A majority of Catholic voters agree that President Joe Biden should not run for a second term in 2024, while Republicans are also favored by this voter bloc in the upcoming midterm elections, a new poll has found. At the same time, support for Biden among Hispanic Catholics continues to wane, a worrying trend for Democrats heading into next month’s midterms.
Read More(OPINION) Prohibition, as you’ve probably heard it, was the age of insanity, when a bunch of sanctimonious busybodies briefly cast the country into chaos, thirst and violence by trying to ban liquor … and fun itself. But there’s a big problem with that trope: as Schrad establishes, hardly any of the conventional wisdom is true.
Read More(REVIEW) Since its first season, Hulu comedy “Ramy” has been devoted to providing a genuine look at Islam and American Muslim culture. One episode of its latest season discusses the existence of polygamy in Islam, a sensitive topic that the show handles incredibly well.
Read More(REVIEW) “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” is a movie about a lot of the worst parts of church culture: hypocrisy, prosperity gospel, abuse, misplaced loyalty and celebrity church culture. Most importantly, it’s about the expectation placed on Christian women to submit to people who actively hurt them and bear the full weight of the wrongs of others.
Read More(OPINION) In Michael Gerson’s piece titled “Trump should fill Christians with rage,” he asks “where’s the rage over Trump?” I can think of one reason: ritual prostitution.
Read More(OPINION) Baylor University professor Rodney Stark passed away at his home in Woodway, Texas, on July 21, 2022. He is remembered for his alternative assumption that people employed rational choice in their religious identities, which more convincingly explained both the growth and decline of religion and ushered in a new paradigm in the scientific study of religion.
Read MoreEven before the pandemic, a church in central Ohio struggled to increase its flock, much less match the area’s rapid growth. The past few years only exacerbated the numerical concerns as the congregation — like many churches — grappled with COVID-19 restrictions, George Floyd’s murder and the nation’s political polarization.
Read MoreEvery month, Orthodox Rabbi Michael Broyde receives at least one question from an Orthodox Jewish woman seeking his advice on whether she can, according to Orthodox Jewish law, proceed with an abortion — a question that does not yet have a rabbinic consensus.
Read MoreThe worlds of football and politics have intersected many times in the past. Many have gone a step further by entering politics. Some of these football greats — not shy about publicly professing their Christian faith — have also used their religious beliefs to inform their politics and run for office.
Read More(REVIEW) Defining photographer David LaChapelle is known for his celebrity portraits and his use of surreal stages highlighted with bright colors. His work is also deeply religious, often modernizing popular Renaissance art and imagining Jesus in the present day. His exhibit “make Believe” at Fotografiska in New York is a spiritual environment to take in his work and belief.
Read More(OPINION) C.S. Lewis, in his lecture De Descriptione Temporum, noted that “somewhere between us and Jane Austen’s Persuasion in 1816 runs the chasm between Old Western Man and New Western Man — the Great Divide.” It represents a “vast change” between Jane Austen’s time and ours. That’s when he says the Western world entered a post-Christian age.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A Republican politician with presidential aspirations visits a Christian college. What happens next, in terms of the way the event is covered by the mainstream press, is predictable — during this era of niche news, with stories written to appeal to the beliefs of specific political flocks. The politician in question is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the school is Hillsdale College in Michigan.
Read MoreGlenn Beck, the conservative LDS Church media star, helped raise $35 million for his two charities, Mercury One and the Nazarene Fund, to pay for evacuations of Afghans amid the U.S. withdrawal of troops. The organizations are claiming they evacuated 12,000 people but have provided few details about how the money has been spent.
Read MoreReligion data scientist Ryan Burge answers why unfortunately, there’s just not a single answer to a question like: how many nones are there? Or how many Christians?
Read MoreA new novel “Corinne” is an erotic romance that follows the life of a woman who was cast out of her fundamentalist religious group and, later, is brought back in contact with them. The book was published under a pseudonym, which has raised questions about who the author of the book may be. Suggestions include Stephanie Meyer of the “Twilight” series and others.
Read More(ANALYSIS) With Lighten Group and RZIM shut down, important questions remain unanswered. First, how much money went from RZIM to Lighten Group? How was that money spent? How much remains? Meanwhile, American Bible Society has been plagued with turmoil for years. The organization has had five presidents in the past 10 years.
Read MoreAlliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal defense group, sent a letter on behalf of 2,000 “pastors, ministers of faith, and leaders of religious nonprofit organizations” asking the U.S. Senate to oppose the Respect for Marriage Act, H.R. 8404, which it said puts churches and ministries in danger of injustice.
Read MoreFormer 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?
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