Federal authorities announced arrests after activists disrupted a Minneapolis Southern Baptist church service to protest ICE activities. Civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong and two others were charged under an 1871 conspiracy statute. Church leaders have condemned the protest, while activists called it a peaceful demonstration.
Read MoreThis past Dec. 18, on International Migrants Day, participants in an interfaith prayer group gathered at Winton’s statue with Jewish children. In freezing weather and amid the noise of passing trains, the refugees were remembered by the people who had helped them.
Read MoreCatholic affiliation is declining across much of Latin America, while the number of religiously unaffiliated adults is rising sharply, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Despite these shifts, belief in God, prayer and the personal importance of religion remain widespread throughout the region.
Read MoreNearly 175 worshippers were abducted on Jan. 18 from three churches in Kaduna State in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, Christian advocacy groups reported, after at least 35 were killed in separate attacks on villages in the Middle Belt and eastern Nigeria.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Ironically, 2025 was a turbulent year the world over. After so much military aggression in Ukraine, rampant starvation in Gaza and increasing violence of all kinds within the United States, people in many parts of the world were left much more despairing than hopeful for 2026.
Read MoreU.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says she has spoken to a Minnesota pastor following a disruption by protestors during Cities Church’s morning worship service on Sunday. “Attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law,” Bondi wrote on X late Sunday night.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Spectators reported intense grief and a connection with fellow mourners when they viewed the ceremony. On average, they described their sadness as intense. Most also said they felt a strong sense of unity – not only with people standing alongside them, but even with strangers across the nation who shared in the moment.
Read More(ANALYSIS) When MLK said character should be a goal of education, he presumably meant that moral intelligence should be developed. Everyone (except the psychopath) has a sense of morality. That’s what Jefferson meant when he declared that all men are created equal. But how to develop moral intelligence is much debated.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Religious movements and figures played a central role in early American history. For example, as I have frequently written, Thanksgiving is linked to Protestant religious dissenters we call Pilgrims and Puritans. American myth tells us that those hearty souls braved an ocean crossing and a contest with the “wilderness,” in the words of the Plymouth colony’s governor, William Bradford.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Before Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, he asked several of his friends to continue his life’s work building what he called “beloved community.” One of the people he invited was the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, poet and mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Their shared vision shows how democracy could flourish when citizens practice compassion and peaceful action.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Bible portrayed many courageous women, yet few appeared as leaders in the New Testament. Early Christian apocryphal texts preserved such figures, including Thecla, who endured persecution, performed miracles, preached the gospel, and inspired debates about women’s authority and leadership in the early Christian world.
Read MoreDuring the Holocaust, concealment was a condition of survival under persecution. Survivors’ testimony illuminates both the ingenuity required to endure such pressure and the emotional costs of erasing parts of oneself. In a moment of rising nationalism, antisemitism and mass displacement, their stories carry renewed urgency.
Read MoreIndia recorded 1,318 in-person hate speech incidents in 2025, averaging more than three each day and overwhelmingly led by Hindu nationalist groups affiliated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The report supports the inference that a political choice is behind the sustained scale of public incitement, which undermines both the rule of law and the idea of equal citizenship.
Read MoreViolence against Christians has reached an all-time high in 15 countries, with 388 million people facing severe persecution worldwide, Open Doors reported. Nigeria remains the deadliest nation, while Syria saw the largest single-year rise amid instability. Other dangerous parts of the world include North Korea, Somalia and Yemen.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Religious freedom in Hong Kong and Macau seems to be at the mercy of the ruling authoritarian Chinese Communist Party in People's Republic of China. Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that was banned by the People’s Republic of China in 1999, but remained active in Hong Kong and Macau, has been gradually losing its religious freedom.
Read MoreA Nigerian minister and humanitarian urged the U.S. government to use peaceful methods to address religious persecution during a Jan. 13 USCIRF hearing in Washington. Rebecca Dali said bombing worsened trauma for communities and encouraged intelligence-based cooperation, as witnesses testified about Christian persecution in multiple countries worldwide.
Read MoreLifeway Research estimates 3,800 new Protestant churches were started in the U.S., while 4,000 churches were closed. This is based on analysis of congregational information provided by 35 denominations or faith groups, representing 58% of all Protestant churches.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Pete Hegseth, the current defense secretary, has stressed what he calls the “warrior ethos,” while other Americans seem to have embraced a renewed interest in “warrior culture.” Debate about these concepts actually traces back for thousands of years. Thinkers have long wrestled with what it means to be a true “warrior,” and the place of honor on the road to becoming one.
Read MoreRight now, across the waters of the world, massive cargo ships are floating from Hong Kong to Houston, from Marseille to Newark, from San Diego to Seoul. The ships carry everything from bananas to coal to toothbrushes. Some estimates claim that 90% of all goods purchased in the U.S. spent some time on the sea. Nearly 200 years ago, the Seamen's Church Institute set out to serve these mariners. They are still doing so today.
Read MoreFor four million Deaf South Africans and millions across the world, a long spiritual silence has been broken. Many in the Deaf community say they yearn to connect with God, but earlier versions of the Bible, usually available in only text or audio, are inaccessible. And they cannot depend on the verbal message from the pulpit on Sundays.
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