Encounter Grace In The Cross And Empty Tomb This Holy Week

(OPINION) There are many right ways to observe Holy Week and to walk with Jesus. I invite you to be intentional and make a plan for how you will observe the rest of Holy Week, each and every day.

🚊 Meet Clemente Lisi, Religion Unplugged’s Executive Editor: 7 Things To Know 🔌

Religion Unplugged’s readers see Clemente Lisi’s stories all the time. Here are seven facts to help the audience get to know him better.

RNA Inspires New Voices, Echoing My Own Beginnings

(OPINION) At a professor’s nudge, I first attended a conference in the early 2000s. I don’t remember what city it was in, or even the exact year. I do remember how awkward it felt. I stood shyly by myself — away from the religion reporters I admired so much — when I should have been networking.

Opinion, Religion, Religion NewsTracy SimmonsApril 10, 2025tracy simmons, rna, religion news association, religion, journalism, news, opinion, rechargeComment

Why I’m Holding My Passover Seder In One Of The Oldest Black Churches

(OPINION) Every year at Passover, when Jews around the world recite the Four Questions, we begin by asking, “ma nishtana halaila hazeh me kol halaylot” — “what makes this night different from all others?” As we approach this year’s seders, I think that it’s also appropriate that we ask what makes this year different from all others.

When Someone Cares Enough To Embrace Your Imperfections, Be Thankful

(OPINION) No one cares about the “mistakes” we make because 99.995% of people don’t notice, don’t care or care enough about us not to care about such minor flaws. The Japanese have a philosophy known as wabi-sabi, which emphasizes the beauty of imperfection. Among other things, this is expressed through the art of kintsugi.

Opinion, ChristianityMark GriswoldApril 8, 2025FaVS News, Mark Griswold, Christianity, Imperfection, Failure, Kintsugi, Wabi-sabi, religion, opinion, Lent, Lent 2025Comment

You’ll Be Seeing Less Of Me In The Days Ahead

(OPINION) My plan for a long time was to fully retire by age 65 from both writing and preaching. But as is often the case, the world didn’t conform to my plans. Lately, considering my options anew, I realized I’m not ready to completely pull the plug on either of my two vocations.

Opinion, ReligionPaul PratherApril 7, 2025Paul Prather, Retirement, Stepping back, Getting older, Aging, opinion, religionComment

🤖 #RNA2025: What The Nation's Top Religion Writers — And AI — Are Talking About 🔌

Religion News Association members gathered this week just outside the nation’s capital for their annual meeting. They discussed topics ranging from AI to reporting on religion in small markets.

Maybe True Joy Comes From Surrendering Our Dreams Rather Than Reaching Them

(OPINION) Where does sacrificing end and enabling the irresponsible begin? Isn’t it possible that by endlessly serving we’ll just burn ourselves out? These are legitimate questions. But living that Jesus kind of life is hard. It’s risky. It can be deeply frustrating. It requires more faith than I possess.

Whether The Apocalypse Is At Hand (Or Not), Choose To Love Others And Live With Joy

As I take stock this year, I feel a foreboding of apocalypse. Maybe my own apocalypse, or maybe this country’s, or maybe the world’s. Things are falling apart. The center cannot hold. You can choose to think of all this bad news as great news, in a counterintuitive way.

Opinion, Christianity, ReligionPaul PratherMarch 28, 2025Paul Prather, Apocalypse, Aging, End of the world, opinion, religion, apocalypse, ChristianityComment

After Years Of Torture, Are Palestinians Finally Ready To Stand Up To Hamas?

(OPINION) The international conversation about Gaza has long circled the same grim question: What would it take for the population to rise up against Hamas? We just might have the beginnings of a response: The resumption of war, after Israel broke a two-month ceasefire following 15 months of devastating conflict. The prospect of more death with no end date, all because Hamas refuses to free more hostages until Israel agrees to leave it in power as part of a more permanent truce, appears to be too much to bear.

Your Kin Aren’t Anywhere Near As Dysfunctional As Jesus’ Family

(OPINION) All humanity is royally screwed up. As a result, your family is screwed up. Likely, you are screwed up, too, and your family may have contributed to that screwed-upness. But your ancestry doesn’t have to define your destiny. With God’s help, you can break the cycle of dysfunction, no matter how far back it goes.

Opinion, ChristianityPaul PratherMarch 24, 2025Paul Prather, Christianity, Jesus, Jesus' lineage, Genealogy, Gospels, Apostle Matthew, Lent, Easter, opinion, Holy Family, BibleComment

Why AI Can’t Replace Human Creativity Or Our Need To Create

(OPINION) Call it God’s work, but a world without art is a world without humans. Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde knew it, “What art seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.” I took a course on artificial intelligence to keep abreast of the world and was unsurprised to learn that a machine is not “intelligent.”

Opinion, Religion, TechnologyJanet MaruggMarch 23, 2025FaVS News, Janet Marugg, AI, Art, Creativity, Humanism, technology, religion, Primary featureComment

🔥 After Monster Storm, The Story Can’t Be Told Without Recognizing Faith 🔌

When covering a tragedy, faith almost always emerges as a part of the story. That was the case again this past weekend when a monster storm system struck the Deep South and the Plains.

Soul Food For The Word-Weary: Embarking On A Christian Pilgrimage Through Art

(OPINION) “Poor wordy little Protestants” — as someone once said — have severed this connection between the church and its visual soul food. Bereft of beauty, Protestant churches have left us to the narcotizing effect of TV and social media, and a daily diet of pap, propaganda and rage. Could new generations and populations be inspired again to aspire to the heights to which those early artists aspired? If so, we'll surely need to get out more.

Jesus Faced His Wilderness To Lead Us Through Ours

(OPINION) As we prepare this Lenten season, let us walk through whatever wilderness we travel, knowing that Jesus walks with us, sure that he knows the wilderness far better than we, and knowing that, stays by our side.

Opinion, ChristianityMike AlemanMarch 18, 2025FaVS News, Mike Aleman, Lent, Jesus, Christianity, Wilderness, Lenten season, 40 day fast, Lent 2025, Easter, God, March Madness, opinionComment

Anger, Even Toward God, Can Be Good And Healthy — But Only To A Point

(OPINION) My counselor and I never did agree about whether I was mad at God, but our ongoing discussions forced me to ponder anger as a principle — anger toward the Lord, anger toward difficult circumstances and anger toward my fellow pilgrims. Here’s what I think today.

Opinion, ReligionPaul PratherMarch 17, 2025Paul Prather, Christianity, Anger, Anger management, Anger toward God, God, religion, opinionComment

😷 ‘That Escalated Quickly’: 5 Years Ago, COVID Turned The World Upside Down 🔌

This week marks the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown. Mostly, life has returned to normal. But in some ways we still seem to be struggling, our columnist notes.

Will Anyone Welcome Iran’s Christian Refugees?

(OPINION) In recent weeks, the plight of a group of Iranian asylum-seekers claiming to be converts to Christianity has been followed by The New York Times, helping to shine a light on a story not commonly reported by the mainstream media. The story, that is, of Iranian Christians who for years have found it harder and harder to find anyone willing to accept them.

Faith Doesn’t Start From Logic, It Comes From Revelation

(OPINION) Mainly, the people who’ve become devoted to their faith did so along a winding path. Some had been to jail. Some were atheists. Some grew up in church, rejected it in their youth, veered out into the wider world for years and then reluctantly found their way back. Some hated organized religion.

⛪️ $171 Million For Better Sermons: National Program Blesses Preachers 🔌

In a California meeting, Compelling Preaching Initiative participants enjoyed how-to sessions on the content, crafting and delivery of sermons as well as one-on-one coaching and fellowship with other men — and women — of God.

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