(ANALYSIS) The more I think about what religion means, the more that I think that there are just two camps of people in the United States.
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Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo clashed sharply over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Thursday night, in the first televised debate for New York City mayor, their first major showdown since the young democratic socialist stunned the former governor in the Democratic primary.
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If the president of the United States boards Air Force One for a dramatic trip to Israel — in the larger symbolic region often called the “Holy Land” — please consider putting at least one or two skilled religion-beat specialists on the airplane.
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Diwali — the annual Hindu fall “Festival of Lights” — is gaining mainstream popularity in places with large Indian and Southeast Asian immigrant populations — and businesses of all shapes and sizes are taking notice, modifying existing products or services or launching new ones to tap into the group’s sizable buying power.
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Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults think the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by people,” the American Bible Society said in its latest release from the 2025 State of the Bible. More people are skeptical of the Bible’s teachings than those who think the Bible is “totally accurate in all the principles it presents,” ABS said in releasing the study’s seventh chapter focused on trust.
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(ANALYSIS) This overlooked exodus matters. In many congregations, senior adults are the backbone of weekly attendance. They are often the most faithful givers, the most consistent volunteers, and the most reliable prayer warriors. When they drift away, the church feels it in the offering plate, in the fellowship hall, and in the spirit of the congregation.
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Half of U.S. Protestant pastors (49 percent) say the current economy is negatively impacting their churches, according to the latest tracking survey from Lifeway Research. Two in five (41 percent) don’t feel any economic impact, while 9 percent say the economy is a positive factor for their congregation.
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In a lawsuit, Chandler Moore, the Grammy Award-winning worship singer, cut ties with manager Norman Gyamfi. “I’ve made the bittersweet decision to end my relationship with Maverick City Music,” Moore said on Instagram. “When we started Mav, I was grateful to have community and belonging while fulfilling my dream of making music that would help people experience God.”
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(ANALYSIS) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has spent the past few weeks in a moment of both mourning and transition. On Sept. 28, a shooting and arson at a Latter-day Saints meetinghouse in Michigan killed four people and wounded eight more. What’s more, Russell M. Nelson, president of the church, died the day before at age 101.
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Six-time Grammy winner Amy Grant, who gained much of her notoriety through her Christian songs, has agreed to a legal settlement about a church founded by her great-grandfather in downtown Nashville. The boarded-up building, now worth at least $11 million, served for decades as the Central Church of Christ, founded in 1925 by A.M. Burton.
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(ANALYSIS) Here’s a stat that, to this day, I still can’t quite believe: the share of Americans who had a passport was 5% in 1990. According to data from 2023, that had risen to 48%.
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The estate of A.M. Burton has reached a settlement agreement with the Nashville Church of Christ after years of dispute over the downtown Nashville, Tenn., church building formerly known as the Central Church of Christ.
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(ANALYSIS) I can’t imagine I will ever teach a course on Research Methods again, but it’s something that I actually really did enjoy at EIU. I led our incoming graduate students on a tour of how political science tries to answer questions every fall for at least eight years. It was a difficult course, no doubt. But I think that many of my students left with a lot of really practical skills and a much better understanding of research design.
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(ANALYSIS) Starting in the 1880s, two groups rushed into the central Appalachian Mountains: Industrialists seeking coal, and missionaries seeking moral reform. Both changed the region forever, and their stories were intertwined.
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(ESSAY) In a world where sports and spirituality don’t often intersect, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt stood as a remarkable exception. Best known as the chaplain and No. 1 fan of Loyola University Chicago’s men’s basketball team, Sister Jean captured the hearts of millions during the team's improbable March Madness runs.
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The bottom line: Weiss (a liberal Jew who is married to another woman) has demonstrated a strong belief that real religious believers, acting on real religious beliefs, can shape real news events in the real world.
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The ongoing federal government shutdown furloughed 57 members of The Commonwealth of Faith Church in Michigan, where a third of the 350 attendees are federal workers, including bivocational Pastor Torion Bridges and his wife Jasmine.
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In the early 2000s, women were more regular churchgoers than men, and according to researchers, it is unclear whether this new shift “is a story of women stepping back or men stepping up.”
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(ANALYSIS) A reporter asked the Pope about the decision to give a U.S. Senator Dick Durbin a lifetime achievement award. The problem: Durbin consistently backs abortion rights and remains barred from receiving Holy Communion in Springfield, Illinois, his home diocese.
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(ANALYSIS) The question of whether Christianity is under attack, especially in the United States, is a complex and deeply polarizing one. Is it discrimination? Is it part of an overall decline? Is it a cultural shift? It could very well be a combination of all three.
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