Posts in North America
FBI Raids Several House of Prayer Churches In Connection With Alleged GI Bill Fraud

The FBI has raided four churches in connection with an investigation into alleged abuses of the GI Bill education program by House of Prayer Christian Church’s Bible seminaries. GI Bill benefits help veterans pay for college, graduate school and training programs.

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Key Anti-Trump Evangelical Ponders What Seven Years Have Wrought In America

(OPINION) This is the 11th Guy Memo in a year guiding the media and other observers on dynamics within U.S. evangelical Protestantism. Though made up of organizationally chaotic fiefdoms, the movement’s impact rested upon substantial solidarity in belief and social outlook compared with other religious sectors. Then seven years ago the disruptive force known as Donald J. Trump emerged.

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What Can We Learn From Abortion Movies?

(ANALYSIS) After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion is a more divisive topic than ever. These abortion movies share three key insights about the debate and hopefully increase empathy on both sides.

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Christian Adoption Agencies Offer Insight Into Impact Of Abortion Bans, Restrictions

Christian adoption agencies help women with unplanned pregnancies make a way forward for themselves and their babies. But with new abortion restrictions, they are seeing a flood of new women seeking assistance.

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Meet A Baha’i Activist Pushing For LGBTQ Tolerance In His Faith

As in many religions, gay relationships, sexual intimacy and marriage are frowned upon in mainstream interpretations of Baha'i law. Those found violating the law can face sanctions from the Baha'i administration, including being cut off from community gatherings and participating in Baha'i elections. Seán Rayshel aims to make his religion, the Baha'i faith, more tolerant of its LGBTQ adherents.

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What's News? Attacks On Christians In Nigeria Provide An Important Case Study

(OPINION) Without explanation, the Biden-Blinken administration removed Nigeria from America’s official listing as a “country of particular concern” on religious persecution while Nigeria is labeled the “most dangerous place to be a Christian” in the world. Why has the alarm over unending atrocities expressed by religious and human-rights media and organizations not broken into the West’s mainstream media in any major way?

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Christian Support For Prison, Police & Policy Reform Under Pressure Amid Crime Surge

Some critics suggest that soft-on-crime policies have gone too far in recent years and perhaps even damaged efforts to help the homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes. The tensions around rising murder rates in major cities around the United States in recent years are also creating hurdles for the loose coalition of conservative, Christian and libertarian nonprofits and billionaires who have collaborated with progressive left activists in the cause of prison reform and deincarceration.

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Satanic Panic Drives A Small Town To Unjust Violence In ‘Stranger Things 4’

The fourth season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” once again teleports audiences back to the 1980s — and this time, that includes the historical background of the satanic panic. When the small town of Hawkins succumbs to the blind hysteria common in that period, it brings the show’s heroes additional difficulty. It also offers the audience a “God’s eye view” of the actual satanic panic and proves it did nothing but create irrational fear.

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Seattle Pacific University Students Protest Prohibition Of LGBTQ Faculty

Students continue a three-week-long sit-in at Seattle Pacific University to protest the school’s traditional views on human sexuality and its policy against hiring full-time faculty who violate it, including those who engage in homosexual behavior. The sit-in comes after over a year of controversy surrounding the issue.

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8 Christian Conservatives Who Promoted False Claims of Rigged, Stolen Election

(ANALYSIS) Without merit.” “Mere speculation and conjecture.” “Gossip and innuendo.” “Wholly unreliable.” “Implausible.” “Hazy and nebulous.” That’s how judges responded to 61 election lawsuits filed by Trump’s legal teams. Meanwhile, conservative Christian influencers used their media platforms outlets to promote these false claims about the election to believers. Here’s a look at eight of the most prominent promoters of the former president’s lies.

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Black Churches Have Mixed Reactions As The US Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade

Many Black American pastors aren't jumping on the spiritual caravan with White evangelical churches that largely vote Republican. Black churches have a complex relation with religion and politics on the topic of abortion and other issues. So while some Black churches and pastors support the ruling, plenty of others do not.

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The Significance Of Overturning Roe

(OPINION) The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade is just the beginning of a new battle to be fought for the unborn, state by state, life by life, heart by heart. But this is also a massive, unprecedented victory — one that, for many years, seemed completely out of reach.

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Roe Overturned: What You Need To Know About The Supreme Court Abortion Decision

After half a century, Americans’ constitutional right to get an abortion has been overturned by the Supreme Court. The Conversation asked Nicole Huberfeld and Linda C. McClain, health law and constitutional law experts at Boston University, to explain what just happened, and what happens next.

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What 6 American Religious Subgroups Think About Abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey on Friday, ruling that there is no constitutional right to abortion. ReligionUnplugged looks at what six religious subgroups in America believe about abortion.

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What Responsibility Do Journalists Have When Covering Incendiary Wars About Religion And Culture?

(OPINION) Americans have seen how ugly culture wars can become when electoral politics are caught in its talons. Witness the vitriol that dominates the news out of Washington and various state capitals these days. The situation in India — the world’s largest Hindu-majority nation with the third-largest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan — is arguably even worse.

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Football Coach Joseph Kennedy Talks About Life After The Supreme Court Ruling

Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington, is waiting for a ruling to emerge from the Supreme Court any day in his case about prayer. And he insists he is a centrist that most Americans would agree with on religious freedom issues and the Constitution.

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The Marital Gospel Explains How Earthly Generosity Determines Heavenly Gifts

(OPINION) In Corinthians, Paul writes that when Jesus comes for his bride, the quality of our work will be revealed with fire. Therefore, the size of our cups of joy is determined by the size of our generosity here, which is formed by the marital gospel: preparing to be presented as a pure bride. Will you drink from a goblet or a thimble?

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Celebrating Freedom From Slavery, Ignorance And Injustice This Juneteenth

Soul food, dancing and laughter are the makings of any memorable Black get-together. But this weekend, African Americans around the nation are gathering for more than just another fun summer cookout — it’s Juneteenth. This vibrant celebration, considered the longest-running African American holiday, honors the liberation of enslaved ancestors.

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