Posts in Christianity
Fake Pope Leo XIV: Coming Soon To YouTube?

(ANALYSIS) Every time that I turn on YouTube to check the channels that I follow, it’s impossible to miss the growing spectre of AI junk. Let’s say that you are interested in the controversies swirling around superstar Caitlin Clark and the WNBA leadership’s attempts to figure out (Welcome to red v. blue America) how to minimize the impact of her massive fanbase on their league. Clark v. Nike is another popular topic for gossip, mixed with tiny amounts of real news.

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Rails To Redemption: A 9,000-Mile Spiritual Journey Across America

On a summer night in 2023, Rajah Bose boarded the midnight train out of Spokane, Washington, with John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charlie” in his backpack and a burning question that he couldn’t articulate. The 45-year-old photojournalist and musician was embarking on a 9,000-mile journey across America by rail, from the Pacific Northwest to New York and, finally, back home.

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Sacred Boundaries: Navigating Faith and Control in Kyrgyzstan

(ANALYSIS) Strolling through the streets of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, one easily gets the impression of walking through multiple cities at once. 

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On Winning And What Matters: Scheffler’s Comments Are For Everyone

Success and Scottie Scheffler have become practically synonymous lately. Yet, it’s the world’s top-ranked golfer’s comments on what constitutes true meaning — and more to the point, what doesn’t — that keeps grabbing attention. It comes within an interesting context. Sheffler cruised to a four-stroke win in The Open Championship with a 17-under performance.

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Solar-Powered Audio Bibles Bring Hope To Mozambique

In the heart of Mozambique, a quiet transformation is taking place — powered not by electricity, but by sunlight and faith. Missionaries Rolland and Heidi Baker, for nearly three decades, have been working among some of the most marginalized communities in the country through their organization Iris Global.

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Mainline Pastors Less Likely To Hold Historic Christian Doctrine

While there are likely numerous theological differences between evangelical, Catholic and Black Protestant pastors, they share core convictions that aren’t as common among mainline pastors.

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Faith And Conflict: How ‘Eddington’ Hits (And Misses) Its Pandemic-Era Satire Of America

(REVIEW) Stories help us sift through random events of our lives into something coherent. COVID was a seminal time in American life, and it’s more than right that we should tell stories about it. But without something coherent to say, those stories stop being useful ways to interpret the noise, and instead just add to it.

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Evangelical Pastors More Likely To Be Bivocational These Days

Working nine to five doesn’t cut it for many pastors. Neither does working strictly at one church. The National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL) report revealed 35 percent of all clergy in the U.S. serve bivocationally, holding an additional job outside of their congregational ministry.

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Welcome Back, Carter: Faith Helps Texas Rangers’ ‘Little Savior’ Overcome Setbacks

Evan Carter helped the Texas Rangers win the World Series in 2023. But Carter — still just 22 — has faced multiple challenges over the past two seasons. He talked to Religion Unplugged about his journey as a ballplayer and, more importantly, as a person of deep Christian faith. “Baseball is what I do, but I try and not make it, as the cliché goes, who I am,” he said.

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⛪️ Conviction And Controversy: Pastor John MacArthur’s Legacy 🔌

When a high-profile religious leader dies, it’s always fascinating to see what words various news organizations choose to encapsulate that person. Such is the case with this week’s passing of the Rev. John MacArthur — after his hospitalization for pneumonia — at age 86.

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On Religion: After Justice Kennedy, SCOTUS Still Wrestles With Faith And Culture Wars

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018, but religious-liberty activists still want to know where he hoped to draw a bright line between religious freedom and the sexual revolution. Kennedy knew that the First Amendment's declaration that government “shall make no law ... prohibiting the free exercise of religion” was creating warfare in modern American law and politics. But he didn't know how to end the strife.

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At Least 21 Christians Arrested In Iran Under Heightened Persecution

Iran is increasingly persecuting Christians under its ceasefire with Israel, arresting at least 21 believers, raiding house churches and promoting incendiary propaganda, according to religious freedom advocate Article 18.

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Influential Evangelical Preacher And Author John MacArthur Dies at 86

Longtime pastor, author and teacher John F. MacArthur died July 14 after a short battle with pneumonia. MacArthur, 86, pastored Grace Community Church in the Los Angeles area for 56 years. “At the center of Dr. MacArthur’s ministry was an unwavering commitment to declare God’s truth, and Pastor John preached the Word in season and out of season,” the church said on its website. 

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100 Years Since The Scopes Trial: Evolution, Religion and America’s Classroom Conflicts

(ANALYSIS) One hundred years ago this month, Americans were transfixed as a Tennessee courtroom hosted challenge to the state’s new law barring “the teaching of the Evolution Theory” in public schools, including colleges. The prohibition covered “any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.

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IRS Allows Churches to Endorse Candidates: Will Much Actually Change?

(ANALYSIS) A 1954 law barring churches and pastors from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office will no longer be enforced, the Internal Revenue Service said.

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Gateway Megachurch Reduces Number of Services, Hires Executive Pastor

The Dallas-area Gateway megachurch is reducing the number of services at its campuses each weekend. According to a Gateway spokesperson, it will be cutting Saturday services at all of its campuses, except its flagship Southlake campus.

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‘Mother Teresa of Nairobi’: How A Nun Transformed The City Into A Sanctuary Of Hope

In the heart of Nairobi’s Mukuru slum, where corrugated iron shacks gleam under the equatorial sun, Sister Mary Killeen has woven a legacy of hope. Known as the “Mother Teresa of Nairobi,” this Dublin-born Sister of Mercy has spent nearly five decades transforming lives in one of Kenya’s most impoverished areas.

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