Trustees of Ohio Valley University in Vienna, West Virginia, have voted to close the 63-year-old Christian university after not meeting payroll for months and facing mounting debts.
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(ANALYSIS) The Supreme Court will hear a potentially landmark case for religious schools on Dec. 8, Carson v. Makin. Up for discussion is whether Maine’s law, which excludes religious schools from the diversity of schooling options that families have access to in a public student aid program, infringes on First Amendment constitutional protections.
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(ANALYSIS) On the surface, Hanukkah is a story of male heroism. A ragtag rebel force led by a rural priest and his five sons, called the Maccabees, freed the Jews from oppressive rulers. But seeing Hanukkah this way misses the inspiring women who were prominent in the earliest tellings of the story.
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On Oct. 23, hundreds gathered in Franklin, Tennessee, to witness the erection of a Civil War statue featuring a U.S. Colored Troops soldier. Chris Williamson, the senior pastor of Strong Tower Bible Church reflected for the ReligionUnplugged.com podcast on what the moment meant and the role the church must play in such debates.
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(OPINION) Is Christianity in the United States becoming two different religions? The scenario is explored at book length in "One Faith No Longer" (New York University Press) by Baylor University sociologist George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk, a visiting scholar of religion at the University of Georgia.
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(REVIEW) The latest Hollywood blockbuster “Dune,” a space opera based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel of the same name, is essentially a philosophical thought experiment that asks, How would Islam adapt and change thousands of years into the future on a distant desert planet? By projecting into the future, the film highlights our present reality.
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(OPINION) The question of what boundaries should exist for state aid to students who attend religious schools will be in the spotlight Dec. 8, when the court hears arguments in a case from Maine: Carson v. Makin. The case has drawn intense interest from educators and religious-liberty advocates across the country.
(OPINION) Prayer apps are not new. Silicon Valley startups popularized mindfulness and meditation apps as early as 2010, although many have criticized those apps for being spiritually shallow. The young founders of Hallow are among those who felt that mindfulness apps did not meet their religious needs and set out to create their own.
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(ANALYSIS) The famed Notre Dame Cathedral was again catapulted into the news cycle after The Telegraph reported a scoop under the headline “Notre Dame interior faces ‘woke’ Disney revamp.” What followed was an amazing lack of mainstream news coverage.
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The Baptist General Convention of Texas, one of few Southern Baptist groups that has not specifically excluded women from church leadership roles, passed a resolution at its 2021 General Convention earlier this month to “affirm and celebrate” the contributions of women in “advancing God’s kingdom.”
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(REVIEW) Terry Scott Taylor's new double album "This Beautiful Mystery," is a culmination of nearly 50 years laboring in the vineyard of Christian music with a quality and reach far beyond that much-maligned artistic ghetto.
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(OPINION) By count of the Death with Dignity organization — which devised Oregon’s pioneering 1997 law under which 1,905 lives have been ended as of Jan. 22 — 10 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized euthanasia. And assignment editor’s note: 14 more states are currently debating such proposals.
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(TRAVEL) Today, 150 miles east of Los Angeles in an otherwise undeveloped desert, the first Coptic monastery in the United States — and second in the world outside Egypt — offers the monastic tradition of Egypt to America.
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(OPINION) Race, religion and politics are intimately connected in the United States. Beliefs that America is exceptional have inspired views across the political spectrum, and many congregations that emphasize social justice say Americans must create opportunity and inclusion for all — because all people are equally valued by God.
Read More(OPINION) This month, voters in Hamtramck, Michigan, elected a Muslim mayor and city council — a first for the state and possibly the country. It is worth reflecting on what this event signifies for the health of the polity, and indeed, the very nature of the American constitutional order.
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(OPINION) There are some who say that whatever happens is ordained by God. Therefore, we should thank him for everything, including murder and rape and cancer. But Michael Brown says he does not see this as the theology of Scripture, nor does he see this as an essential part of God’s sovereignty.
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(TRAVEL) Bibles used to be ubiquitous in hotel rooms. But a 2017 survey by STR revealed that 79% of hotels had religious materials in their rooms, down from 95% of hotels in 2006. Indeed, as America becomes more secular and Wi-Fi more common, the need for a physical Bible inside your nightstand drawer has grown more obsolete.
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(OPINION) Between 2006 and 2019, close to 1,200 journalists were killed for reporting the news — approximately 100 journalists per year. In nine out of ten cases, the killers do not face justice. This impunity begets further crimes, enabling not only crimes against journalists but also the continuation of crimes they were attempting to uncover.
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(OPINION) Families and friends traditionally gather to express gratitude during this time of year. Many also participate in acts of service and charity as a way of giving back to their local communities.
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(REVIEW) Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel, “Crossroads,” testifies to humanity’s desperate, unremitting search for grace and ability to find it in unlikely places as it follows five members of a dysfunctional Midwestern U.S. family in the early 1970s who grapple with a paralyzing sense of unworthiness.
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