(ANALYSIS) So let me visualize how the two major parties have diverged on these metrics over the last couple of decades. Let’s start with belief in God, a question that has been included in the General Social Survey with regularity since the early 1990s.
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Providence Baptist Church has an elder making a mockery of the term “remote work.” Over the last several months Barry Wilmore has proven that long distances shouldn’t keep one from being an active church member. And we’re talking looooong distances. About 250 miles into space.
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Throughout the United States, Christian nationalism has left in its wake broken communities and churches. Both those who subscribe to it and those who disagree are often left hurt and embarrassed. As the movement grew within his own church, Pastor Caleb Campbell set out to understand Christian nationalism’s appeal and how to help Christians minister to their friends and family committed to it.
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(ANALYSIS) For many Americans, it’s a challenge to focus on much news beyond the raucous national and local political campaigns till November 5. But late this year or early in 2025 we’ll get something completely different and fascinating — a batch of new findings from the Global Flourishing Study. Through 2026, this unprecedented academic project is investigating what factors create human happiness, well-being and life satisfaction in 22 widely varied countries, based upon surveys with 240,000 people.
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SOF Missions helps veterans who — like retired Air Force Lt. Col. Damon Friedman — struggle with PTSD and other challenges from military service. At the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, many of those who served their country overseas still fight a war at home. “I’m telling you, I was going to become a statistic,” Friedman said.
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(OPINION) Without a doubt, Charles Spurgeon and later Billy Graham were gospel preachers rather than social justice warriors. Yet, both addressed some of the greatest social evils of their day without for a moment diluting their Jesus-centered messages.
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The exemption, the appellate court affirmed, does not violate the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law or the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a particular religion.
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Five weeks after resigning their pastoral positions at Gateway Church, James and Bridgette Morris, the son and daughter-in-law of disgraced megachurch pastor Robert Morris, announced they’re starting a new church and seeking supporters.
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(ANALYSIS) In my “On Religion” column — “Jonathan Haidt: It's time for clergy to start worrying about smartphone culture” — I focused on what the author of “The Anxious Generation” had to say about the decisions faced by religious believers in the age of digital-screens culture.
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(ANALYSIS) On Monday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will host a broadcast to celebrate the “life and teachings” of Russell M. Nelson, its president and prophet. One of his initiatives made an impact that rippled far beyond the church. In 2018, he surprised observers by declaring the use of the word “Mormon” a “major victory for Satan.”
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(ANALYSIS) Two-thirds of college students do not hold views toward Israel or Jews “likely to threaten their relationship with their Jewish peers,” a new study from Brandeis University found. But what about the remaining third? Researchers found that group split roughly equally between those who expressed hostility toward Israel (but not Jews) and those who thought poorly of Jews, not Israel.
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Reports showing sustained increases in food and home prices alongside a cooling labor market highlight a continuing challenge for churches.
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One of the world’s most important newsrooms just offered a finely detailed profile of Catholic convert J.D. Vance and, imagine this, the feature focused on the emotions and ideas that led him to swim the Tiber. This included his intellectual and spiritual attraction to the work of St. Augustine, one of the most important minds in Western culture.
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The U.S. Supreme Court refused Sept. 3 to restore a $4.5 million family planning grant to Oklahoma while the state’s challenge to the termination of the grant works its way through the lower courts.
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Overwhelmingly, Americans think the moral values of the country are worsening. Around four in five U.S. adults (81 percent) say the state of moral values is getting worse, and only 14 percent say it’s getting better. That gives the future outlook a minus 67 score — down 24 points from 2002.
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(REVIEW) Adam Sandler has gotten better at guitar since “Chanukah Song.” In his new Netflix comedy special, "Love You," the comedian plays a long, honestly impressive, flamenco riff before bursting into a song in which he complains about mowing the lawn, and also whinnies like a horse. Guitar skill, it seems, is the only thing that’s changed about Sandler.
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(OPINION) Hulu is releasing a docuseries in September called “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” and Hollywood is releasing a film called “Heretic” in mid-November. The Hulu series might attract voyeur types, but I’m hoping that more discriminating viewers will be repulsed by the sensational immorality featured in the program.
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(ANALYSIS) I am going to completely sidestep the whole discussion of the conflict in the Middle East in this post and just focus on a narrow question: How many Muslim votes are there in the state of Michigan, and could they actually cost the Democrats the state?
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According to the annual State of the Church Compensation Survey by ChurchSalary, the average church increased its staff salaries and benefits more than they expected in 2024. In 2023, churches predicted they would increase personnel budgets by 4.5%, but the average actual increase turned out to be 4.9%. The greatest increase was seen in the cost of benefits.
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