(ANALYSIS) During the rituals of prayers and stories one night, Angel Studios co-founder Jeffrey Harmon's young son asked: "Dad, what does the other side of your eyeballs look like? ... Can I pull them out and look at them?” The answer was “No.” The exchange was a reminder that kids have “wild ideas,” said Harmon in a video chat with Angel Guild members who crowdfund the studio's movies.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One of the things that we often hear when we tell folks that we are working on a project that is studying the growing number of nones in the United States is something along the lines of, “Oh, I’m not that religious, but I consider myself highly spiritual.”
Read MoreA Minnesota law that banned certain Christian colleges from a program that enrolls high-schoolers in tuition-free college credit courses is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled.
Read More(ANALYSIS) With two dramatic actions, the “Religious Right” is suddenly prodding the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its historic 2015 Obergefell decision, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Such a radical and unpopular switch after only 10 years might seem implausible — but a close parallel already happened in the 2022 Dobbs decision.
Read MoreThe Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse are helping Christians persecuted for their faith in the United Kingdom through a legal defense fund of more than $1.2 million.
Read MoreWhen it comes to morality, Americans don’t see much wrong with using birth control or getting a divorce, but few support extramarital affairs or human cloning. The latest poll results from Gallup spell out what activities U.S. adults view as morally acceptable and which ones are seen as immoral.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Every once in a while, someone would ask me how I became a pastor. I completely understand the impetus for the question, by the way. If you didn’t grow up around religion, the pathway to ministry can seem somewhat opaque. Let me just quickly lay out my story.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Students at elite universities tend to talk a good game when it comes to religious pluralism. Many of them show up on day one already saying all the right things about respecting different faiths. Here’s the paradox: They don’t grow from there, according to research published in The Journal of Higher Education. Students at less selective colleges, meanwhile, do develop more pluralistic attitudes.
Read MoreGeorge Schroeder loves college football. He just loves Jesus more. After over a quarter-century as a sportswriter, Schroeder found a new calling in ministry.
Read More(ANALYSIS) For decades, one name was ubiquitous in American evangelical homes: Focus on the Family. A media empire with millions of listeners and readers, its messages about parenting, marriage and politics seemed to reach every conservative Christian church and school. And one man’s name was nearly synonymous with Focus on the Family: James Dobson.
Read MoreIt helps to remember that this Lutheran denomination has lost roughly half of its members during the last 50 years and insiders have suggested that it may die by 2050.
Read MoreJames Dobson, a politically influential conservative and anti-abortion activist who founded the Christian ministry Focus on the Family, died on Thursday at the age of 89. Dobson started Focus on the Family in 1977, which had more than 1,000 employees at its peak in the mid-90s, giving him the chance to influence legislation and White House policy for decades.
Read More(ANALYSIS) August 22nd marks the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, a day established by the U.N. General Assembly to condemn acts of violence targeting individuals on the basis of or in the name of religion or belief.
Read MoreThe Vistula, Poland’s longest river, snakes 650 miles north from the Tatras Mountains past Krakow and Warsaw to the Gulf of Gdańsk, where it empties into the Baltic Sea. Upstream from the capital, the river flows past Góra Kalwaria, a place the country’s Catholics revere as Nowa Jerozolima (or “New Jerusalem”).
Read MoreA Muslim convert who said he saw a vision of Christ while napping at a Ugandan mosque is recovering after his relatives beat him and destroyed his home. While Uganda is not included in Open Doors’ World Watch List of the 50 countries that are the worst persecutors of Christians, Uganda ranks 72nd in the world for Christian persecution.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A young J.R.R. Tolkien wrote: “The fume of the burning, and the steam of the fair fountains of Gondolin withering in the flame of the dragons of the north, fell upon the vale of Tumladen in mournful mists.” The battlefields were “cold and terrible.”
Read MoreCristiano Ronaldo’s engagement in Riyadh highlights Saudi Arabia’s evolving — but still inconsistent— social norms. Once governed by strict Islamic law, the kingdom has relaxed restrictions under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms. Ronaldo and partner Georgina Rodríguez live openly as an unmarried couple — something that remains risky for ordinary Saudis, especially women.
Read More(ANALYSIS) To create our new typology of the nones, we used a bit of machine learning. In this case, it was k-means clustering. It’s a pretty simple process, really. You pick some variables that you think that might be meaningful in creating categories and then let the algorithm find commonalities in the dataset.
Read MoreEgypt’s Ministry of Youth and Sports has launched “Youth Against Atheism,” a government program partnering with Al-Azhar, the country’s top Sunni Muslim institution and the Coptic Church to combat what officials call “electronic atheism” spreading through social media platforms. The initiative targets five areas and marks an escalation in state efforts to address the phenomenon.
Read More(REVIEW) “East of Wall” is a heartwarming and raw story about overcoming hardship and helping others. Unfortunately, its unusual style both helps and hinders our ability to connect with the people and experiences at the center of the drama. The film follows Tabatha, a rebellious horse trainer, who, after her husband’s death, wrestles with unresolved grief while providing refuge for a group of teens.
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