Scott Turner, President Trump’s new secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 21 that he is “purpose-driven” and passionate about being “your new servant leader.”

During Friday’s speech at the annual gathering near Washington, D.C., Turner, a Baptist preacher, quoted several Bible verses and said God had been “preparing” him for this “mission” at HUD.

Turner, who turns 53 this week, is an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. As ChurchLeaders has reported, Turner played football in the NFL for nine years. During Trump’s first presidency, he served as the first executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. While there, former HUD Secretary Ben Carson served as a mentor.

Turner and his wife also launched a family foundation, the Community Engagement & Opportunity Council, to “revitalize communities across America through sports, mentorship, and economic opportunity.”

RELATED: ‘To God Be the Glory. Let’s Get to Work!’—Trump Nominates Prestonwood Pastor Scott Turner to Cabinet

Pastor Scott Turner on His Role as HUD Secretary

On the main CPAC stage Friday, Scott Turner introduced himself as a “purpose-driven person” who’s “not really concerned with status [or] media attention.” He recalled growing up in Texas, where his first job was washing dishes at a barbeque joint.

After graduating from the University of Illinois, Turner was a last-round pick in the 1995 NFL Draft. He retired from pro football after playing 101 games and then entered politics. Turner was elected to two terms in the Texas State House, where he served from 2013 to 2017.

“All along the way, you know, I believe the Lord was preparing me,” Turner said, adding, “I believe God is a sovereign God.” He quoted Jeremiah 29:11 and then said, “I believe that from before the womb of my mother that [God] was preparing me for this moment, for this day, for such a time as this.”

Turner has been blessed with opportunities to make a “generational impact,” he told CPAC attendees. When faced with difficulties, he has “had to rely on God’s grace to overcome obstacles that the enemy tried to use to stop me from carrying out the Lord’s calling on my life.” Turner quoted James 1:2-4, about trials and the testing of faith producing steadfastness.

New HUD Secretary Scott Turner Restores ‘Biological Truth’

About his work at HUD, Scott Turner pledged to “restore integrity at our agency” and “identify and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.” Describing how his father took inventory while working at Safeway, the secretary said he’ll work on “stewarding the budget” for the American people.

Turner said HUD will tackle the “housing affordability crisis” that’s affecting so many young Americans, including his 24-year-old son. One focus will be lifting people out of poverty by expanding Opportunity Zones through public-private partnerships.

Pastor Gabriel Hardy, 42, who is with Army of the Lord — Ministry of Defense church in Vancouver, Washington, has been arrested for allegedly whipping a 6-year-old child with a belt hard enough to leave bruises and welts on the child’s body. A report from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) states that Hardy claimed to be ordained by God to administer corporal punishment to children.

“SVU [Special Victims Unit] investigated this case and learned from witnesses that Hardy openly preached about corporal punishment of young children and professed that he was divinely ordained to chastise children,” said CCSO in a statement Feb. 21. “Hardy admitted to the child’s mother that he had whipped the child with a belt to discipline the child.”

RELATED: SBC Has Disfellowshipped 7 Churches in 2 Years for Failing To Comply With Sexual Abuse Reporting and Prevention Standards

Clark County Sheriff’s Office Arrests Army of the Lord Pastor

According to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the child’s mother contacted CCSO on Feb. 17 about “potential child abuse” that allegedly took place at Army of the Lord — Ministry of Defense, which is located in a residence in Hazel Dell. 

The mother said that because she was unable to attend a church service on Sunday, Feb. 16, a friend of hers took her child to church. The mother asked her friend to ask Hardy to talk to the child about “recent disrespectful behavior.”

“The child returned home after the service with bruising and welts across their lower back, hips, and buttocks,” said CCSO. “The child told the mother that Hardy had whipped them with a belt approximately 12 times.”

CCSO requested help from SVU, after which investigators learned of Hardy’s view of corporal punishment. The Major Crimes Unit (MCU) and the Tactical Detective Unit (TDU) assisted SVU with executing a search warrant at the residence on Feb. 20.

“Hardy was not present at the time of the search warrant, but evidence of the crime of Assault of a Child was located inside the residence and seized pursuant to the search warrant,” said CCSO. “Hardy was contacted by detectives later in the day and admitted he struck the child in this case with a belt.”

Each actor in “The Chosen” feels that the groundbreaking project is more than playing a role. The content and drama have become more personal than any other role.

Actor Alaa Safi has played the role of Simon the Zealot (or Simon Z) and recently said he relies heavily on his own transitions in life to help connect with the transformation Simon Z experiences after meeting Jesus.

“He goes from superhero conditioning to the most humble version of a person,” said Safi. “And that’s real growth.”

Alaa Safi Shares How His Character in ‘The Chosen’ Embraces ‘Powerlessness—Which Doesn’t Mean Weakness’

Over the first five seasons of “The Chosen,” actors have become “deeply invested in their characters’ journey.” The series produces “In My Words,” where those portraying key roles articulate their personal journeys and how they connect with their characters.

French actor and director Alaa Safi has portrayed one of Jesus’ disciples, Simon the Zealot, since the second season of “The Chosen.” Years of Tae Kwon Do training prepared Safi well for the role of the warrior-turned-disciple.

Safi described Simon the Zealot as “probably the most mysterious and cool disciple of all.”

While Scripture is unclear as to whether Simon the Zealot was an actual member of the radical Zealot party or if the term “zealot” merely described his religious eagerness, creator and director Dallas Jenkins chose the former to develop Simon Z’s character in “The Chosen.”

In Bible times, Zealots directly opposed Roman rule and taxes. Many scholars argue that Jesus selected disciples who were rivals—Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector—to communicate that he offered new life to everyone.

Safi shared that he was “drawn to troubled characters.” Simon Z was “the warrior, the samurai of the group” who seemed to be “seeking a sense of purpose out of the pain.”

“He’s the guy who needs to learn how to go non-violent about everything in his life,” said Safi. Simon began “bracing, preparing, building himself, strengthening himself, and it’s all based on a fearful approach to the world and life.”

As a trained Zealot, Simon naturally handles situations with violence, but then he meets Jesus—the Messiah. Safi described how Jesus “strips me away from my past life, from the dagger, symbolizing everything I believed so hard so far.”

Theologian Dr. John Piper recently offered a stern warning to preachers leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI) to draft sermons, emphasizing that AI will never be able to worship God and arguing that using it to create sermon material is dishonest.

Piper is the author of numerous books and was the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis for more than three decades. He remains the chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. 

Piper’s comments came in the context of his “Ask Pastor John” podcast, in which Piper responds to listener questions about ministry and theology. 

In an episode released on Feb. 24, Piper focused on two questions. The first was whether it is appropriate for a ministry leader to use AI to write newsletters to ministry supporters, and the second was whether pastors should use AI for sermon preparation.

RELATED: How Pastors Who Feel ‘Overwhelmed’ by AI Can Engage With It Well

“Let’s start with a definition,” Piper said, joking that he got the definition from Google and that it was “artificial intelligence defining artificial intelligence.”

“’Artificial intelligence is a technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem-solving, decision-making, creativity, and autonomy,’” Piper recited. He then drew attention to “the fact that missing from that definition, that list of things that it simulates, is emotion.”

Piper argued that the absence of emotion is significant, because “the ultimate purpose of the universe is that God be glorified, and he is glorified not merely by being rightly thought about, logically comprehended, but by rightly being enjoyed, admired, appreciated, valued.”

“And God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in him, which means no artificial intelligence will ever be able to worship,” Piper said. “Worship is not simply right thinking, which computers can do. Worship is right feeling about God.”

“We are not bothered—I’m not bothered anyway—that a computer can simulate human logical reasoning,” Piper added. “But we consider it ludicrous when a machine attempts to rejoice or delight or be glad or stand in awe or be amazed or feel grief or fear…The very phrase ‘artificial emotion’ is an oxymoron.”

RELATED: How Well Does ChatGPT Understand Christian Theology?

While Piper conceded that generative AI tools can produce “an astonishingly well-written sermon,” he argued that using that work as one’s own would be “wicked.”

(RNS) — A religious row has erupted among conservative Christians over President Donald Trump’s decision to re-appoint Paula White-Cain to run the White House Faith Office, with theological fissures erupting within Trump’s Christian coalition as leaders stake out different positions on the Florida pastor.

The debate escalated on Tuesday (Feb. 19), when Doug Wilson, an influential Reformed pastor who has emerged as an oft-cited religious thinker in conservative circles, derided White-Cain, a Pentecostal pastor, on his podcast. While responding to others on his show who were critiquing White-Cain, the Idaho pastor referred to her appointment as “a bad pick for all kinds of reasons.”

In a separate interview with Religion News Service on Thursday, Wilson said he hails from a “conservative Christian quadrant that objects to women preachers in the first place,” and described White-Cain as an “erratic woman preacher who has been all over the map.”

He went on to describe White-Cain, long regarded as Trump’s closest religious adviser, as “the kind of person that embarrassing video footage can be rolled out almost at will.”

“It’s not the greatest pick in the world,” he added.

The remarks are the latest in a back-and-forth that began shortly after Trump announced earlier this month that White-Cain would once again be heading his Faith Office, a reveal that concluded a week of faith-themed appearances featuring the president and the vice president. While White-Cain’s appointment was widely expected —  she served in the same position near the tail-end of Trump’s first term — news of her return to the White House sparked blowback in some conservative Christian online spaces.

Unlike critiques from Trump and White-Cain’s numerous liberal detractors, the latest round of criticism has pitted prominent Pentecostal and charismatic Christians such as White-Cain, who have made up an important part of Trump’s evangelical Christian base, against a cadre of conservative Calvinists — including a subset influential among some of Trump’s advisers and cabinet members.

Matthew Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies who has studied the influence of charismatic Christianity on Trump, said the broader evangelical discomfort with Pentecostalism — traditions that engage in practices such as prophecies, faith healing and speaking in tongues — has been around for some time. During Trump’s first campaign and term in office, Taylor said, it was moderate evangelicals such as Russell Moore, then a Southern Baptist, who voiced their disapproval of White-Cain as well as Trump himself.

But this time the fight is more of a “sibling rivalry” between different factions of the “Christian far-right,” Taylor said, with Calvinists such as Wilson becoming power players over the past four years, alongside stridently conservative forms of Catholicism that have garnered favor with Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert.

“Paula White and her circle truly dominate the Trump advisory circles, the evangelical advisory circles,” he said. “Now you have these kind of natalist, radical traditionalist Catholics that see an avenue to power through JD Vance, and you see these kind of Reconstructionist Calvinist-types who see an avenue through Pete Hegseth and maybe Russ Vought. So now there’s real power and policy in play.”

Efforts to reach White-Cain for comment were unsuccessful, but the criticism quickly spurred her supporters — particularly people who, like White-Cain, operate in Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions, as well as preach a prosperity gospel, or wealth-focused, theology — to publish video testimonials in her defense.

“What was the date that it became okay, in the body of Christ, all of a sudden, to trash people by name that you’ve never met?” said Jonathan Shuttlesworth, a Pentecostal pastor of Revival Today Church, who was among the first to rush to her defense, in a video posted to X. The pastor, whose church meets in both Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in Texas, is seen as ascendant among Trump’s religious advisers, posting on Friday that he was traveling to the White House to “discuss and write national policy for religious freedom.”

(RNS) — Americans are polarized on almost every issue in public life, from what books kids should be allowed to read in school to how to reform the nation’s immigration system.

One thing most do agree on, regardless of party affiliation, is in-vitro fertilization — more commonly known as IVF — 70% of Americans told Pew Research they believe access to IVF is a good thing, while only 8% said it was bad, according to a 2024 survey.

Members of the nation’s largest faith groups also see IVF access as a positive, including Black Protestants (69%), Catholics (65%), and the evangelical (63%) and non-evangelical (78%) varieties of white Protestants, as do the unaffiliated (78%).

That’s likely one reason why Donald Trump recently issued an executive order Tuesday (Feb. 18), promising to reduce the cost of IVF.

“Therefore, to support American families, it is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable,” Trump wrote.

While people in the pews might applaud the president’s actions, a number of high-profile faith leaders, including the nation’s Catholic bishops, are not pleased.

“As pastors, we see the suffering of so many couples experiencing infertility and know their deep desire to have children is both good and admirable; yet the Administration’s push for IVF, which ends countless human lives and treats persons like property, cannot be the answer,” wrote Bishops Daniel E. Thomas, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop Robert E. Barron, chair of the Committee for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, in a statement released by the USCCB on Thursday.

The USCCB — like other faith groups that oppose abortion on the belief that life starts at conception — says IVF is well-intentioned but immoral. While millions of children have been born following IVF, the process often involves freezing or discarding excess embryos.

“The IVF industry treats human beings like products and freezes or kills millions of children who are not selected for transfer to a womb or do not survive,” the bishops wrote. “Tuesday’s executive order promoting IVF is thus fatally flawed and stands in regrettable contrast to the promising pro-life actions of the Administration last month.”

IVF and the treatment of excess embryos had been a matter of heated debate in the early 2000s, when those embryos were seen as potential subjects for stem cell research. But any public controversy about IVF had largely faded until the spring of 2024, when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled during a wrongful death lawsuit that embryos could be considered children. That led clinics in Alabama to shut down until the state’s legislature passed a new law to protect IVF treatments.

Last summer, Southern Baptists passed a resolution asking church members to be wary of IVF and calling the process immoral. The resolution also called for more government regulation of IVF and for limits on how many embryos are created in treatment.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says the White House should heed the denomination’s advice when thinking about rules for IVF.

Vice President J.D. Vance said to attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) the morning of Thursday, Feb. 20, that Christianity is more than “a set of moral principles” and that it is centered on the belief that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died and rose from the dead. 

“Now, we’re gonna get personal,” said moderator Mercedes Schlapp during her 30-minute conversation with Vance. “Your faith—why is it so important to you? What does it mean to you? Tell us why, when you go every single day to work, how faith is a part of who you are.” 

“Well, first is, I believe the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith,” said Vance, “it’s not just a set of good moral principles, though it is that. I think the fundamental tenet of our faith is that the Son of God became man, he died, and then he raised himself from the dead.” 

“That is the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith,” the vice president said as the audience applauded, “and I think so much flows from that.” 

JD Vance at CPAC: ‘We Put Our Faith in God’

CPAC 2025 is taking place in Washington, D.C., Feb. 20-22, and J.D. Vance opened Thursday morning’s general session by having a conversation with Schlapp that touched on immigration, the war in Ukraine, and even masculinity.

“One lesson that flows from” the Christian belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection, Vance said, “is that we shouldn’t fear death. Of course, death is a very bad thing, but there…are much more terrible things than just losing one’s life. And importantly, you could lose one’s soul.” 

RELATED: Pope Francis Appears To Correct JD Vance on the ‘Ordo Amoris’ in Letter to US Bishops on Immigration

“And I think we have, whether it’s fighting for the unborn or fighting for peace and security for our citizens, I want us to be the kind of society where my kids can grow up to be virtuous,” said Vance. 

“Young people can be good young Christians, of course, because that’s what I’m trying to raise them to be,” he continued, “and that’s what our public policy is trying to do, creating the space where moms and dads can raise their children in their faith to become good young people.”

The Summit Church, the North Carolina megachurch led by Pastor J.D. Greear, is suing Chatham County, alleging religious discrimination after county commissioners denied a rezoning request. In a federal lawsuit filed on Feb. 14, the church claims that the Chatham County Board of Commissioners violated the 25-year-old Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), with its unanimous December denial of the church’s plans.

During meetings about the zoning issue, county commissioners discussed concerns about traffic, an influx of “outsiders,” tax and revenue issues, and the need to preserve the area’s “rural character.” After the lawsuit was filed, the county attorney insisted that local leaders are not “hostile to religious institutions and practices.”

RELATED: J.D. Greear: Key Points for Pastors To Remember During This Election Year

The Summit Church, which is in fellowship with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), has 13 campuses in 12 locations across the Raleigh-Durham area. One of those campuses, which has been meeting in an Orange County high school, hoped to build a new facility in nearby Chatham County.

The Summit leaders identified a 50-acre site that had previously been approved for a multi-use active-adult community; development of that project fell through. The church proposed a two-story, 82,000-square-foot building with a 1,200-person capacity, plus some additional smaller buildings, a play area, and an athletic court.

During an initial public hearing, county officials indicated the church’s proposed plans were reasonable. But at subsequent meetings, officials and residents voiced concerns about having such a large church in the community.

The Summit Church Aims To Defend Its Rights

In a statement, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners said the church’s rezoning request was inconsistent with the county’s development and conservation plans. Having a church on that land, it added, wouldn’t lead to high-quality jobs or diverse tax revenue.

About its lawsuit, The Summit Church said in a statement:

The Board of Commissioners unanimously rejected our rezoning request, claiming that we were too big, after previously approving large commercial and retail developments within approximately three miles of our proposed location. Their statements also made it clear that our church is not welcome at all in the County. We view this to be unjust and in violation of federal law, specifically the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and are appealing to the courts because we believe we have a responsibility to defend our constitutional rights and the rights of all churches, regardless of beliefs, size, or methodology.

Chatham County has until March 7 to respond to the church’s request for an injunction. The church is also asking that the county pay its legal fees.

Bob Hagemann, the county’s attorney, said they are reviewing the complaint. “That said, we reject the notion that Chatham County is hostile to religious institutions and practices,” he added. “On the contrary, the County respects and supports the right of its residents to freely hold and exercise their religious beliefs.”

During the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Executive Committee earlier this week, Executive Committee President Dr. Jeff Iorg reported that the SBC is taking proactive steps to remove from the denomination churches that fail to adhere to abuse prevention and reporting standards. 

It was during this same meeting that it was revealed that the denomination is no longer actively pursuing the implementation of an abuser database.

In his address to the committee, Iorg said that the SBC has disfellowshipped seven such churches in the last two years. Each of these decisions came as a result of the SBC sexual abuse hotline.

Iorg reported that since the hotline became “operational” in May 2022, it has received “1,008 contacts by phone and email.” 

Of those 1,008 contacts, 334 were requests for information, people offering opinions, or spam, Iorg said. The other 674 contacts were reports of allegations of abuse.

RELATED: As SBC Abuser Database Is Put on Ice, Advocates Are out of Patience and Executive Committee Is out of Money

Of the 674 reported allegations, 458 involved Southern Baptists, Iorg added, meaning that roughly 32% of the reports of alleged abuse did not involve Southern Baptists. Of the 458 reports involving Southern Baptists, 187 of the victims were adults and 271 of the victims were minors. 

Iorg said that a majority of the calls came in the first four months of the hotline becoming available. The hotline has received roughly 13 contacts per month for the last 24 months.

During that time, the Executive Committee has referred 128 cases to the Credentials Committee to determine whether a church should remain “in friendly cooperation” with the SBC. Seven of those referrals have resulted in a church being disfellowshipped. 

“What does this hotline data mean? Two broad conclusions,” Iorg said. “First, sexual abuse is a serious and real problem. And when it happens, it is devastating for the survivors, the church, the community, and every person who is involved.”

RELATED: SBC Executive Committee Taps Jeff Dalrymple To Spearhead Long-Term Abuse Reforms

“Survivor stories are particularly gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. Every church must make every reasonable effort to prevent sexual abuse and respond proactively when it happens,” Iorg continued, expressing the Executive Committee’s commitment to high standards of reporting.

(RNS) — President Donald Trump began his second term in the White House with a bit of political map-making, changing the official U.S. name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Now, Christian broadcasters and members of Congress hope Trump will do something similar for Israel by renaming the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” – a name for the region found in the Bible. That name is mentioned in a bill now before Congress and in a resolution from the National Religious Broadcasters association.

“NRB opposes the use of the erroneous term ‘West Bank’ to describe the biblical heartland of Israel and calls on its members to refer to the region by its historic name of Judea and Samaria,” the NRB, a group of mostly evangelical broadcasters and ministries, said last year in announcing what it called a “Biblical Heartland Resolution.”

The West Bank, a region encompassing about 2,185 square miles, was part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and was captured by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War. The region is home to 4 million people, of whom close to 3 million are Palestinians without legal rights.

In early February, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, both Republicans, reintroduced legislation to change how the U.S. government refers to the region. They first introduced the bill in December 2024.

If enacted as a law, the legislation would require U.S. documents to refer to the area as Judea and Samaria, biblical names for the ancient Israelite kingdoms of Judah, also known as the Southern Kingdom, and Samaria, a part of the Kingdom of Israel, also known as the Northern Kingdom.

“The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years,” Cotton said in a press release. “The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.”

Tenney added that the bill is part of her support for Israel’s rule over the region and her opposition to it as Palestinian state.

“I remain committed to defending the integrity of the Jewish state and fully supporting Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” she said in a statement.

Tenney also launched a “Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus” in mid-January with support from Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, a conservative evangelical advocacy group.

Next week, a group called American Christian Leaders for Israel — which includes the NRB, pastors and other groups — plans to issue a resolution that supports Israel’s claim to the region during the NRB’s annual convention in Dallas. The group’s statement is meant to show support for Cotton and Tenney’s legislation, and to send a message to the White House about evangelical support for Israel.

ACLI organizers believe Trump plans to make a major statement on Israel soon — and hope that a name change is part of that statement, said a spokesperson for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s U.S. branch, a pro-Israel organization that is part of the International Christian Leaders for Israel, a related group that will participate in the NRB convention.