(REVIEW) Jimmy Dykes’ new book isn’t just one long series of motivational speeches. Instead, he focuses on how people can strengthen their relationships with one another — the perfect recipe for any team’s success — along with serving God.
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While the Black Lives Matter movement has caused controversy in religious circles because of its support for non-traditional families and Marxist philosophy, researchers who study the movement say it is spiritual even with an antipathy for organized religion. Many activists want to explore their ancestors’ African spirituality, and Black churches and mainline Protestants are also influencing the movement.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in explores news coverage of churches as superspreaders of the coronavirus, plus top reads on a megachurch investigation, a Washington, D.C., church’s history and the faith angle on Kanye West’s potential White House bid.
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The Little Sisters of the Poor claimed victory at the U.S. Supreme Court July 8 after the Court upheld 7-2 the Trump administration’s contraceptive exemption. This allows healthcare providers to opt-out of providing birth control with religious or moral objections.
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At least 82 positive COVID-19 cases link back to Christian youth camp Kamp Kanakuk’s site in Lampe, Missouri. The camp has now shut down for the season.
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(ANALYSIS) For all the fallout caused by the virus (and how various states have handled it) and the divisions in this country around issues like race, the presidential election could — once again — be decided by a handful of majority Catholic counties in four states by voters who care about abortion and religious liberty.
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Some Christians are strong supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. Others believe it’s a radical movement opposed to the goals of Christians. How are they combining the goals of their churches with the racial justice of the Black Lives Matter movement?
Read More(OPINION) Take a look back at “The Bible Code,” the 1997 book that claimed that the Hebrew Bible’s text contained secretly coded, uncanny predictions of phenomena across the subsequent thousands of years that could only be revealed through modern computers. Did it ever prove anything?
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(OPINION) Pope Francis, who has consistently drawn the ire of Catholic media on the doctrinal right, gave his view of what the religious press should look like in the United States.
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While urban churches in Uganda have moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in rural areas with less Internet access have become more creative, using “horn” speakers to broadcast preaching, prayers and music to their communities inside their homes and allowing community leaders to give health announcements and guidance.
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While urban churches in Uganda have moved online during the pandemic, rural churches with less Internet access have gotten more creative. Using “horn” speakers, they are broadcasting daily gospel music, prayers and preaching to their communities inside their homes, and allowing community leaders to address the neighborhoods with health announcements and guidance.
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(OPINION) The Hagia Sophia was once a Christian Orthodox church in the Byzantine era. Now, Turkish leaders want to convert Hagia Sophia – a museum for decades – back into a mosque.
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(ANALYSIS) Nigerian diaspora academics discussed the findings of a U.K. government report on July 6, concluding that several factors like water scarcity are affecting violence in Northern Nigeria, complicating a designation of genocide. Many acts of violence carried out by Boko Haram against Christians bear Quranic punishments for so-called infidels, and the Nigerian army is struggling to contain the violence.
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Wheaton College last week fired its chaplain Tim Blackmon for “inappropriate comments and actions of a racial and sexual nature towards specific staff members” in violation of the school’s policies.
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In an interview with Religion Unplugged, baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew — author of the new memoir “One Tough Out” — talked about his complicated faith, protests in his home city of Minneapolis and why he’s not a fan of baseball returning before there’s a coronavirus vaccine.
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In his third attempt, Lazurus Chakwera, not unlike his biblical namesake, resurrected his political fortunes and was sworn in as president of Malawi. Apart from a senior leadership role in the Assembly of God as bishop, he was a sought-after theology professor supervising PhD candidates as far as Kenya and other African countries.
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The U.S. Supreme Court gave religious liberty advocates a victory by ruling 5-4 that Montana’s no aid clause, also known as the Blaine Amendment, cannot exclude religious schools from public programs that provide scholarship to students attending private school. The ruling makes it easier for families to obtain tuition help for religious schools of their choice.
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(OPINION) As Italians gained in power, Columbus Day officially became a U.S. federal holiday starting in 1968. Amerigo Vespucci, however, is barely mentioned in American classrooms.
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As Americans celebrate the Fourth of July, Weekend Plug-in marks its six-month anniversary and offers its usual lineup of insight, analysis and top headlines from the world of religion news.
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(OPINION) Many Americans rely on politicians instead of priests or other religious leaders to guide their views of gun control in the United States. The data tells a compelling story — Americans of all religious faiths are less supportive of gun control now than at any point in the last two decades.
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