How To Identify A ‘True’ Christian, If Indeed You Can Even Find One

(OPINION) An editor friend forwarded me an email he’d received. The original sender said he was reading articles about how intertwined Christians are these days with secular politics and found the subject very confusing. He suggested that somebody ought to explain how to identify a genuine Christian as opposed, I assume, to people only using faith to further their political agenda.

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Sermons On Hate Still Resonate 60 Years After JFK’s Assassination

On the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s death, a leading scholar on faith and politics sees lessons for Americans today. “One overarching theme emerges again and again: A call for civility, a call for condemnation of extremism and a call to end the divisions and polarizations,” said Matthew Wilson, director of Southern Methodist University’s Center for Faith and Learning.

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Pregnancy Resource Centers Save Lives And Change Hearts And Minds

(OPINION) For decades, the pro-life movement in America was essentially a grassroots movement. The soul of this movement was compassion. That compassion was most evident in the network of more than 3,000 pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) that had grown up around the nation. Many of them have been part of two large networks called Care Net and Heartbeat International.

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Unintended Consequences Of Martin Luther’s Reformation

(OPINION) In the years following Martin Luther’s 95 theses, Luther was shocked by much of what he saw. What followed were uprisings so brutal and bloody that Luther himself condemned the rebels in terms so hysterical that even his admirers were taken back.

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Why People Switch Churches And The High Hopes That Come With Such Changes

Adult churchgoers in the United States infrequently switch churches. But if they make a congregational change, it’s likely they made a residential change first. And those who switch have high expectations for their new congregation.

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♗ Why Pope Francis Removed A Conservative East Texas Bishop 🔌

This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights Pope Francis’ removal of a conservative bishop in East Texas. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.

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Which Christians Are Abandoning The Evangelical Label?

(ANALYSIS) Here’s the purpose of this post: figuring out just how many Americans have shed that label in the last several years. The CES asks every single respondent, do you consider yourself a born-again or evangelical Christian or not? Only two response options — yes and no. It’s about as simple and straightforward as you can get. So, let’s get to it.

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The Affectionate, But Half-Hearted Faith of ‘Next Goal Wins’

(REVIEW) The movie tells the true story (previously told by the documentary by the same name) of the American Samoan national soccer team’s inglorious and historic losing streak that was finally turned around when disgraced coach Thomas Rongen came on board to help turn the team around. 

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Beauty During Wartime: Ukrainian Artists Display Resilience and Faith

The work of five Ukrainian artists, whose art varies across artistic tradition and highlight the beauty of Ukraine and its people, is currently on view at the Sheen Center’s Janet Hennessey Dilenschneider Gallery. The exhibition, “Beauty During Wartime and Before,” is particularly meant to honor resilience and faith during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

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Christian Apologist And Prominent Atheist Debate God’s Existence

There was no interrupting, no yelling, no hurled insults, no pounding the podium in this debate, despite its divisive and eternally consequential subject. Instead, the two speakers — Kyle Butt, a Christian apologist, and Michael Shermer, an atheist, or skeptic — treated each other with remarkable respect as they argued the existence of God.

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Modern People Are Good With ‘Stuff,’ But Struggle With Higher Virtues

(OPINION) Quoting Alexander Solzhenitsyn is not a typical cold open for a Jewish comedian. The Russian-British Konstantin Kisin — a self-avowed "politically non-binary satirist" — wasn't joking during a speech to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship in London', where he described what he sees as immediate threats to liberal Western culture.

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Hebrew Note From 1446 Reveals ‘Lost’ Earthquake In Italy

A geologist working for Italy’s Department of Civil Protection made a rare discovery — a description in medieval Hebrew of a previously unknown series of destructive earthquakes in 1446 that rocked the central part of the Italian peninsula — while carrying out research in the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome.

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Singer Sabrina Carpenter Ruffles Catholic Feathers In Church Video

(ANALYSIS) The name Sabrina Carpenter may not mean anything to anyone over 25, but she was at the center of a major religion story involving the Catholic church. A new video shows Carpenter in an outfit not suitable for church as several men fight over her. It also shows her attending their funerals at a New York church with candy-colored coffins.

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Uganda’s High Court Directs Anglican Church To Use Canon Law In Election Fight

The High Court in Uganda has directed members of the Anglican Church to use canon law to resolve conflicts arising from the process of electing their bishops instead of petitioning the country’s courts for legal redress. 

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Muslim Critic And Outspoken Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali Converts To Christianity

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a critic of Islam and vocal atheist, has gone through a new conversion — revealing that she’s now a Christian for spiritual and cultural reasons. "I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity,” she said. “I discover a little more at church each Sunday.”

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A Solid News Peg For The Under-Covered Story Of Christian Persecution

(ANALYSIS) With all-important developments in the Middle East and Ukraine, it seems off-kilter to state that another major international story is being severely neglected and has long been so. But such is The Guy’s opinion about mainstream media neglect of the waves of evidence for ongoing global persecution of Christians, on which we now have a Nov. 1 news peg.

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Why Marvel Changed Its Mind About God’s Goodness

(ANALYSIS) Marvel continues its trend of wrestling with the goodness of God — but now has started to tilt toward believing that the Almighty may be good after all. Why the change and what led them to this newfound realization is rooted in both faith and power.

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