A pro-life pregnancy center firebombed last June in Buffalo, New York, has decided to conduct its own investigation into the violence. CompassCare, a ministry to women in crisis pregnancies that has been operating since 1980, incurred over $500,000 in damage to its facility due to the violence.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The notion that fitness is a religion — a place where people find community, ritual and ecstatic experience — has become a common refrain. Can fitness really be a religion? Given the difficulty of defining religion, it’s an almost impossible question to answer.
Read MoreUganda’s Prophet Elvis Mbonye is worth an estimated $115 million. He’s one of the country’s most talked about prophets amid claims that a variety of his predictions have come true, from the restoration of broken laptops to the election of U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016 and Brexit.
Read More(OPINION) Sin and guilt remind us eros didn’t die, but it’s disfigured. It’s not ruined as Nietzsche claimed. Eros can be redeemed as it’s both/and — a virtue since God created it while a vice since we corrupted it. Human desires, including eros, are inherently very good.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Israel’s new government is the most right-wing and religious leadership the country has had in the 75 years of its existence, as many observers have pointed out. And this style of leadership may last because it represents the next generation of Israelis.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Though Pentecostals are diverse, all share an emphasis on the Holy Spirit, or God’s presence in their lives. Yet this also leads to disagreement within the movement about what they believe the Holy Spirit empowers them to do in the real world, especially in activism and politics.
Read MoreRick Warren’s 2002 book “The Purpose Driven Life” has sold more than 50-million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time. But his work as a pastor and author are just the beginning. Warren Cole Smith had this conversation with Rick Warren at his office in southern California.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Stellar attractions slated to open in 2025 promise to jump-start tourism in Jerusalem afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unresolved is how the masses of visitors and pilgrims will reach them.
Read MoreFive women in California have filed a lawsuit alleging that the International Churches of Christ perpetrated a “systemic scheme of abuse” that included the sexual abuse of children as young as three years old and financial abuse of its members.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights a new report on rising antisemitism in the U.S. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) In a rite before the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Vatican officials placed unique symbols of his pontificate inside his cypress casket, along with a scroll in Latin describing his ascent to the Chair of St. Peter. Old tensions surfaced during Pope Benedict’s funeral and the events — or the lack thereof — surrounding it.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One of my five things to watch for in 2023 included media speculation over Pope Francis’ health and speculation over his possible retirement. Within three days of that post — and prompted by the death on Dec. 31 of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the age of 95 — speculation increased once again.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A new study from Springtide Research Institute not only suggests that popular narratives about Gen Z’s abandonment of religion aren’t the full story but also that religion and spirituality can contribute to flourishing mental health among this generation.
Read More(OPINION) The 2022 report from the Open Doors organization says “persecution of Christians has reached the highest levels” since it began accumulating data for its annual “World Watch List” three decades ago. Hostile incidents have increased by 20% since just 2014, and some 360 million Christians, or 14% of the worldwide total, are said to have faced persecution, harassment or discrimination.
Read MoreAfter a recent 50th anniversary dinner for about 250 workers, partners, friends and donors, the Voice of the Truth ministry offered to share some of its achievements
Read MoreAn eastern Ukrainian family traveled 760 miles from their home in Zaporizhzhia, where they worship with a Church of Christ and work with Program for Humanitarian Aid, a nonprofit that, before the war, served primarily orphans and at-risk youths. Now, all Ukrainians are at risk. So the ministry has become one of relief, support and, on occasion, evacuation.
Read MoreThirteen women walked across the gymnasium stage at Nashville’s Debra Johnson Rehabilitation Center in mid-December to receive a Master of Arts in Christian ministry, the first graduate degree Lipscomb University has bestowed behind the chain-link and razor wire of the correctional facility formerly called the Tennessee Prison for Women.
Read MoreYing Zhang, associate professor of history at Ohio State University, is exploring the connections among prison, art and religion in a unique and meaningful way. Her lecture at The American Academy in Berlin accompanies her new book and discusses the way incarceration limits religious freedom.
Read MoreThis week we launch a new and improved version of Weekend Plug-in, the best roundup of religion news you’ll find anywhere. The death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is our big story.
Read MorePope Francis joined tens of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday at a funeral Mass for Benedict XVI, an unusual gathering for a dead pontiff presided by a living one. The Vatican, enveloped in a thick fog, featured heads of state and bishops from around the world who came to Rome to mourn Benedict’s death and remember his papacy.
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