In 1982, a 3-month-old girl named Rebecca became the 13th child adopted through Lifeline Children’s Services. The Birmingham, Alabama, nonprofit — launched the previous year — grew out of an evangelical crisis pregnancy ministry called Sav-a-Life.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Mamdani is America’s first high-profile Muslim office-holder. The campaign’s competing accusations of “antisemitism” versus “Islamophobia” raise obvious concerns for Muslims, and for Jews, for whom New York has long been the most important town west of Tel Aviv. Signals are mixed on whether the Mamdani era will improve, or worsen, relations between these communities.
Read More(OPINION) Among humanity, the opportunities for offense are endless. But if you don’t want to get trapped in this habit of spreading bile, you don’t have to. Pastor Paul Prather gives practical tips to have more peaceful, loving relationships.
Read MoreIn the early 1960s, Ron Bever paid 50 cents — roughly $5.34 in today’s dollars — for an old religious book at an estate sale. A rare books enthusiast, even Bever didn’t realize at first what a treasure he’d acquired.
Read MoreGod and Google can bring people together in any language. A diverse group of Christians connected on a recent Sunday in Marseille, France.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Street protests spill into riots. Universities host intimidation campaigns. Digital mobs savage anyone who dares step outside the script. Across America, political anger is spilling into the open, and on the left it increasingly takes a violent shape. What begins as dissent can tip quickly into destruction.
Read More(OPINION) Earlier, I wrote a column about an adventure-filled trip I took to the ER. At the time I wrote that piece, I thought we’d solved the questions of what was ailing me. Well, not so fast.
Read MoreTrunk-or-treating — aka Halloween tailgating — is a growing trend in houses of worship and elsewhere. Plug-in delves into the history of the events as well as why not everyone is a fan.
Read More(REVIEW) John Chau was an American man who died trying to preach the Gospel to North Sentinel Island, home to a tribe cut off from the outside world. The story captured the world’s attention — but a new film, "Last Days", recalls what happened, but was also a missed opportunity for secular-religious empathy.
Read MoreOn lists of most dangerous jobs, professions such as logger, roofer and lineman rank high. Preacher? Not so much. But serving the Lord can be — at least occasionally — difficult on one’s physical health, as David Duncan, Randy Roper and Trey Morgan discovered.
Read More(OPINION) In the wake of the historic schism that has fractured the worldwide Anglican Communion, lazy and ignorant narratives have already begun to emerge. The secular media and even some progressive Christian outlets would have you believe this is a simple story of progress versus bigotry — a misogynistic, homophobic and unenlightened conclave of Global South bishops mostly from the African continent breaking away because a woman was put in charge.
Read More(OPINION) After participating in multiple protests this year opposing authoritarianism, a Christian minister reflects on how people of faith can help sustain the growing No Kings movement — with hope, humor, and moral clarity. The “No Kings” movement, thank God, has only just begun.
Read More(OPINION) Among American churchgoers, roughly half are concentrated within a small fraction — less than 10% — of the nation’s churches, according to data reported earlier this year on church attendance and size. The other half of America’s churchgoers are most likely to attend one of the 70% of U.S. churches that have 100 or fewer people in their weekly services. That’s a lot of small churches dotted across our country.
Read More(OPINION) My grandkids are nearly grown, I’m afraid. Of the five, three are in high school now and one’s in middle school. Only the youngest is still a little guy.
Read MoreA reporting trip to middle-of-nowhere western Idaho got our Weekend Plug-in columnist thinking about the speck-on-the-map places that chasing stories takes him.
Read More(ANALYSIS) European lawmakers have criticized Serbia’s use of force against anti-government protesters. But the Serbian Orthodox Church — representing 85 percent of the country’s population — has been largely urged the student protestors to “go back to their classes” and not protest.
Read MoreNext year, a new feature-length presentation of the Crucifixion will hit the big screen. It’ll mark the culmination of the much-anticipated Season 6 of the worldwide phenomenon “The Chosen.” What should viewers expect? Will it be similar to — or different from — “The Passion” version?
Read More(ANALYSIS) Ethiopia stands at a critical juncture. Years of civil war and ethnic strife have left deep wounds and a fragile peace. The northern civil war that ended in 2022 alone caused an estimated 600,000 deaths and displaced millions. Atrocities were committed by all sides, including the government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and Eritrean troops.
Read More(OPINION) “If you are there and you’re listening, I’d appreciate some help,” the writer prayed. The response was stone silence.
Read More(OPINION) Two years since the terror attacks launched by Hamas on Israel, there appears to be a persistent moral ambiguity on how the world has responded to Israel’s plight. Should they be faulted at all for their call to get Israeli hostages back and to demand the disarmament of Hamas to finally end the war in Gaza?
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