Posts in North America
Super Bowl LVIII: Inside Sin City’s Christian Quarterback Battle

This year’s Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers may be contested at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas — known as Sin City — but it will feature two very pious quarterbacks when Patrick Mahomes faces off against Brock Purdy. Both are practicing Christians unafraid to talk about their faith.  

Read More
Panthers Coach Prevailed Over His ‘Secret Life’ Thanks To Christianity

Dave Canales is ready to start his journey as head coach of the Carolina Panthers nearly two years after co-authoring a book with his wife Lizzy about working through problems with infidelity, addiction to pornography and binge drinking. Canales credits his wife’s support and Christianity for helping him improve his life.

Read More
Insurance Cancellations Wreak Financial Challenges For Churches

Late last year, Christ Covenant learned Church Mutual had dropped its insurance coverage. “The reason we were given was we’re not worth the risk anymore,” elder Jake Pfaff said. Though Christ Covenant’s story is a common one among churches in and beyond the coastal regions, the insurance maelstrom has hit Texas and Louisiana hard.

Read More
Churches Face Fines For Providing Warming Shelters During Winter Months

Last week, much of the U.S. experienced dangerously cold temperatures. In these conditions, what happens to the unhoused? Many churches were stepping up to provide overnight warming shelters for those experiencing homelessness in their cities.

Read More
How Covering Pope John Paul II’s 1999 Visit To St. Louis Changed My Journalism Career

(ESSAY) For veteran religion writer Bobby Ross Jr., an unexpected assignment to cover Pope John Paul’s 1999 visit to St. Louis planted a seed. Twenty-five years later, Ross reflects on that experience as the spark that launched the most important phase of his journalism career.

Read More
Cru President Steve Sellers Announces Plans To Step Down

Cru, the $811 million international ministry formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ International, announced Monday that President Steve Sellers will step down in July. Sellers explained the move in a video posted Monday night, saying that God had led him to his post and is now leading him to leave it.

Read More
Rise Of The ‘Nones’: What Do America's Nonreligious Really Believe?

A new report on “nones” — one of the largest ever conducted on this fast-growing demographic — attempts to drill down into what these Americans believe, their feelings towards organized religion and politics. The decades-long rise of the “nones” has been one of the most talked about phenomena in the United States.

Read More
Is It Time To Scrap The Term ‘Evangelical’?

(OPINION) When it comes to the term “evangelical,” it is not so much that it is a potentially ambiguous term (like “Christian”) as it is a misleading term — a term that has become cultural and political more than spiritual.

Read More
Distributing Buddha’s Congee Thousands Of Miles From Home

Every year in mid-January, Livia Gao arrives at Mahayana Buddhist Temple in New York’s Chinatown at dawn to prepare 2,000 batches of congee, a soupy rice mixture, for the community. This special service is more commonly known as the “Laba Festival” by Mahayana Chinese Buddhists and celebrated by immigrants around the world.

Read More
Communities Across The US Recall MLK’s Dream With Prayers and Service

Tributes to the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. took place on Monday across the country and included a mix of politics, faith and community service. This year’s observance — the 38th since its was made a federal holiday in 1986 — commemorated the Baptist preacher and Civil Rights Movement icon's importance to American history.

Read More
Plagued By Controversies, New Mexico’s Sikh Community Persists

The group 3HO is currently made up mostly of white Americans converted to Sikhism, a 500-year-old religion with origins in Punjab, India. Members also regularly practice Kundalini yoga. They wear white and typically live in ashrams and abide by a lacto-vegetarian diet. Alcohol, drugs and sexual relations among the non-married is forbidden in the ashram.

Read More
‘Internet Priests’ Help Explain Catholic Same-Sex Blessings

(ANALYSIS) The Vatican’s decision to allow priests to bless couples in what they called “irregular relationships” continues to get lots of media attention, especially since it involves same-sex couples. Here’s how some Catholic priests who are active on social media and YouTube are explaining what it all means.

Read More
C.J. Stroud Praises Jesus As Houston Texans Make The NFL Playoffs

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud — one of this season’s rising stars in the NFL — isn’t just known for throwing touchdown passes and getting his team into the playoffs. Stroud also made headlines for his faith after thanking Jesus following his team’s 23-19 win over the Indianapolis Colts this past Saturday, earning the team a spot in the playoffs that start this weekend.

Read More
How Religion And American Politics Mix: 3 Trends To Follow This Year

(ANALYSIS) Religion is likely to play a big role in voters’ choices in the 2024 presidential election — much as it did in previous years. Despite an overall shift away from participation in organized religion in the U.S. populace, religious rhetoric in the political arena has intensified.

Read More
Black Churches Hardest Hit By The Pandemic, But Did More To Promote Vaccines

Houses of worship with predominantly Black congregations suffered the most in terms of attendance and donations. At the same time, they did more to promote COVID-19 testing and vaccinations throughout the pandemic.

Read More
Q&A With Russian ‘Spy’ Maria Butina: Orthodoxy, Politics and Twerking

Religion Unplugged’s former executive editor Paul Glader reported a three-episode narrative podcast for the Sony Entertainment Media show “Infamous” about GOP operative Paul Erickson who led a colorful life that included advising a presidential candidate, making a Hollywood movie and dating an alleged Russian spy named Maria Butina. Upon hearing the podcast, Butina reached out and agreed to an interview to share her perspective on her now ex-boyfriend.

Read More
Religion's Role In The Life Of Convicted Fraudster Pardoned By Trump

(EXCLUSIVE) The national spotlight turned on Paul Erickson in recent years when the red-haired, Russian national he was dating, Maria Butina, was accused of being a Russian spy during intense scrutiny on Russian connections to the United States during the Trump presidency. Butina was arrested in 2018 and deported in 2019 after she pleaded guilty for failing to register as a foreign agent. 

Read More
Texas Churches Partner To Form County’s Largest Food Bank

Harvest House now feeds an average of 300 families every week, providing them with about 5,000 pounds of food. That makes it the largest food pantry in Matagorda County, with a population of about 36,000 — nearly a quarter of whom live below the poverty level, according to U.S. Census data.

Read More