(ANALYSIS) The International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA) earlier this month released a significant statement on the current worldwide persecution of Christians. It’s essence: Religious freedom is still comparatively neglected as a human right, and the ongoing persecution of Christians is relatively unknown.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights testimony in the death penalty trial in the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(REVIEW) “Flamin’ Hot” portrays faith as a central part of Richard Montanez’s life and depicts his faith as real and important. Whether it’s his abusive father clinging to faith to cover up his previous alcoholism, or the strength that his wife gains from her faith, or Richard eventually acknowledging God’s hand in the good that has happened to them and praying together with his wife, Richard’s faith matters.
Read More(REVIEW) “The Secrets of Hillsong” uncovers Hillsong culture, abuse and Carl Lentz. The four-part documentary dropped on May 19th. Since Carl Lentz’s fall from grace due to his affair with Ranin Karim, many celebrity gossip and media voices have chimed in to tell Lentz’s story. For the first time since the scandals, both Carl and Laura Lentz tell their own stories in the documentary.
Read More(OPINION) Starting with a band of Anglicans landing at Jamestown in 1607 and then Pilgrim dissenters at Plymouth in 1620, various forms of Protestantism collectively dominated what became the United States. But the Religious Landscape Study from the Pew Research Center tells us the U.S. population is now only 46.6% Protestant.
Read More(OPINION) An extensive new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute finds that only 16% of Americans say religion is the most important thing in their lives. But what could 50 million gracious, merciful disciples do for this country today, if they really got focused on loving their neighbors and making peace and preaching good news instead of gloom and despair?
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the faith of the two newest candidates to declare for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) Only 1% of New York City was “evangelical” when Keller arrived in 1989, and homicides hit 2,245 during his first full year of ministry in the tense city. Yet there was a “cracking in the ice” as immigrants from a variety of faiths poured into the city’s boroughs. Soon, many new churches were born.
Read More(OPINION) For generations, Indigenous people have been asking for objects taken during colonization of their traditional homelands to be returned. Some of the objects are sacred, but also many items are human remains. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples said human remains and funerary objects should be returned to the individual tribes.
Read More(OPINION) Because a key tenet of Quakerism is continuing revelation, Quakerism has become a safe place to explore spiritual journeys and learn what your own Inner Light is saying to you. It was the echo I saw between the early Quakers and the current seekers and the need I saw for an in-flesh community that led me to advocate for a workshop to explore those ideas.
Read More(OPINION) Many years ago as a consultant, I joked with colleagues about our tongue-in-cheek disclaimer for final reports: “We have not succeeded in solving your problem. We are still confused, but we are confused at a much higher level.” Generative artificial intelligence (the kind behind chatbots) has the ability to confuse us all at much higher levels!
Read More(OPINION) Lonnie Frisbee may have been largely airbrushed out of the Jesus movement history by some of his former colleagues because his personal story was inconvenient. On separate occasions, Frisbee was fired by Chuck Smith and John Wimber, and afterward was regarded as an outcast by the movement he’d largely started.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the ongoing battles over who’s in — and who’s out — among Southern Baptists and United Methodists. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) Referring to the “wedding banquet at Cana,” when Jesus turned water into wine, the Jesuit theologian called for a changed church in which “people of all races, genders and sexualities rejoice at the presence of love” and a world in which “spiritual wounds will be healed, where faith-based violence will be no more, where fear and intolerance are relics of history.”
Read More(OPINION) I hate the outdoors. There, I said it. Sling all the mud my way you want, you hikers, rock climbers and campers. Your mud will not stick to me, because I’ll be happily ensconced behind the brick walls of my climate-controlled, preternaturally comfortable house, binging on Netflix shows and living my own best life.
Read More(OPINION) We are just dumb sheep — meaning, dumb compared to the wisdom and knowledge of God and compared to the challenges we face in this world, despite the wisdom we gain by experience and the knowledge we gain through the Word. For me, that brings tremendous comfort.
Read More(OPINION) It’s time to focus on the U.S. Catholic vote in 2024, following up a prior Memo assessing religion angles with Donald Trump’s prospects. The Guy once again advises journalists and other observers that Catholics are more pivotal politically than unbudgeable Democrats such as Black Protestants, non-Orthodox Jews and nonreligious Americans.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in covers God, guns and other faith angles after the mass shooting at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) During the recent Global Anglican Future Conference held in Kigali, Rwanda, Raffel was one of several bishops — 315 attended, from 52 nations — who stressed that traditionalists now need to look forward. It's time to focus on life in their rapidly growing churches while dedicating less time and energy to clashes with declining churches in England, America, Canada and elsewhere.
Read More(OPINION) Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are good things. But DEI is like trying to change the world through law. There’s a better way: love. I think love is UEE: unity, equality and exclusions.
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