St. John’s Episcopal Church, where Trump posed with a Bible on June 1, is known as the “Church of the Presidents.” Here are five facts about the historic church that you probably didn’t know, involving Abraham Lincoln, a marriage record of both enslaved and free African Americans, a presidential pew and more.
Read MoreAfter four nights of violent clashes between police and protesters and looting in New York City, more than 100 congregations organized a peaceful protest march in Brooklyn against police brutality and racism.
Read MoreA Virginia church’s building, in the heart of downtown Richmond, was just one of many structures damaged by rioters and protesters over the weekend. “We’re more concerned with the personal damage than the physical damage — the souls of those who did the damage,” said James Nesmith, minister for the West Broad Church of Christ, a predominantly black congregation.
Read MoreTension between protesters demanding justice for George Floyd’s death and New York police officers fizzled out for a time when a church van playing gospel music strategically inserted itself into the mix. The crisis response team is led by Jamaican immigrants with a passion for Jesus and a history of social justice and community outreach.
Read MoreA church in the historically black neighborhood of St. Paul reopened this weekend after loosened coronavirus guidelines and days of violent protests nearby after the death of George Floyd. Pastor Dwight Buckner remembers the riots in the sixties and conjures Martin Luther King Jr.’s calming words, while a 22-year-old church member whose mother is recovering with COVID-19 tells how a white man stopped him at gunpoint on Saturday.
Read MoreScores of African-American players have called the Israeli Basketball Premier League home, drawn there for a chance to play professionally and earn decent money. In the process, these players have become ambassadors for the Jewish state — some marrying Israeli women, serving in the country’s army and converting to Judaism.
Read MoreAfter George Floyd’s death in police custody May 25, his Houston pastor and ministry friends recall his role in their neighborhood outreach.
Read MoreResearchers have grown concerned over the China-based app’s reach and the possibility of it bringing Chinese-style censorship to mainstream U.S audiences. After pro-life accounts were disabled and reinstated, now Christian TikTokers say their accounts and videos are being censored without explanation.
Read MoreThe newly ordained must take everything they learned and adapt it to serve their communities during a pandemic. New chaplains in particular are jumping into virtual pastoral care and may have to wait on certifications that lockdowns have delayed.
Read MoreAfter a gathering in Kuala Lumpur in late February spread coronavirus to several countries in the region, Malaysia has made great progress in flattening its COVID-19 curve. Here is how Muslim families celebrated Ramadan and Eid al Fitr under a lockdown.
Read MoreThis week Indian security forces killed a rebel militant commander in Kashmir, destroying dozens of homes in the process amid rising coronavirus cases in India. Some families say the Indian officers started the fires and looted their possessions.
Read MoreLike everything else that involves large gatherings, the global pandemic has forced many schools to either hold their ceremonies online or postpone them to a future date. For the colleges and universities that did decide to hold ceremonies this month, the topic of God wasn’t far from the minds of commencement speakers like actor Tom Hanks.
Read MoreThe FX program airing Friday says Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the U.S., made a “deathbed confession” that she was not pro-life and that pro-life organizations paid her nearly $500,000 during the decades she spoke out for the pro-life cause. However, the film doesn’t make it clear that many of these payments were fees for speaking engagements, and those who knew her insist her conversion to Christianity and repentance of pro-choice activism was genuine.
Read MoreAs the pandemic alters summer plans and disrupts long-held traditions, the Jewish community in Georgia adapts camps and activities to the new reality.
Read MoreThe “love feast” was regularly practiced by early American Methodists who were scattered across the frontier and had to wait for a quarterly visit from traveling ministers to have communion. In the absence of their minister, communities would gather to share stories of how God was working in their lives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Methodists who had never or rarely held love feasts before are now hosting them online.
Read MoreThe geneticist and physician is a leading voice in the conversation about faith and science, and has been a steady voice urging religious communities to have faith in science. His agency is hard at work in the global race to find treatments for COVID-19.
Read MoreThe famed Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias died after a short battle with an aggressive cancer.
Read MoreA China-based Christian ministry hosts hacker events for Christians with backgrounds in the CIA, military and related intelligence fields. They use advanced technology to create and use devices ranging from drones, Bibles the size of credit cards and a pocket-sized WiFi device called the Gospel Cloud, inventions that 007 would be proud of if he were a man of God.
Read MoreMegachurch pastor Brian Gibson of His Churches announced this week that his church would reopen services at three of his four locations across Texas and Kentucky on May 17 and asked other religious leaders to join him in standing up for what he sees as a religious freedom concern during COVID-19 restrictions.
Read MoreAs COVID-19 locks people in their homes and has put others out of work, more people than ever are relying on charities, many faith-based, to fill basic needs. Tree of Life, based in Virginia, has seen a rise in demand from undocumented persons.
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