(ANALYSIS) The general admonition is the same in many faith communities: Try to marry someone who shares your faith background. That’s certainly a well-established norm in Jewish communities.
Read More
Far from isolated, this case reflects a growing wave of church thefts across France targeting religious art. Last year, the French Interior Ministry recorded about 538 thefts of religious items — an 11% increase from the year before. People usually steal things like chalices, statues, paintings, relics and other religious items from churches and other places of worship.
Read More
In Zimbabwe, 200 in every 100,000 women die in childbirth — a rate far higher than in many Western countries, and far exceeding international standards. While the focus is always on reducing maternal deaths, some pastors are supporting newly widowed husbands, too.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) There is nothing unusual about turning a corner in West Virginia's maze of rough mountain roads and seeing churches with plain white walls and big porches. The new sanctuary at the Hermitage of the Holy Cross — 10 miles of twists and turns into a holler outside the town of Wayne — offers a variation on that vision. Its green-metal roof has domes resembling medieval Russian helmets, topped with golden cupolas and soaring Slavic crosses.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) When he was elected pope last May, Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, greeted the crowd with Christ’s words to his disciples: “Peace be with you.” Peace has become a central theme of the pontificate of the first American pope. In recent months, opposing the war in the Middle East, Leo has said that the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.”
Read More
Pastor Greg Locke retracted years-old allegations accusing Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen and others of abuse, admitting he lacked any evidence. The claims unraveled after scrutiny from apologist Mike Winger, prompting Locke to admit he had been misled and been used as an “amplifier.”
Read More
An Alabama town honors Vietnam veterans during a memorial ceremony, reflecting deep ties between faith and military life in this part of the country. Residents and leaders have increasingly used Christian rhetoric to frame U.S. military actions in the Middle East, drawing both support and criticism over religion’s role in government and war.
Read More
To fully understand Atlanta, you have to look beyond its highways and glass towers, back to the broader history of Georgia and its unusual role during colonial America. In that earlier era, a quiet but consequential force — religious diversity — helped shape a mindset that would eventually contribute to the movement for independence in 1776.
Read More
The Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate is helping the Russian government kidnap, house and falsely indoctrinate Ukrainian children, according to expert testimony before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Read More
While several books have been published about Leo, it seems the definitive biography of the Pope’s life is finally here.
Read More
Sam Allberry, a high-profile evangelical leader who publicly professed celibacy while acknowledging same-sex attraction, resigned from his church office last weekend.
Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals nationwide ban on mail-order abortion pills, the main mode of pregnancy termination in the U.S.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) Across American history, many colleges have attenuated or dropped their original religious purposes. Harvard University stripped down its 17th-century Latin motto, “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae” (Truth for Christ and the Church) to simply “Veritas.” However, Baylor still proclaims “integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment” as its core mission.
Read More
(OPINION) In one of those strange turns of life, Christine Powell found herself navigating a world that she had once only observed as a young professional right out of college.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) The last half-century might one day be described by church historians as the Age of the Megachurch. However, it appears that this era — if it existed at all — is coming to an end. Megachurches are not going away, of course. But data in recent years suggest their growth and numbers are leveling out, and possibly even declining.
Read More
In a new book, a religious studies scholar discusses how the concepts of conversion, testimony and purity can be used to study the vaccine hesitancy movement. Author Kira Ganga Kieffer explains how the vaccine hesitancy movement became bound up with religious liberty activists in trying to preserve their rights.
Read More
(ESSAY) Located in the countryside of Burgundy, it attracts over 50,000 guests a year — mostly young people between ages 16 and 35 — from all around the world. Together with the brothers, they follow a traditional monastic way of life: Three prayer times a day, characterized by silence and the well-known Taizé chants, simple meals, practical work and Bible study in the mornings.
Read More
Camp Mystic, the all-girls Christian camp near Kerrville, Texas, where 27 girls died as a result of catastrophic flooding last summer, announced it will not open any portion of the camp for the summer 2026 season.
Read More
The former headquarters of Trinity Broadcasting Network, in Costa Mesa, Calif., was demolished after standing vacant for several years. Construction workers with backhoes knocked down the palatial, 65,6500-square-foot building to make way for 142 new homes. By the mid ‘90s, TBN had 784 broadcast, cable and satellite affiliates. The headquarters, completed in 1998, was designed to showcase that success.
Read More
Pope Leo XIV’s first international apostolic journey was clouded by heated disputes with President Donald Trump, criticisms of appearing to appease the Islamist persecution of Christians and ongoing conflicts over homosexuality and polygamy among those who are members of the Catholic Church.
Read More