Foreign aid is not a cure-all for Africa according to experts and leaders from Africa who spoke at a recent conference in New York City. Rather, they suggest foreign aid is only part of the panacea alongside a more holistic dose of self-reliance, good governance, entrepreneurship and transcendent spiritual values.
Read MoreJimmy Carter attempted to model the translation of Jesus’ love into action through his life of public service. His post-presidential commitments involved The Carter Center’s initiatives of fighting disease and seeking international peace and his private efforts of building homes for Habitat for Humanity and teaching Sunday school.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The 2023 Oscar nominees have largely given up on real religion. Portrayals of religion in the real world are almost exclusively cartoonishly negative, but the movies also acknowledge that a world without religion isn’t great either. Instead of real religion, the academy seems to believe in a handful of imaginary religions created for the silver screen.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the controversy over New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ comments on the separation of church and state — or the lack thereof. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read MoreWorkers with Neema Village, a nonprofit supported by individual Christians and Churches of Christ, took Bernadette into the ministry’s Mothers Against Poverty program, known as MAP. She learned to sew and use a computer. She attended classes on women’s rights. Finally, after an assessment by a nurse, she was reunited with her daughter Zawadi.
Read More(OPINION) In England, proclaiming God’s blessing on same-sex relationships has become the new orthodoxy for clergy with established ties to the powers that be. But that’s not the case in Nigeria and the Global South, where Anglican leaders have urged the Church of England to consider the impact of its actions on believers facing conflict with Jihadi terrorists.
Read MoreNearly five years after approving medical marijuana, voters in the Bible Belt state will decide whether to expand cannabis sales and create a legal framework to expunge pot-related criminal offenses. People of faith are divided in a referendum that is drawing national attention.
Read MoreThe goodwill Israel earned when she sent a team of nearly 700 emergency medical responders to Turkey following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that devastated Hatay province on Feb. 6 evaporated after the revelation that the search and rescue team secretly exported two 200-year-old Scrolls of Esther from Antakya at the end of its six-day mission there.
Read More(OPINION) We cannot afford to repeat the errors of the Jesus revolution of the 1960s in the days ahead, as thousands (millions?) of young people (and others) from many different backgrounds begin to pour into our churches, looking for God, looking for hope, looking for meaning, looking for truth.
Read MoreChristians from around the world gathered online Feb. 23 to pray for Ukraine — just hours before the grim anniversary of the Russian invasion. But the ‘rough year’ has also been a year of growth and opportunity.
Read More(OPINION) No generation in history has had so many distractions to deal with. No generation in history has had so many temptations. No generation in history has had so much entertainment and defilement available right at our fingertips (quite literally). That means that it is much harder to live consecrated, undistracted lives for the Lord — lives that are free from the contamination of sin and the saturation of the world.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It would be smart for religion reporters, business reporters and education reporters to dig more into Canadian businessman Peter Chung and his involvement with King’s in the past two years as well as his other business ventures through Primacorp Ventures Inc. and the Emanata Group.
Read MoreFor a fraction of the cost of a comparable hotel in relatively expensive Bollywood, all Jews are welcome in the air-conditioned kosher guesthouse that operates thanks to the perpetual generosity of the Sir Jacob Sassoon Trusts. And the impact of the Sassoon family traces forward to 2023, when a valuable Hebrew Bible from 1,000 years ago, the Sassoon Codex, goes to auction at Sotheby’s this spring as previously reported by ReligionUnplugged.com.
Read More(OPINION) The Bible isn’t intended as a scientific textbook, and science doesn’t prove the Scriptures true. But there’s no doubt those ancient nomads, carpenters and fishermen had tapped into something way beyond themselves. They sensed truths they had no logical means of proving.
Read MoreThe Codex Sassoon has 24 books divided into the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings, abbreviated as TaNaKH in Hebrew. About 15 chapters are missing, including 10 from Genesis, but it is far more complete than the Aleppo Codex. Another medieval Bible text, the Leningrad Codex, is “entirely complete,” but is more than a century younger than Sassoon 1053, Sotheby’s said.
Read More(OPINION) Santos’ intersectionality worked perfectly in a congressional district that is itself exceedingly diverse and arguably somewhat tribal. I write from experience as I lived in that district for several years and understand the dynamics firsthand.
Read More(OPINION) As odd as all this might seem, spontaneous revivals in Christianity aren’t terribly unusual. On Feb. 3, 1970, a revival erupted at what was then Asbury College. That one, too, began at a morning chapel service. It lasted 185 hours nonstop. Intermittently, it continued for weeks. Ultimately it spread across the United States and to other countries.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the spiritual revival that drew thousands to Asbury University, a small Christian college in Kentucky. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read MoreJames Tissot (1836–1902) was a French artist whose work enjoyed enormous popularity and brought him great wealth. His works lost status soon after his death. In the following decades, when the art world turned against figurative art and the culture scorned religious faith, Tissot’s reputation faded because his art was both figurative and predominantly religious.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Hawaii’s largest and oldest volcano, Mauna Loa, began erupting on Nov. 27, 2022, with lava flowing miles away downhill. The last eruption, which lasted three weeks, was nearly 40 years ago. It is not clear how long this eruption will last, but for many Native Hawaiians, it is a profound spiritual experience.
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