Posts in Christianity
Could New Science Verify The Famous Shroud of Turin?

(ANALYSIS) The Shroud of Turin, the world’s most famous and most-examined artifact, is revered by devotees as the actual burial cloth that covered Jesus Christ’s body after his crucifixion. Many will consider that inconceivable, but is there reason to accept the claim? Or is this celebrated cloth merely a pious artwork, or a clever fraud, that originated in medieval times?

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Olasky’s Books For October: Presidents, Nationalists, Prayer And Blindness

(ANALYSIS) Daniel Silliman’s “One Last Soul: Richard Nixon’s Search for Salvation” (Eerdman’s, 2024) is a well-written biography of the president who won a 49-state reelection victory in 1972 and resigned in disgrace two years later. Silliman’s scenes include Nixon as a 22-year-old working in his dad’s store “peeling grimy leaves off the lettuce and picking out the bruised fruit, which was starting to decay."

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Dad Loved Animals, Children And God — But Often Hated Himself

(OPINION) More than anybody I’ve ever known, Dad loved God. I mean, he really loved God, as if God was as real and tangible as a puppy or my mom. Meanwhile, he fought a probable emotional disorder on his own, the best he could, with no counseling and no medication, just him and the Holy Ghost waging war with his demons.

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‘The After Party’ Offers Christians An Escape From Divisive Politics

Spearheading one of a growing number of attempts among evangelicals to empower clergy and laypeople to reframe the political divide, the creators of “The After Party” hope to foster conversations that will not only promote healing but enable those engaged to participate in public life in ways that are constructive, rather than chronically divisive.

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Ukraine Prosecutor Investigating Russian Attacks On Children As Genocide

(ANALYSIS) Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, explained that his team is looking into the abductions of Ukrainian children to Russia, but also the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage linked to Ukrainian identity, among others. He also indicated that his team is investigating mass killings, such as those in Bucha, as a crime of genocide.

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Evangelicals Twice As Likely to Back Trump Over Harris

Entering into the final months leading up to the 2024 presidential election, former President Trump holds a sizable lead over Vice President Kamala Harris among evangelicals. Likely voters with evangelical beliefs are twice as likely to plan to cast their ballot for Trump than Harris (61% to 31%), according to a study from Lifeway Research. Few say they are still undecided (5%) or supporting another candidate (3%).

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How ‘Vatican Watchers’ Report On The Papacy To Catholics Around The World

Among the parade of priests and nuns who stroll in and around Vatican City, there is a special breed of journalist who is tasked with explaining the pope and the Roman curia to the world. These people are known as Vatican watchers — a “Vaticanista” in Italian — and they've been around since the 1960s. Even in the digital age, these journalists have become essential to understanding the church.

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Harris Favors Eliminating The Filibuster To Codify Abortion Rights

Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris told an interviewer Tuesday (Sept. 24) that she would be in favor of eliminating the filibuster for votes on abortion-related legislation in the Senate. Harris has made abortion a centerpiece of her campaign, pledging to sign any bill that “restore[s] reproductive freedom nationwide,” according to her website.

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Skillet Prepares For A ‘Spiritual Revolution’ After Single Debuts No. 1 On Rock Charts

Skillet frontman John Cooper says the band wants a revolution. And from recent indications on Apple Music, fans agree. The band has a new album called "Revolution" that's coming in November, but its first single debuted at No. 1 on the Apple iTunes rock and music video charts in August. Ironically, the song is called “Unpopular."

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Most Catholics Across The Americas Want The Church To Allow Birth Control

A new survey of Catholics in the United States and across six Latin American countries found that majorities want the church to allow for the use of birth control and letting women become priests. The Pew Research Center study also found that public opinion was more divided on whether the church should allow priests to marry and the recognition of same-sex marriages.  

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Controversial Pastor Mark Driscoll Refuses To Remove ‘Jesus Christ ‘24’ Sign

Controversial pastor Mark Driscoll is citing First Amendment rights in his fight against the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, to display a sign to vote for Jesus in property adjacent to his church. The sign reading, “Jesus Christ ’24,” is posted on the right of way property bordering the street in front of Driscoll’s church, Trinity Church in Scottsdale.

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Days After Release Of US Pastor, USCIRF Says China Has No Religious Freedom

China has tightened its control of religion, creating such crimes as genocide, mass arrests and enforced disappearances, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a new fact sheet, days after China released long-imprisoned American Protestant pastor David Lin.

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On Religion: Do Pastors Face Pressure Tied To Partisan Politics?

Eight years ago, Lifeway Research asked Protestant pastors who they planned to support in the presidential election and only three percent declined to answer. That number didn't change much in 2020, when four percent declined. But things changed recently, when almost a quarter of the pastors refused to voice their choice in the 2024 White House race.

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Should Christians Send Their Children To Public Schools?

(ANALYSIS) The U.S. Census Bureau says about 7 million children, or about 13% of school-aged students, go to private schools. This includes about 3.5 million homeschooled children. Both numbers represent significant increases in the past five years. Why has this shift taken place?

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Did Militants Really Enter India From Neighboring Myanmar?

(ANALYSIS) An “intelligence” report has emerged suggesting that over 900 “Kuki militants,” trained in advanced warfare techniques, have crossed from Myanmar into India and may target Meitei villages in Manipur as Christians in the region continue to be persecuted. It’s strange that this information was shared with the public, rather than communicated discretely to the Indian army.

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New Polls Offer Conflicting Clues On Key Catholic Voters

(ANALYSIS) How Catholic voters view the candidates and issues could nudge margins enough to swing the election, and so could many other factors in such a nail-biter. Though political coverage emphasizes evangelicals, shifts by the two different Catholic segments are usually much more important in general elections. 

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In The World’s Largest Muslim Nation, A Church Is ‘Still Thankful To God’

At 4:44 a.m., the calls to prayer begin. They come from everywhere, it seems, reminding me that I’m in the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. There’s at least one mosque in every direction from the home of Daniel Setiabudu, the Christian minister who’s graciously taken me in for a couple of nights.

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‘Takedown’ Chronicles the Fight — Aided By Faith — To Shut Down Pornhub

(REVIEW) Over the past four years, PornHub — one of the most-visited sites on the internet — has faced a reckoning of epic proportions. Efforts spearheaded by sex-trafficking activist Laila Mickelwait are the reason behind this reckoning, recounted in Mickelwait’s new book “Takedown: Inside the Fight to Shut Down PornHub for Child Abuse, Rape and Sex Trafficking.”

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