Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won a landslide victory on Sunday to become Mexico's first female president. Sheinbaum, won the presidency with nearly 60% of the vote, defeating opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez. She is also Jewish in a country that is majority Catholic.
Read More(OPINION) After his victorious bout in a major combat sports event this past Saturday night, UFC fighter Bassil Hafez said, “There is something I wanna say. I have been having it in my heart for a long time. I don’t support genocide. I don’t support innocent women and children being killed for war and for money and power. We are all God’s children and we all deserve a fair chance in life. Free Palestine.” While Hafez didn’t mention Israel by name, his message was clear. Israel is committing genocide.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This is the question that I have been thinking about ever since Memorial Day: What role do movie theaters play in God’s glorious and fallen creation? Yes, that’s a strange question. Let me explain. Back in my professor days when I taught Introduction to Mass Communication 101, I explained the whole “technology shapes culture” equation (again, think “the medium is the message”) by asking a series of questions.
Read MoreThousands of people from across the globe will descend on the city that’s home to the Eiffel Tower for the Olympics. The IMB has ministered at many Olympics, and volunteers who’ve traveled to the global cities have long been crucial to its ministry strategy. While ministry has been successful, interactions are often fleeting as visitors scatter. That’s where digital engagement strategies come in.
Read More(OPINION) In my observation, core spiritual truths are applicable to nearly every arena of life, not just to religion but also to business, education or politics. They’re as beneficial to those who don’t believe in God as to those who go to church three times a week. I think of these as universal laws. They’re woven into the world we inhabit as surely as the law of gravity. One of these universal truths is the principle of balance.
Read MoreAndrew Root’s “The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms” (Baker Academic, 2023) includes some ponderous writing but a central concept well worth pondering. Root asks us not to think of politics and culture not as a battle of socialistic secularists versus MAGA right-wingers but as a pyramid. Two secular philosophies are on the bottom: “Exclusive Humanists” on the left and “Counter-Enlightenment” on the right.
Read MoreJason and Jennifer Carroll pray for Haiti as the poor, developing nation deals with unrelenting gang violence. Two American missionaries and a Haitian national were killed in an ambush last week.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A new piece of legislation introduced earlier this month would require not-for-profit organizations to report grants they make to foreign entities. The Foreign Grant Reporting Act is authored by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) He says his goal is to bring more transparency into the growing tax-exempt sector.
Read More(OPINION) Are you motivated to pray? The word “motivation” doesn’t appear in older dictionaries since it wasn’t coined until the mid-19th century and didn’t come into common use until the 20th century.
Read MoreAs India gears up for the largest national elections ever conducted on the planet, the Christian community, although a minority, faces unique challenges that underscore the significance of its political representation. The issues range from persecution to the enforcement of anti-conversion laws, with the recent unrest in Manipur spotlighting the urgent need for their voices to be heard.
Read MoreThirteen leaders from predominantly Black Churches of Christ have signed a formal letter calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. The initiative — led by James Michael Crusoe, Edward Keyton and Quintessa Hathaway — began in February during Black History Month after the “Somebody Must Come Preaching” podcast featured the trio on an episode titled “Their struggle is our struggle.”
Read MorePulling off Vacation Bible School for 700 children is a daunting challenge for most churches. Pulling off VBS for 700 children during community upheaval is not just challenging, it is practically impossible. But Anna Yumnam* and her team from TMG Bible Church* in Manipur, a state in northeast India, managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible in June 2023. This was Yumnam’s first year as the church’s children’s ministry director. She expected hurdles of course, but perhaps not trials of this intensity.
Read More(PHOTO ESSAY) The community walks as part of a procession connected to the Perlon Unggahan traditional ceremony of welcoming the holy month of Ramadan in Banyumas in Central Java. This ritual — carried out to remember and pray for their ancestors — typically includes hundreds of people from different villages who travel to the Bonokeling cemetery complex.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In May 2024, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that nearly 2,000 children in Ukraine were killed or injured amid ongoing and escalating war. The statement made it clear that this tally of children’s deaths is likely to be higher. The report comes shortly after Russia escalated its attacks in the Kharkiv region that killed several children.
Read More(ANALYSIS) How do U.S. Army chaplains perceive the legitimacy of American drone strikes and why should we care? Though chaplains are entrusted by regulations to shape the moral use of force, scholars have not studied what accounts for their perceptions of legitimacy. Yet legitimacy is “potent” in shaping the durability of policy and strategy.
Read MoreThe speakers that took to the stage at MIT this past week addressed a series of issues surrounding AI, including how it impacts a number of areas such as communications, entertainment, healthcare, politics, climate change and the military. In fact, speakers talked about the numerous potential pitfalls in a world where AI is becoming more ubiquitous.
Read MoreI am old enough to remember when “60 Minutes” was must-watch television for journalists. In those days, this CBS News “magazine for television” had a crack research team that dug deep and found the documents and evidence needed to support tough questions for political, cultural and business leaders who granted interviews.
Read MoreTwenty years ago, I worked as a Dallas-based religion reporter for The Associated Press. Many of the stories that dominated the headlines then remain relevant today.
Read MoreCollege students across the country are graduating this month. As is custom, famous people are invited to speak to students about the future. Sometimes, religion and faith comes up — especially at Christian colleges — and it’s not always something that resonates with the U.S.’s broader, more secular culture. Here are five that stood out this spring.
Read MoreThe African nation of Gambia was thrust into a national debate this spring after the country's parliament advanced a bill that would repeal its eight-year ban on female genital mutilation — a move that could make it the first country in the world to overturn a ban on the age-long practice. Christian leaders have been among the most outspoken against it.
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