site had to first become a national landmark, and be added to the World Heritage Site nominating list. The effort required cooperation from the city, Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, Moravian University, Central Moravian Church and the Bethlehem Area Moravians, an umbrella group that represents Bethlehem’s Moravian churches. It involved the U.S. Office of International Affairs of the National Park Service and included a 400-page nomination document and evaluations from an on-site assessor from the World Heritage Center. The U.S. site also coordinated with the international locations, gathering at over 40 Zoom meetings across several different time zones since 2018, said Donchez Mowers, who spearheaded much of the project.

The Moravians continue to have a strong presence in the Bethlehem area today. The city’s mayor, J. William Reynolds, is Moravian, as is the president of Moravian University, which traces its roots to the 1742 founding of the Moravian girls’ school.