The bottom line: Next year, more journalists need to attend some of the worship services linked to the March for Life. They will hear plenty of voices, young and old, stressing that the sanctity of human life is too complex to be discussed in political terms, alone.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The questions at the 2025 March for Life were familiar ones for D.C. Beltway insiders: Would major politicians show up, and what would they say?
Read MoreEpiscopalians own the cathedral of D.C. culture Thus, journalists embedded in Beltway life applauded Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.
Read More(ANALYSIS) While many critics accuse the Babylon Bee of spreading political misinformation — the website's motto is “Fake News You Can Trust” — controversies about its work usually center on clashes between religious doctrines and powerful trends in modern life, such as the sexual revolution.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The date was October 4, 1997, and the MSNBC producers on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., had a problem. Actually, they had several problems. The main problem was that the million or so Promise Keepers men (D.C. crowd estimates were already a highly politicized affair) gathered for the Stand in the Gap rally keep singing, praying, reading their Bibles, listening to sermons and confessing their sins.
Read More(ANALYSIS) When describing his life, Denzel Washington often notes a mysterious encounter on March 27, 1975, offering it as a parable about his Christian faith and his acting career.. The young Washington was in his mother's Mount Vernon, N.Y., beauty parlor, after horrible grades forced a leave of absence from Fordham University. An elderly woman, Ruth Green, who many believed had unique spiritual gifts, looked him in the eye and asked for a piece of paper.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Journalists frequently cover important news stories, but miss key facts and themes that — for half of America, or thereabouts — are linked to morality or religion. Thus, these stories are haunted by “religion ghosts.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) Truth is, the former president was part of two endangered groups — populist Southern Democrats and progressive Southern Baptists. In 1976, he fared well with evangelical voters, for a Democrat, but exit polls basically showed a toss-up. In 1980, many evangelicals rejected him and helped create Ronald Reagan's landslide win.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Consider this post an early take on Lent 2025 or, maybe, a very late meditation on this year’s stack of New Year’s Resolutions.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This feature makes it clear that abortion is a painful, even tragic, reality in the lives of many women. Readers can see that in the personal experiences of the women quoted in the piece. Is abortion a positive, even “blessed” act? Or is it possible that abortion is “wrong” — or even a “sin”?
Read More(ANALYSIS) Over the past quarter century of so, I have spent a large chunk of my time trying to get Christian liberal arts colleges to ponder this question: Why do they have drama departments and not programs to make short films and pilots for television?
Read More(ANALYSIS) Almost two decades ago, the reigning editor of The New York Times admitted, during a speech to the National College Media Association, that the world’s most influential journalism cathedral had changed one of its core doctrines.
Read More(ANALYSIS) President Donald Trump is returning to the White House, convinced — after a close encounter with an assassin's bullet — that he had God on his side in the election. While opinions differed on that theological question, Trump drew support from voters that frequented pews. Members of Religion News Association selected the presidential election as the year's top national religion story.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Anyone who is interested in the roots of Christian history is familiar with the following, drawn from the 11th chapter of Acts. Where is Antioch today? That biblical city now known as Antakya, located on the Orontes River about 12 miles from the Syrian border. The history of the church in Antioch was at the heart of the news in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.
Read MoreAmericans who watch this 1983 family comedy — about 40 million watch the 24-hour marathon on TBS and TNT starting on Christmas Eve — know that it centers on a boy named Ralphie who is obsessed with a 200-shot Red Ryder air rifle BB gun. But another iconic image is the leg-shaped lamp, wearing a fishnet stocking, that Ralphie's Old Man received as his “major award” after winning a contest. What was that all about?
Read More(ANALYSIS) There’s no way around the question this time of the year, so I will offer my take on the annual holiday controversy. “Die Hard” is not a “Christmas movie.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) Let’s start here: The people of Pensacola, North Carolina, are truly grateful for the waves of supplies, clothing, food and even Christmas gifts they have received from religious organizations, nonprofits, civic groups and businesses both large and small.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Christmas is a good news, bad news situation in Pensacola, a tiny community in the Cane River Valley, high in the mountains of North Carolina. The good news is that Hurricane Helene’s flooding — which washed away almost everything at the town's crossroads — was followed by waves of volunteers and relief shipments from churches, nonprofits and businesses large and small.
Read MoreWhy are so many young men converting to Orthodoxy? Men seek the beauty and strength found in Orthodox Christianity and many are driven to convert — no matter what. The women in their lives? They may feel like they’re in the “passenger seat” of that car.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Year after year, Juan Diego's tilma is viewed by an estimated 20 million pilgrims, with more than 10 million visiting the basilica close to Dec. 12 — the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and the Americas. Around the world, throngs march in parades and sacred processions behind copies of this iconic Marian image.
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