(ANALYSIS) The Shroud of Turin, the world’s most famous and most-examined artifact, is revered by devotees as the actual burial cloth that covered Jesus Christ’s body after his crucifixion. Many will consider that inconceivable, but is there reason to accept the claim? Or is this celebrated cloth merely a pious artwork, or a clever fraud, that originated in medieval times?
Read More(REVIEW) Presented as an offbeat rom-com, “Between the Temples” contains a depth of feeling and personal reflection that’s admirable. It’s a must-see for many reasons, and only one of them is its central romance. It’s also a hilarious misadventure, a reflection on life and relationships and the beautiful journey two people take to rediscovering faith.
Read More(OPINION) There is a Talmudic dictum that states, “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” This is part of a discussion of the laws of self-defense, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited it with reference to the targeted killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Daniel Silliman’s “One Last Soul: Richard Nixon’s Search for Salvation” (Eerdman’s, 2024) is a well-written biography of the president who won a 49-state reelection victory in 1972 and resigned in disgrace two years later. Silliman’s scenes include Nixon as a 22-year-old working in his dad’s store “peeling grimy leaves off the lettuce and picking out the bruised fruit, which was starting to decay."
Read More(ANALYSIS) Please allow me a moment of grief and frustration. I am, you see, worrying about friends who are missing, and to be blunt, no one knows if some of them will be fatalities in the the great Hurricane Helene catastrophe in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Basically all the Christian traditions are at the top of this graph — Protestant, “Just Christian,” Orthodox and Catholic, in that order. In each case about three-quarters lean toward not finding it acceptable to shout down a speaker. The groups at the bottom are the three types of nones and the Jewish sample.
Read More(OPINION) More than anybody I’ve ever known, Dad loved God. I mean, he really loved God, as if God was as real and tangible as a puppy or my mom. Meanwhile, he fought a probable emotional disorder on his own, the best he could, with no counseling and no medication, just him and the Holy Ghost waging war with his demons.
Read MoreSpearheading one of a growing number of attempts among evangelicals to empower clergy and laypeople to reframe the political divide, the creators of “The After Party” hope to foster conversations that will not only promote healing but enable those engaged to participate in public life in ways that are constructive, rather than chronically divisive.
Read More(OPINION) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a good speaker with a very good case: Israel is under attack by Iranian-backed terrorists whom the world community is rather guilty of appeasing. If he had stuck to that message in his Friday address to the United Nations General Assembly and gone on to project some humanity and vision, it might have been a more effective speech.
Read MoreHezbollah rockets lit up the sky above Nazareth, Israel, as sirens wailed across the city. Windows shook from explosions as the Iron Dome — Israel’s missile defense system — intercepted the incoming projectiles.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, explained that his team is looking into the abductions of Ukrainian children to Russia, but also the destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage linked to Ukrainian identity, among others. He also indicated that his team is investigating mass killings, such as those in Bucha, as a crime of genocide.
Read MoreEntering into the final months leading up to the 2024 presidential election, former President Trump holds a sizable lead over Vice President Kamala Harris among evangelicals. Likely voters with evangelical beliefs are twice as likely to plan to cast their ballot for Trump than Harris (61% to 31%), according to a study from Lifeway Research. Few say they are still undecided (5%) or supporting another candidate (3%).
Read MoreAmong the parade of priests and nuns who stroll in and around Vatican City, there is a special breed of journalist who is tasked with explaining the pope and the Roman curia to the world. These people are known as Vatican watchers — a “Vaticanista” in Italian — and they've been around since the 1960s. Even in the digital age, these journalists have become essential to understanding the church.
Read MoreIf you fly up to high altitude to study the past 50 years of American religious life, here is what you will see.
Read MoreVice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris told an interviewer Tuesday (Sept. 24) that she would be in favor of eliminating the filibuster for votes on abortion-related legislation in the Senate. Harris has made abortion a centerpiece of her campaign, pledging to sign any bill that “restore[s] reproductive freedom nationwide,” according to her website.
Read MoreSkillet frontman John Cooper says the band wants a revolution. And from recent indications on Apple Music, fans agree. The band has a new album called "Revolution" that's coming in November, but its first single debuted at No. 1 on the Apple iTunes rock and music video charts in August. Ironically, the song is called “Unpopular."
Read MoreA new survey of Catholics in the United States and across six Latin American countries found that majorities want the church to allow for the use of birth control and letting women become priests. The Pew Research Center study also found that public opinion was more divided on whether the church should allow priests to marry and the recognition of same-sex marriages.
Read MoreControversial pastor Mark Driscoll is citing First Amendment rights in his fight against the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, to display a sign to vote for Jesus in property adjacent to his church. The sign reading, “Jesus Christ ’24,” is posted on the right of way property bordering the street in front of Driscoll’s church, Trinity Church in Scottsdale.
Read MoreChina has tightened its control of religion, creating such crimes as genocide, mass arrests and enforced disappearances, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a new fact sheet, days after China released long-imprisoned American Protestant pastor David Lin.
Read MoreEight years ago, Lifeway Research asked Protestant pastors who they planned to support in the presidential election and only three percent declined to answer. That number didn't change much in 2020, when four percent declined. But things changed recently, when almost a quarter of the pastors refused to voice their choice in the 2024 White House race.
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