Baker Cathy Miller, who won two lower court battles in her refusal to custom design a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, continued to plead her case for individual religious freedom this week in a California appeals court.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) Technology, AI and social media have been developed for the common good, to make our lives easier, one way or another. However, they can also be abused — and this is precisely what we have seen across contemporary cases of genocide.
Read More
Christians in Nigeria plan to celebrate Christmas amid fear of a repeat of violence that claimed at least 160 lives in Nigeria’s Middle Belt at Christmastime in 2023 and dozens in northern Nigeria during the holidays in 2022, international religious liberty advocates reported.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) On Dec. 5, 2024, Amnesty International, a nongovernmental organization, published a new report analyzing the situation of Palestinians in Gaza. The report, “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman,” finds that the atrocities perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza amount to genocide.
Read More
Patriarch John X of Antioch delivered a powerful sermon at the Church of the Holy Cross in Damascus, addressing Christians in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the takeover by an Islamic rebel group.
Read More
A 15-year-old female student opened fire on Monday morning inside a study hall at a private Christian school in Wisconsin, killing a teacher and a student, authorities said. The shooter, identified as Natalie Rupnow, also wounded six others at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, including two students who were in critical condition.
Read More
Despite this grim reality, church leaders in this nation of 2.3 million are not just in denial about this social crisis — but are also in denial about being in denial, leaving the desperately depressed with no one to give them the much-needed message of hope. Talking about suicide is taboo in many African societies and that includes Lesotho.
Read More
Bible-engaged Christians are the most charitable people in the nation, and giving increases happiness among the generous, the American Bible Society said in releasing the last chapter of the 2024 State of the Bible.
Read More
Ten Catholic priests and a seminarian were murdered during the six-year term of former Mexican President López Obrador that ended Sept. 30, the Catholic Multimedia Center said in its 2024 annual report.
Read More
A rise in Bible sales coincides with reports by Lifeway Christian Resources and reflects a growing desire to learn more about God’s Word, say Bible study leaders and those in the industry. “It’s an interesting time,” said Andy McLean, publisher of Bibles and Reference for Lifeway. “We’ve seen a general increase in the last two or three years with the Bible market. There are a lot of unique types of Bibles.”
Read More
As part of a comprehensive plan to protect children and other vulnerable populations in their care, churches and other ministries should conduct thorough background screenings. D.J. Paxton, CEO of Compass Abuse Prevention Services, explained the importance of background checks of an overall screening process for volunteers.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) Changes in the film industry, and the changing demographics of family life in America, mean we’re likely to see a more movies in the future that are focused on faith. You might say the future of Christmas films is very much faith-based. One of the most fascinating things is the collapse of the Christmas movie and the rise of the faith-based genre happened around the same time.
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
Minnesota Christian parents are challenging a state law that blocks certain Christian colleges from a program that allows colleges to enroll high schoolers in tuition-free college credit courses.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) The installation was a two-month project in religion, technology and art titled “Deus in Machina,” created at the University of Lucerne. The original Latin phrase literally means “god from the machine”; it refers to a plot device used in Greek and Roman plays, introducing a god to resolve an impossible problem or conflict facing the characters.
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 More
An Ohio judge has issued a preliminary injunction against Dad’s Place and its pastor Chris Avell, preventing the church from using its first floor to shelter homeless people, even as temperatures are expected to plummet later this week.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) Today, I am especially interested in what is happening with the Republican party in a post-Trump America. I have some data that offer a little bit of a window into who evangelicals might vote for when Trump’s name is not on the primary ballot.
Read More
Nestled in the serene yet scarred landscapes of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district, the Arde Nareshwar Temple stood as a silent witness to one of the darkest chapters in the region’s history. For over two decades, its bells were silent, its walls deserted — haunted by the tragic massacre of 24 Kashmiri Hindus also known as Kashmiri Pandits in 2003 that forever changed the narrative of this quaint village.
Read More
Two historic New Jersey churches won a preliminary injunction in federal court that blocks a policy excluding them from a funding program for historic buildings.
Read More