Everything at the ribbon-cutting for Dolly Parton’s new exhibit was high fashion — including the ribbon. The country music legend grasped a large pair of scissors alongside Lipscomb University President Candice McQueen. They struggled just a bit to slice through the pink and gold sash, bedecked with butterflies.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Among the many spooky events happening last month was the biannual “Haunting of Impalas” at Family Business Brewing, a 15-acre brewery in Dripping Springs, Texas, owned by actor and musician Jensen Ackles. Along with Jared Padalecki, Ackles is the star of “Supernatural,” a television series that ran from 2005 to 2020.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Despite the First Amendment, the United States' federal policy toward Native Americans and native religions has been inconsistent. In 1978, Congress passed and President Jimmy Carter signed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. It recognized that government policy had inhibited the practice of Native American religions, including access to sacred sites.
Read MoreOn the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s death, a leading scholar on faith and politics sees lessons for Americans today. “One overarching theme emerges again and again: A call for civility, a call for condemnation of extremism and a call to end the divisions and polarizations,” said Matthew Wilson, director of Southern Methodist University’s Center for Faith and Learning.
Read MoreAdult churchgoers in the United States infrequently switch churches. But if they make a congregational change, it’s likely they made a residential change first. And those who switch have high expectations for their new congregation.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Here’s the purpose of this post: figuring out just how many Americans have shed that label in the last several years. The CES asks every single respondent, do you consider yourself a born-again or evangelical Christian or not? Only two response options — yes and no. It’s about as simple and straightforward as you can get. So, let’s get to it.
Read MoreThere was no interrupting, no yelling, no hurled insults, no pounding the podium in this debate, despite its divisive and eternally consequential subject. Instead, the two speakers — Kyle Butt, a Christian apologist, and Michael Shermer, an atheist, or skeptic — treated each other with remarkable respect as they argued the existence of God.
Read MoreThe ground search for a monk who went missing from Sravasti Abbey last week has been suspended by the Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s office. Geshe Tenzin Chodrak (Dadul Namgyal), 64, went for a walk on the evening of Nov. 7 on the abbey’s 300-acre property and did not return.
Read MoreThe United States military has become increasingly partisan in recent years. The Armed Forces have become a new political battleground and the forefront of a cultural war between the political left and the right. That’s where Jace Yarbrough, a lawyer and Space Force reservist, found himself as this ideological and religious conflict worsens.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Three men have filed a lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – also known as the LDS or Mormon church – and its investment arm, Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc. The men, at least one of whom remains an active member of the church, according to the lawsuit, allege that the church had fraudulently induced them into making donations.
Read MoreVoters across the country cast ballots on Tuesday to elect a governor in Kentucky, decide legislative control in Virginia and determine whether the Ohio state constitution should be changed to enshrine the right to have an abortion. Republicans and Democrats are using the results to give them an inkling of trends that could affect next year’s races, including the 2024 presidential election.
Read More(ANALYSIS) American religion is shifting rapidly now. The nones are climbing every single year. Mainline Protestants are losing ground day by day. And evangelicals are still having a huge impact on American culture, religion and politics. The purpose of this post is to give a broad overview of just how much the parties have shifted from the 1970s through today.
Read MoreThe fear of not being able to preach again gripped an Ohio author and pastor when his oncologists told him he had been diagnosed with tongue cancer. Dr. Edward Wishart was diagnosed in 2008 with the aggressive form of cancer of the tongue known as squamous cell carcinoma. It was an experience that would forever transform Wishart’s ministry and his relationship with God and others.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The group that is the most likely to attend services are not the poor, nor the wealthy. Instead, it’s people who are smack in the middle of the income distribution. This analysis points to the following conclusion: The people who are the most likely to attend services this weekend are those with college degrees. In other words, middle class professionals.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Senate Bill 763, enacted in September 2023, allows school officials to hire unlicensed chaplains, either as staff members or volunteers. Those who can pass background checks will be allowed to perform duties typically provided by counselors, such as mental health support. Local boards have until March 1, 2024, to choose whether to allow chaplain programs in their schools.
Read More(ANALYSIS) When Louisiana passed a law in August 2023 requiring public schools to post “In God We Trust” in every classroom — from elementary school to college — the author of the bill claimed to be following a long-held tradition of displaying the national motto, most notably on U.S. currency.
Read MoreThe war between Israel and Hamas may be taking place 5,600 miles away from the United States, but the streets of some of America’s largest cities — and on college campuses in particular — have been highlighted over the past month by incidents of antisemitism. In many cases, students and professors who are pro-Palestine have made threats against Jews.
Read MoreEvery morning, Will Speer leads prayer and worship in his state prison. He is the first death row prisoner to help lead a death row ministry in Texas’s Allan B. Polunsky Unit. Speer was scheduled to be executed Thursday — but less than five hours before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed his death pending further review of his case, Christianity Today reported.
Read MoreMajority-Korean Methodist churches, which tend to be more conservative and evangelical than other congregations within the United Methodist Church denomination, are finding it difficult to disaffiliate for fear they will lose their land and leaders.
Read MoreWhat should a New Yorker do should they come across a ghost? In other words, who you gonna call? The answer is Scott Orlansky, the lead investigator of Ghost Bros.: Paranormal Research Team, that’s who! Ghost Bros. is based in the the Big Apple and is run by Orlansky and his brother Justin.
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