Former California pastor of Imperial Valley Ministries Victor Gonzalez, alleged to have locked participants inside IVM “restoration” homes and used their government benefits for personal financial gain, entered his guilty plea along with three others to one count of conspiracy to commit benefits fraud.
Read MoreThe majority of Americans live with less than half of the legal protections of religious freedom available in other states, according to new research by the conservative think tank Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy. CRCD is part of First Liberty Institute, the largest nonprofit law firm in the country solely focused on religious freedom.
Read More(OPINION) Author Katelyn Beaty’s new book “Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits are Hurting the Church” diagnoses a problem that’s pretty much absent in mainline Protestantism, Black Protestantism (there are some glaring exceptions in the health-and-wealth world), Catholicism and other U.S. religious bodies. Why is celebrity culture so magnified in White evangelicalism?
Read More(REVIEW) The pro-life, pro-adoption movie “Lifemark” is the latest movie from big-name Christian film producers the Kendrick Brothers. The movie is sweet and wholesome — but it contains almost no conflict, which effectively ruins it as a useful faith-based film.
Read MoreCatholic motivational speaker Chris Slattery opened EMC Frontline in 1984 as New York City’s first pregnancy center. The center aims to save unborn babies and offer free services to pregnant women and girls, especially those in poverty. But critics say organizations like EMC deceive pregnant women searching for all options, including abortion, and these clinics became the latest targets of vandalism, harassment and threats in the fight over abortion rights.
Read More(OPINION) The Scriptures are far more specific about biblical virtues than about biblical justice. The doing of justice — David French calls it the “what” of politics or the specific policies Christians support — can evolve differently in different countries at different times. But the “how” of politics doesn’t evolve at all. The how requires genuine kindness and humility in all places at all times.
Read More(REVIEW) We are all consumers of news. Many have shunned the news altogether in recent years. Increasingly, Christians are those people — especially the mainstream media — because they don’t see in it the values that reflect their lives. If you’re one of those people, then a new book out now helps you understand why and how to fix it.
Read MoreA special retrospective “Dakota Modern” exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York City explores the significant of Dakota artist Oscar Howe in American art and religion.
Read More(OPINION) A balanced coalition of leaders in the large United Methodist Church developed a treaty for mutually respectful separation that’s currently degenerating into a wasteful fight like other groups have suffered. The current maneuvers by the North American UMC establishment may well limit the number of dropouts joining the Global Methodist Church.
Read MoreYelp announced last week that it would add a notice stating that pregnancy resource centers “provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite.” Google has also joined the move, announcing that it would add labels to search and map functions to identify those clinics that provide abortions and those that don’t.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This month President Joe Biden signed a new bill into law, the Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at lowering the deficit, reducing inflation, knocking down prescription medicine prices, taxing the profits of large corporations and significantly addressing climate change. At first glance, this legislation does not immediately appear to be a law that intersects much with religious freedom. Yet there are surprising connections worth considering.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Celebrity news coverage and religion couldn’t be more polar opposites most of the time. Coverage of actors, models and others in the entertainment industry often resembles a list for the seven deadly sins. In the case of actor Shia LaBeouf, his recent conversion to Catholicism has become part of his redemption story.
Read MoreFour former employees of Midland Christian School in Texas and a current employee who says he was demoted from his assistant principal role filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Midland and three police officers.
Read MoreThe U.S. State Department is investigating claims that Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a refugee resettlement agency in the Washington, D.C., region, has mistreated Afghan refugees.
Read MoreRecently Wycliffe USA announced it would be joining with eight other groups to work on a Bible translation effort in Southeast Asia. The project involves seven of the region’s language communities.
Read MoreDesperate to save a beloved older Christian, a North Carolina church ran an ad asking for a volunteer. A young woman hundreds of miles away responded.
Read MoreWith each new megachurch leader flashed across national news for financial scandals, abuses and promiscuity, it is easy to become skeptical of evangelicalism entirely. But what causes dynamic pastors to abuse their power? And what can churches do to hold them accountable? On a recent episode of the Biblical Mind podcast hosted by Dr. Dru Johnson and the Center for Hebraic Thought, Katelyn Beaty, author of “Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church” answers these questions. Johnson and Beaty discuss the dangers of American celebrity pastors leading large corporations with unquestioned authority.
Read More(OPINION) The two aspects of accuracy is experts’ consensus on the best available texts in the original languages of Hebrew and Greek that underlie all translations, and debates over the accuracy of the English translations drawn from those reliable agreed texts. Modern English Bibles provide candid footnotes that alert readers to important textual variants, which rarely affect basic biblical doctrines.
Read MoreTwo Christian women, 18 years and a half-continent apart, faced painfully similar decisions — what to do about the baby. Yet, a generation later, their work with women and children confronting difficult circumstances has brought them to different conclusions about abortion.
Read More(OPINION) The International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief is a day designated by the U.N. to combat intolerance, discrimination and violence against persons based on religion or belief. Over the recent years, we have witnessed several cases of the most egregious atrocities where religion or belief have been abused as a tool of discrimination and violence resulting in atrocities.
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