A picture of Tyre Nichols in his hospital bed greeted a recent assembly of the Coleman Avenue Church of Christ. The same big screen displayed photos of five Memphis police officers charged with murder in the 29-year-old Black man’s death.
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In the unusual tradition of Ma’nene in South Sulawesi of Indonesia's Toraja region, families lovingly clean, dress up and even put cigarettes in the mouths of the exhumed bodies of their dead relatives. This photo essay and video offers ReligionUnplugged.com readers a glimpse of this unique religious and cultural ceremony.
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A former employee of a $100 billion investment fund owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has submitted a memorandum to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee about the operations of the Salt Lake City, Utah, based Ensign Peak Advisors Inc. The 90-page memorandum obtained by ReligionUnplugged.com “summarizes evidence of false statements, systematic accounting fraud, private inurement violations of the Internal Revenue Code and other federal statutes and a ‘Klein conspiracy’ by Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc. (‘EPA’) and others.”
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In a country as economically and socially unstable as Argentina, with almost 47 million people, 100% annual inflation in 2022 and 40% of the population below the poverty line, when a messianic figure capable of changing daily frustrations for joy appears, he is charged with that responsibility: He gives the right not to suffer during the hour and a half that a soccer match lasts.
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There will be more prayers at the Super Bowl on Feb. 12 between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Patrick Mahomes taking on Jalen Hurts will mark the first time that the starting quarterbacks for both teams are Black. It is also a milestone because both men are practicing Christians not afraid to publicly talk about their faith and how it helps them succeed in the NFL.
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For South African preachers, salary often comes with stigma. Many of the country’s first Churches of Christ were planted by missionaries — who also served as their first ministers, supported only by sponsoring churches in the U.S. As these churches transitioned from mission work to independent congregations, missionaries were hesitant to stress the importance of financially supporting future ministers.
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An Iowa church that uses a hallucinogenic drug as part of its religious ceremonies is engaged in an ongoing fight to win tax-exempt status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. The Iowaska Church of Healing of Des Moines sued the IRS in U.S. District Court last year for denying its request to be recognized as a nonprofit organization.
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A California woman is suing the Salvation Army and its Pomona branch, alleging she was sexually abused by a youth group leader when she was a minor. The woman, identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe, is suing for negligence, claiming those in authority failed to prevent or protect her and other children from the abuse.
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Low pay and benefits. Overly demanding leaders. Unrealistic expectations. Full-time ministry often doesn’t have the best reputation, contributing to a shortage of candidates to fill pulpit openings. John and Carla Moore began work at Bear Valley Bible Institute six years ago with a goal of reversing the trend.
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A North Carolina church cheated out of more than $793,000 in funds it had raised to build a new sanctuary has set up a GoFundMe account to try to replace some of the stolen money. Elkin Valley Baptist Church lost the funds when cyber thieves compromised a staff member’s computer and intercepted an email from Landmark Construction.
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To a visitor entering the Northwest Church of Christ on a recent Sunday, the assembly might have sounded like the Day of Pentecost. Distinct voices praised God in English, Korean and Spanish — all at the same time.
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The Confessing Movement, a lay-led conservative Christian movement that pushed back against the influence of liberalism and progressivism in the United Methodist Church, has shut down in reaction to the recent launch of a new conservative Methodist denomination.
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(ANALYSIS) Ambrogio A. Caiani, in his book “To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII,” tells the story of how Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII tussled over church versus state superiority and eventually ironed out a foundation of religious freedom whose effects Europe still enjoys today.
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A pro-life pregnancy center firebombed last June in Buffalo, New York, has decided to conduct its own investigation into the violence. CompassCare, a ministry to women in crisis pregnancies that has been operating since 1980, incurred over $500,000 in damage to its facility due to the violence.
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(ANALYSIS) The notion that fitness is a religion — a place where people find community, ritual and ecstatic experience — has become a common refrain. Can fitness really be a religion? Given the difficulty of defining religion, it’s an almost impossible question to answer.
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Uganda’s Prophet Elvis Mbonye is worth an estimated $115 million. He’s one of the country’s most talked about prophets amid claims that a variety of his predictions have come true, from the restoration of broken laptops to the election of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016 and Brexit.
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(ANALYSIS) Israel’s new government is the most right-wing and religious leadership the country has had in the 75 years of its existence, as many observers have pointed out. And this style of leadership may last because it represents the next generation of Israelis.
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Rick Warren’s 2002 book “The Purpose Driven Life” has sold more than 50-million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. But his work as a pastor and author are just the beginning. Warren Cole Smith had this conversation with Rick Warren at his office in southern California.
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(ANALYSIS) Stellar attractions slated to open in 2025 promise to jump-start tourism in Jerusalem afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unresolved is how the masses of visitors and pilgrims will reach them.
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Five women in California have filed a lawsuit alleging that the International Churches of Christ perpetrated a “systemic scheme of abuse” that included the sexual abuse of children as young as three years old and financial abuse of its members.
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