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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(ANALYSIS) A fragile ceasefire was put in place in southern Syria on July 19, after days of violence between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes that drew in government forces and prompted Israeli strikes on the capital, Damascus, as a warning to pull back from Druze areas. The United States helped broker the latest agreement, fearing a spillover of violence to other parts of Syria.
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Almost 10 years after the Supreme Court granted national recognition to same-sex marriages, most Americans support that right, but the percentage has plateaued in recent years.
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In the second installment of “And So It Goes,” HBO’s new two-part documentary about Billy Joel, the Piano Man explains why he wore a yellow Star of David in August 2017, during his residency at Madison Square Garden, in his most extensive filmed account of his family’s experience in the Holocaust. “No matter what, I will always be a Jew,” he said.
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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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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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It’s a question church-state experts have asked for decades: Is it legal for a minister, from a sanctuary pulpit on Sunday, to endorse a political candidate?
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(ANALYSIS) Operation Kalanemi comes dangerously close to the kind of state control over religion seen in countries like China and Vietnam, where the state tightly controls religious activity by licensing clergy, approving sermons and monitoring places of worship, allowing only state-recognized versions of religion to function. Without clear laws, fair process and respect for constitutional limits, this drive in Uttarakhand risks turning the police into arbiters of faith — something a secular democracy cannot allow.
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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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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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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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On India’s busy streets, vehicles adorned with Hindu symbols are more than just modes of transport — they have increasingly become mobile expressions of political and religious identity. The proliferation of these Hindu stickers has transformed everyday commuting, a phenomenon deeply intertwined with rising religious tensions.
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(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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(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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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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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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(ANALYSIS) Although he remains little known beyond the country of his birth, Rinus Israël, who died July 1 in the Netherlands at age 83, was one of history’s great Jewish soccer players. In 1970, as captain of Feyenoord, Israël was the first Dutchman — and the first Jew — to lift the European Cup (the equivalent of today’s Champions League trophy).
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The grief. The guilt. The giant fog. Matt Collins can’t help but experience the catastrophic Texas flooding — especially the deaths of children in a sudden natural disaster — through a deeply personal lens.
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Baylor University’s president announced in a letter Wednesday (July 9) that the school has rescinded a grant toward the study of “disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women” in churches. The move came after Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work announced on June 30 that it had received a grant of nearly $644,000 toward its Center for Church and Community Impact, also called C3I.
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What do Texans want to find if they have the financial ability and the time to get away from that searing reality? To be blunt, they are looking for water, breezes, dry air and, yes, altitude. This brings us to the tragic headlines at the heart of this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.
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