Weekly briefing: Hurricane Dorian devastation, Benny Hinn, House of Hope Atlanta

We've compiled the top stories of the week. Here's what you need to know:

Hurricane Dorian death toll rises to 30 after pounding Bahamas

Hurricane Dorian decimated parts of the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm this week and so far the death toll has risen to 30.

As Bahamians, particularly on the devastated Abaco Islands, struggle to leave or find food or water, churches and aid groups are mobilizing to send relief teams and supplies.

Samaritan’s Purse sent 30 tons of emergency items as well as disaster relief team specialists to the islands. The organization also airlifted its Emergency Field Hospital, which can receive up to 100 patients daily.

Dorian moved up the southeast coast, sparing Florida while causing massive flooding on North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Friday.

— Benny Hinn renounces prosperity gospel

Controversial televangelist Benny Hinn renounced the prosperity gospel this week. During a Monday night service that was broadcast live, Hinn said he was correcting his own theology and that he sees the Bible differently now compared to 20 years ago.

“It’s an offense to say give $1,000. I think it’s an offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the Gospel. I’m done with it. I will never again ask you to give $1,000 or whatever amount, because I think the Holy Ghost is just fed up with it.” — Benny Hinn

— Atlanta megachurch accused of covering up rape

A woman filed a police report in Georgia, alleging that leaders at House of Hope Atlanta covered up her rape from four years ago.

The woman said she received a threatening message in her mailbox in an attempt to silence her.

Online media personality and former pastor Larry Reid said the woman revealed to him that she was drugged and raped by a then staff member of the church. She was also allegedly pressured to sign a legal agreement with the church to keep silent.

Reid had also signed an agreement with church officials that he said he was tricked into. It effectively stopped him from reporting on anything negative about the church and its leaders, including the allegation that Pastor E. Dewey Smith Jr. fathered a child out of wedlock.

— At Daleiden hearing, Planned Parenthood staffer admits to supplying aborted body parts to broker

Court proceedings began this week to determine whether David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, who exposed Planned Parenthood's financial dealings with aborted fetal body parts, should face a criminal trial.

At the preliminary criminal hearing in San Francisco, Doe 7, who performed abortions for Planned Parenthood Northern California, said she regularly provided fetal tissue from the abortions. She also said she had heard of cases in which StemExpress, a biotech firm known for its procurement of fetal body parts for research purposes, was involved and money was exchanged.

Daleiden and Merritt are facing 15 counts of felony invasion of privacy for their undercover videos of conversations with abortionists at the National Abortion Federation’s 2014 and 2015 meetings.

Read CP’s feature on how churches are helping financially strapped clergy

Check out CP’s interview with Pastor H. B. Charles Jr. on the dangers of entertainment-driven worship

Listen to CP’s latest podcast: Did the sexual revolution launch identity politics?

Pray for:

Christians in India after a new was passed, raising punishments for “forced” religious conversions

Pastor Hkalam Samson, who could be prosecuted for speaking to President Donald Trump about being oppressed by the Myanmar military government

New releases

Albums:

Rain by Planetshakers (Sept. 6)

III (Reimagined) by Hillsong Young & Free (Sept. 6)

Books:

Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon by David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock (Sept. 3)

A Life of Listening: Discerning God's Voice and Discovering Our Own by Leighton Ford (Sept. 3)