Posts in News
‘Cast Aside The Clouds’ Shines A Light On Iran And The Bahá’í Faith

(REVIEW) A “Romeo and Juliet” style love story, “Cast Aside The Clouds” that protests how religious intolerance — such as the kind regularly levied against the Baháʼí people in Iran — threatens love by targeting innocent people for oppression.

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Pope Leo Declares AI The Moral Crisis Of The Modern Age

(ANALYSIS) In his first encyclical, Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence poses a profound threat to human dignity, labor and global stability if left unchecked. Calling for strong regulation and ethical oversight, he condemned AI-driven warfare, corporate concentration of power and profit-first development, framing AI as this century’s Industrial Revolution.

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When Religion Is Missing: The Trouble With Measuring Happiness

(ANALYSIS) Measuring happiness is a real problem for social scientists. It’s an area of intense interest because I think all of us would like to be just a little bit happier. But it all seems pretty subjective and transient at some level, right? Take the often hyped-up “World Happiness Report,” published annually by Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup.

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Pentecostal Leaders Accused Of Conspiracy To Steal $250 Million

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court, four leaders in the Church of God in Christ were involved in a years-long scheme to steal rebate money. They allegedly bought and sold massive quantities of Trulicity, a drug to control blood sugar in people with type-2 diabetes, and pretended to give the medicine to church members.

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What Jefferson And Madison Would Have Thought About ‘Rededicate 250’

(ANALYSIS) Thousands of Americans prayed on the National Mall on May 17, during “Rededicate 250”: a day-long rally to “come together in prayer and worship ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday,” as organizers described it. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, one of many Republican politicians and conservative Christian leaders to speak, led a prayer to “rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God.”

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Ebola Outbreak Forces Postponement Of Massive Religious Pilgrimage

The Ugandan government has announced the postponement of this year’s Uganda Martyrs’ Day celebrations, scheduled for June 3, in response to an Ebola outbreak affecting both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has claimed over 130 lives thus far.

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🚨 ‘Predictable As Original Sin’: In San Diego, Hate Targets Another House Of Worship 🔌

After yet another deadly attack, the focus turns — once again — to protecting houses of worship. The shooting at a San Diego mosque hit close to home for a Jewish engineer more than 1,300 miles away.

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A New African Country Faces Conflict And Poverty. Missionaries Are Stepping In.

The fledgling country has yet to hold its first democratic general election, while the South Sudanese suffer from extreme poverty, ethnic violence, lack of water and more. Local and international faith groups lend a measure of stability, working to meet everyday needs while providing a measure of hope.

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New Study Shows Christians Trust AI For Their Spiritual Growth

Move over, pastors. New research reveals your counseling and pastoral care may no longer be needed. A new study shows that congregations might increasingly be turning to AI to deal with their spiritual needs and help with personal growth. The research shows 1 in 3 adults now believes AI's spiritual guidance is just as trustworthy as that of a pastor.

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Why 2 Saints Are At The Center Of A Church-State Legal Battle

At a time when statues are coming down, this is a case about two that are proposed to go up. A city in Massachusetts plans to erect two statues featuring Catholic saints, but some residents have said that it shows favoritism to one religion. Now, it’s up to the courts to decide what to do next in a case that could reach the Supreme Court.

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Prominent Church In East China Demolished Amid Escalating Crackdown

Only days after U.S. President Donald Trump left a Beijing summit with CCP Chairman Xi Jinping where religious freedom and jailed religious leaders were discussed, authorities in eastern China have demolished a prominent church, razing the building with large excavators.

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Uncovering Coded Antisemitism Online Takes Both Humans And AI

(ANALYSIS) History shows that at every moment of profound technological change in our communication systems, incidents targeting Jews or other minority groups go up dramatically. This era’s technical innovation is unprecedented — but unfortunately, hate speech now travels around the globe almost instantly.

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Spiritual Matters Missing From Many Churchgoers’ Conversations

While some Americans show up to church on Sunday morning, those in their lives Monday through Saturday may never hear about it. Lifeway Research’s State of Discipleship revealed many U.S. Protestant churchgoers don’t see their faith as pervasive throughout their lives and aren’t concerned if others know about it.

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Op-Ed Compared An Underdog NBA Team To Israel — And Then The Threats Poured In

With the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder fighting to return to the NBA Finals, one bold writer dug deep for an analogy: The Thunder, he wrote, is like the state of Israel — a former underdog now despised for its success. The Oklahoman, a daily newspaper, published the opinion column on its website Monday morning, hours before the Thunder began their semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs. The story was accompanied by an image of a basketball with the Israeli flag on it.

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Why Murder Investigations Can Be Complicated By Ashkenazi Jewish DNA

Thirty years ago, a woman was found dead by the side of the road in Arizona. Today, her body has still not been identified. To find out the strange reason why, I spoke to Hannah Feuer, a reporter at Forward.

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San Diego Mosque Shooting Shows How Online Hate Contributes To Islamophobia

(ANALYSIS) Many Muslim Americans are fearful following a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego that left three worshipers dead. Investigators reportedly found hate speech and anti-Islamic writing inside the vehicle of the suspected shooters, who killed themselves soon after the attack.

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James Robison, Fiery Evangelist Turned Global Humanitarian, Dies At 82

James Robison, the fiery Southern Baptist evangelist who underwent a dramatic spiritual transformation in the 1980s and built several large Christian humanitarian organizations, has died. He was 82.

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3 Killed at San Diego Mosque As Anti-Muslim Hate Surges Nationwide

The killing of three people at San Diego’s largest mosque highlighted the rise in Islamophobia that has spread across the United States over the last few years. There had been no specific threat made against the Islamic Center of San Diego, but police officials found evidence that the suspects — two teenage boys — had engaged in “generalized hate rhetoric.”

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‘Rededicate 250’: 5 Things We Learned From The Prayer Rally

(ANALYSIS) “Rededicate 250” was billed as a prayer rally celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. But the event on the National Mall also became a revealing snapshot of how faith, politics and national identity are increasingly intertwined during the Trump era.

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