A brushfire that consumed two acres of Saddleback Church’s main campus in Southern California, and prompted retired Pastor Rick Warren to issue a call for prayers, has been fully contained, according to the city of Lake Forest. Investigators determined the fire was intentional and have taken one person into custody.
Read MoreNearly 20 years after responding to Katrina, a 44-year-old preacher in Asheville, North Carolina, is putting that experience to use. His city of nearly 100,000 was devastated by Hurricane Helene — part of a trail of destruction the storm left through six states in the Southeast.
Read More(ANALYSIS) To discover that Christopher Columbus, long whispered to have Jewish heritage, had markers of Sephardic DNA is to me about as monumental as learning the Earth is round circa 1492. In other words, it’s a belated conclusion that should effectively change little about how we understand the world today — even if some would have it otherwise.
Read MoreThe pandemic was brutal on churches, but even the year before, the number of Protestant congregations in the U.S. had gone backward by approximately 1,500. The Southern Baptist Convention lost more than 1,000 churches in 2020, 2021 and 2022 each. Although the 2024 ACP survey also reported a loss, it was a significantly lower figure at 292.
Read MoreResponding to a lawsuit accusing Dallas-based Gateway Church of financial fraud, Gateway Elder Tra Willbanks assured congregants over the weekend that the church has “independently audited financial statements since 2005.” However, a “seasoned CPA,” told The Roys Report (TRR) that Gateway did not conduct any audits during his time on staff, from 2011-2014.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Back in August, IllumiNative released a study that described how Native-led shows like “Reservation Dogs" had a positive effect on viewers, showing that Native-led projects are not only in demand but proving to be educational and impactful. Viewers who watched the aforementioned Native-led shows were more likely to agree with policies that support and center Indigenous voices.
Read MoreTo understand why Jews love the New York Mets so much requires a Talmudic understanding of New York City history, sports history and Jewish psychology. It’s also about the DNA of baseball and Brooklyn in the 1950s; being called “amazin’” when you’re actually the worst team around, and disappointing fans so often that reveling in your losses becomes a badge of honor.
Read MoreAnyone who has been paying attention to religion news has heard of the “Nones” — the “religiously unaffiliated” people who have little or no connection to any form of institutional religion. Then there are “Nons,” the term that religion-data expert Ryan Burge has pinned on the other big trend (“The Future of American Christianity is Non-Denominational”) that is reshaping the religion marketplace.
Read MoreThe U.S. Supreme Court failed to intervene during this session in a dispute over whether the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires doctors in the anti-abortion state of Texas to perform abortions to stabilize patients seeking emergency room care.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I don’t know if you have heard or not, but there’s an election coming up. And it may be “the most important election in the history of the cosmos.” Or it may just be like every other presidential election we’ve had in the last 50 years. This election also gives me the opportunity to do something that I have always wanted to do, but just never had a great reason.
Read MoreHank Greenberg was also Jewish, and he is often called America’s first Jewish sports superstar. As Greenberg wrote in his autobiography, that was not an easy honor to bear. Greenberg played during a time of rising antisemitism, and the cruel taunts he suffered from players and fans lasted throughout his career. Here's a look back at the man known as the "The Hebrew Hammer."
Read MoreMany charities and nonprofit organizations are currently accepting donations to help the victims of Hurricane Helene. As the country turns its attention to Hurricane Milton, which is expected to bring life-threatening conditions to Florida’s Gulf Coast, specifically Tampa, communities throughout the region are still reeling from the devastation caused by Helene almost two weeks ago.
Read MoreFew pastors endorse political candidates outside their role at church. Even fewer endorse during a church service. Most Americans like it that way, but they’re growing more supportive of churches jumping into the political fray. Lifeway Research studies of U.S. Protestant pastors and Americans found little practice or support for political endorsements from clergy and churches.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Many Black leaders are swinging into action for the Harris-Walz campaign — and clergy are no exception. On Aug. 5, The Black Church PAC hosted a “Win With the Black Church” webinar to register voters, sign up volunteers and raise funds for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Read More(ANALYSIS) ”Women are much more supportive of the LGBT population than men.” That came up in a Q&A session that I did after a talk. The person asked if women were leaving conservative churches more quickly because of their views of same-sex marriage and gender identity. OK, so let me just figure out if that’s true or not.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I thought the Google Maps website could provide me with crucial information for this post. Alas, that was not the case. I thought that I could call up a map of Burnsville, North Carolina, and then, after enlarging it, I would be able to count all the Baptist churches between I-26 near Mars Hill and Burnsville on U.S. Highway 19 — but very few of them showed up.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Earlier this year, “God Versus Aliens" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The documentary, directed by award-winning filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee, shines a light on the Vatican's secretive investigations into UFOs. It suggests, in no uncertain terms, that the Vatican has been quietly exploring extraterrestrial phenomena for years.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I am not young, but I too have turned to Anglicanism. In fact, I did so many years ago. For me, it was a much longer journey than it has been for many of the young people Sarah Carter describes. It is a journey that, with your permission, I will describe here.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I have studied the complex and ever-evolving role of religion in American politics. I argue that this election year, while the Christian character of each candidate is discussed everywhere, religious freedom, one of the core freedoms of American democracy, is not.
Read MoreEvangelicals may be bigger on cultural engagement in theory than in practice. They say they want to share biblical truth but don’t always take the opportunities in front of them. Some don’t even spend time regularly reading Scripture.
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