Five cases addressing religious liberty ranging from parental rights to age verification on pornographic sites will be decided when the Supreme Court announces its decisions in the coming months.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) Why empower a small group of unelected, perhaps unrepresentative, people from some religious communities with official privileged access to the governor? Why treat seven people as if they could speak for the millions of religious believers in Texas? Can a Baptist properly reflect Catholic concerns, or an Orthodox Jew reflect Muslim concerns? There are also very many varieties of Jews, Muslims and Hindus.
Read More
(REVIEW) Six months after the invasion of Ukraine, the Putin regime announced a document titled “State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values.” The document aimed to shape the worldview of Russians by outlining various values, including a “strong family.” Putin has utilized the rhetoric surrounding the traditional values, which the Russian Orthodox Church has promoted, for his own purpose in wartime.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) The Presbyterian Church (USA) is nearing the latest turning point in its half-century struggle over same-sex clergy and marriage that could give liberals powerful new leverage against traditionalists — if they choose to exercise it. The coming clash would pit the liberals’ anti-discrimination principles against the evangelical minority's freedom of conscience claims.
Read More
(REVIEW) The book boldly gives a brave, honest and forceful account of the realities of the effect of colonialism on Anglicanism past and present, Percy critically examines how the Anglican Church, which served as both a spiritual arm and a moral justification for British imperial expansion, is now struggling with the enduring legacy of complicity in slavery and colonialism.
Read More
A bill to stop the use of nondisclosure agreements to prevent sexual abuse victims from telling their stories has advanced in the Texas legislature. On March 19, the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence voted unanimously to report House Bill 748 favorably to the full House of Representatives and recommend passage.
Read More
As executive orders from President Trump, budget slashing by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and cuts enacted by Cabinet secretaries or the Office of Personnel Management reduce the federal workforce, area Christians and congregations feel the impact.
Read More
Most immigrants at risk of deportation are Christian, researchers deduced, with 61 percent of them Catholics. But 13 percent are evangelicals, seven percent are from other Christian groups, seven percent are from other religious groups and 12 percent have no religious affiliation.
Read More
Many stopped attending churches in January when the sensitive locations limitations were lifted on ICE arrests — impacting churches and schools. But the end of the humanitarian parole program, and the Temporary Protected Status program in August, will together inflict a multilayered wound upon churches, families and Gospel witness.
Read More
Under the direction of Trevor Nunn, “The Score” serves up a fascinating dynamic between the king, who harbors his own musical ambitions, and Bach. Over time, despite their contrasting personalities and roles, a mutual respect does develop — despite their religious differences, lifestyles, ambitions and motivations — between the men, culminating in Bach composing a musical offering inspired by Frederick.
Read More
Worship centers in Kenya are increasingly facing scrutiny for conducting activities at noise levels that exceed acceptable limits. Concerns have been raised in various parts of the country about religious services blatantly violating existing regulations, disturbing the peace and quiet of neighborhoods.
Read More
While we were recording the podcast this week, I told Lutheran Public Radio listeners that I was well aware that much of the information I was sharing was rather complex, if not downright confusing. That was kind of the point. When it comes to statistical trends in religion, we live in a very, very confusing age.
Read More
(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.
Read More
Conditions in Afghanistan and India continued to deteriorate and remained poor in Nigeria and Vietnam, USCIRF commissioners said March 25 in its 2025 Report on International Religious Freedom, calling out countries where Christian minorities face murder, torture and other ills either sanctioned by the government or with little governmental intervention.
Read More
Salem Media Group’s 2024 annual report signals a major financial comeback for the Christian world’s only publicly traded media company. The California-based firm made bold financial moves in 2024, drastically improving its bottom line after a challenging prior year.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) In recent weeks, as peace discussions proceeded among victimized Ukraine, its imperialistic neighbor Russia, pro-Ukraine Europeans and America’s Donald Trump administration, there’s been some vigorous religious debate about this muddled situation.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) It seems like I get asked about the transgender issue nearly every day. I readily admit that it may be the most caustic and divisive social issue of this era of the culture war. My goal here is to give you the very best estimates possible about the share of Americans who don’t currently identify as male or female in the U.S. and then describe the overall religiosity of this group.
Read More
(ANALYSIS) The Iranian regime continues to ramp up efforts to restrict the rights of citizens across the country, and this is to crush dissent. According to a new report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, Iranian authorities have committed gross human rights violations, some of which amount to crimes against humanity.
Read More
When it comes to basic statistics, the 1960s and ‘70s were the high-water mark for liberal mainline Protestants. Pews were often full and strategic mergers — such as the process that eventually created the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1983 — led to membership totals that inspired ecclesiastical bureaucrats to dream about bold “reforms” in the future (click for a timeline of LGBTQ+ activism in the Episcopal Church).
Read More
Nearly 80 percent of evangelical Protestant pastors reject the scientific consensus that the climate is changing and human actions are a major cause, according to a new report. Only about one-quarter of clergy from other Christian traditions, such as Catholic and mainline Protestants, share this same skepticism.
Read More