Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, avowed that he is a Christian who “robustly supports” Israel and its war against Hamas in Gaza. Hegseth, a former Fox News host, provided favorable coverage of Israel on the network and said that his time in the U.S. Army turned him into a supporter of the Jewish state.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Any presidential election causes a real problem for me. I do get asked to talk to reporters and do webinars and write pieces for major outlets about the role that faith played at the ballot box. There’s one issue: I just don’t have access to any reliable data for a very long time after an election.
Read MoreThe rise in land disputes involving religious institutions in Uganda has triggered a trend of demolishing of churches and mosques throughout the country, raising religious freedom concerns over safety regarding places of worship. The issue has become a major problem across the country, a trend that has intensified over the last four years.
Read MoreThe book, six years in the making, vividly recreates Pope Francis’ childhood in Buenos Aires and offers few new insights into his papacy. The book is enhanced by remarkable photographs, including private and unpublished material made personally available by Francis himself. He tackles a series of topics, including the future of the church, social policy, migration and the environmental crisis.
Read MoreDepending on the source, Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta platforms will jettison fact-checking protocols in favor of community notes is either a threat to democracy or a return to the spirit of free speech from when he co-founded Facebook in 2004.
Read More(ANALYSIS) President Jimmy Carter, who died at age 100, was eulogized last Thursday at his state funeral in Washington, D.C. in a Scripture-filled service recalling a lifetime of good deeds and spirituality. Overlooked in all the tributes to the 39th U.S. president and born again evangelical Baptist was Carter’s role in 1979 from preventing the demolition of the mausoleum of Chassidic Rebbe Nachman of Breslov in Uman.
Read MoreLaws in 20 states aimed at shielding minors from online pornography are under fire as the U.S. Supreme Court hears a legal challenge this week. At issue is Texas House Bill 1181, one of a string of 20 such laws passed since Louisiana began the charge in 2022 to require websites containing at least 33 percent pornographic materials to verify that a user is at least 18.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Could it possibly have been coincidence? The very day Congress certified Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president, the Vatican announced the transfer of San Diego’s Cardinal Robert McElroy to become the politically significant archbishop of Washington, D.C. There’s no doubt Pope Francis wants McElroy to keep an eye on Trump.
Read MoreKhairunissa, along with her siblings and parents, spent years living in a multi-religious and multicultural apartment in Gujarat state’s Ahmedabad city. When communal tensions and targeted violence against Muslims erupted in the Indian city on Feb. 28, 2002, her family initially felt secure, confident that their neighbors would be able to protect them.
Read MoreCzechia, known until recently as the Czech Republic following its split from Slovakia, is a stark contrast to many countries where religion shapes societal norms and family structures. Czechia used to be predominantly Catholic, but has undergone a dramatic secularization, leaving many with the question of what institution or institutions the Eastern European nation is built upon.
Read More(REVIEW) Compelling and comprehensive, this book may nonetheless be an uphill climb for lay readers with little more than a basic Sunday school education. Helpful maps, a glossary and a timeline offer context and reorienting for those who may get lost in the thickets of such esoterica as apocalyptic hypostasis. None of this should dissuade the curious who want a deeper understanding of Christianity’s complex, layered early history.
Read MoreGlobal Christian Relief (GCR), the watchdog group launched in 2023 when Open Doors USA reorganized, has released its first persecution report, citing top five countries persecuting Christians in select categories. The 2025 GCR Red List is marketed as a “first-ever quantifiable and verifiable index” of incidents in five key areas.
Read MoreJared Osselaer isn’t sure how many people will need a generator or place to stay as fires continue across Los Angeles County, but Story City Church will be ready. More than 28,000 scorched acres show the devastation of the fires, with officials confirming five deaths but expecting that count to rise. Some 2,000 structures have been destroyed and 130,000 residents placed under evacuation orders.
Read MoreZimbabwe has many religious shrines which had been visited over the decades, but the emergence of prophets in Pentecostal churches has led to the surge of such pilgrimages. At the same time, the government has acknowledged that religious tourism plays a crucial role in the growth of the travel sector, contributing immensely to the national economy.
Read MoreThe Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center stood for over a century, its campus a sanctuary of faith and history in a community nestled just beyond the urban sprawl of Los Angeles. By Tuesday night, it was one of more than 1,000 buildings reduced to ash.
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 MoreLouisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has told school boards how to comply with the state’s law requiring public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, despite a federal district judge’s November 2024 ruling declaring it unconstitutional and prohibiting its enforcement.
Read MoreUn nuevo museo de inmigrantes, cerca de las iglesias anglicanas y luteranas del siglo XIX y los cementerios católicos y protestantes, planea convertirse en el centro de la vida cultural de la atracción más visitada de Valparaíso, el Cerro Concepción. La antigua Escuela Alemana de Valparaíso está siendo renovada para convertirse en el Museo del Inmigrante.
Read MoreA new immigrant museum near the 19th-century Anglican and Lutheran churches and Catholic and Protestant cemeteries plans to become the center of cultural life on Valparaíso’s most visited attraction, Cerro Concepción. The former German School of Valparaíso is undergoing a renovation to become the Museo del Inmigrante.
Read MoreWhen Plains Baptist Church voted overwhelmingly in the 1950s to bar Blacks and “racial agitators” from membership, Jimmy Carter and a handful of his family members were the only ones opposed to the restriction.
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