(REVIEW) With no meaningful character arc and no coherent theme, “Honey Don’t!” leaves viewers adrift. It’s a detective story with no one to root for and nothing to say. Instead of delivering clarity in a chaotic world, it adds to the noise. In the words of Macbeth — adapted by Ethan Coen’s brother Joel in “The Tragedy of Macbeth” — the film is “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Read MorePastors have a lot of thoughts about discipleship, but they aren’t sure it’s happening in their churches. In the first part of the State of Discipleship study from Lifeway Research, U.S. Protestant pastors shared their understanding of what discipleship means and how it best occurs. The full State of Discipleship will be released over the next year, providing the perspectives of both pastors and churchgoers.
Read MoreJames Dobson, a politically influential conservative and anti-abortion activist who founded the Christian ministry Focus on the Family, died on Thursday at the age of 89. Dobson started Focus on the Family in 1977, which had more than 1,000 employees at its peak in the mid-90s, giving him the chance to influence legislation and White House policy for decades.
Read MoreThe lead pastor of Central Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, has resigned after confessing to a “pattern of moral failure,” according to an announcement posted earlier this month on the church’s website. While the announcement is now deleted, the text of it is still visible on Google’s search page.
Read More(ANALYSIS) August 22nd marks the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, a day established by the U.N. General Assembly to condemn acts of violence targeting individuals on the basis of or in the name of religion or belief.
Read MoreThe Vistula, Poland’s longest river, snakes 650 miles north from the Tatras Mountains past Krakow and Warsaw to the Gulf of Gdańsk, where it empties into the Baltic Sea. Upstream from the capital, the river flows past Góra Kalwaria, a place the country’s Catholics revere as Nowa Jerozolima (or “New Jerusalem”).
Read MoreA Church of Christ congregation is experiencing renewed growth through its bilingual ministry. Led by Costa Rican-born minister Diego Rojas, the church holds English and Spanish services, occasionally worshiping together to foster inclusion. Supported by the Herald of Truth’s MESA initiative, the church has welcomed over 200 Spanish speakers from 15 countries.
Read MoreA Muslim convert who said he saw a vision of Christ while napping at a Ugandan mosque is recovering after his relatives beat him and destroyed his home. While Uganda is not included in Open Doors’ World Watch List of the 50 countries that are the worst persecutors of Christians, Uganda ranks 72nd in the world for Christian persecution.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A young J.R.R. Tolkien wrote: “The fume of the burning, and the steam of the fair fountains of Gondolin withering in the flame of the dragons of the north, fell upon the vale of Tumladen in mournful mists.” The battlefields were “cold and terrible.”
Read MoreIt is early one morning and a child on the shore spots the ship before anyone else, shouting to greet its arrival. Women begin to gather with babies strapped to their backs. Somewhere inside a crumbling church a bell rings — not for worship — but for medicine. This is the quiet, but powerful work of a long-standing partnership led by the African Inland Church Tanzania and the U.K.-based Vine Trust.
Read MoreDaniel Floyd took the reins last Sunday at scandal-scarred Gateway Church, the multicampus congregation whose founder, Robert Morris, faces a criminal child sexual abuse trial next month. Floyd pledged a “new chapter” for Gateway, which reportedly lost members and tithe dollars after details of Morris’s alleged crimes became public.
Read MoreCristiano Ronaldo’s engagement in Riyadh highlights Saudi Arabia’s evolving — but still inconsistent— social norms. Once governed by strict Islamic law, the kingdom has relaxed restrictions under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms. Ronaldo and partner Georgina Rodríguez live openly as an unmarried couple — something that remains risky for ordinary Saudis, especially women.
Read MoreOne of the traits that makes Maine and New England a fertile area for the Gospel is the same one that leaves many an out-of-state missionary asking, “What did I do?” “People can misinterpret ‘honest’ as ‘mean,’” said Mike Nerney, executive director for the Maine Baptist Association. “People here are extremely open, and they’ll tell you exactly how things are and what they’re thinking.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) To create our new typology of the nones, we used a bit of machine learning. In this case, it was k-means clustering. It’s a pretty simple process, really. You pick some variables that you think that might be meaningful in creating categories and then let the algorithm find commonalities in the dataset.
Read MoreEgypt’s Ministry of Youth and Sports has launched “Youth Against Atheism,” a government program partnering with Al-Azhar, the country’s top Sunni Muslim institution and the Coptic Church to combat what officials call “electronic atheism” spreading through social media platforms. The initiative targets five areas and marks an escalation in state efforts to address the phenomenon.
Read More(REVIEW) “East of Wall” is a heartwarming and raw story about overcoming hardship and helping others. Unfortunately, its unusual style both helps and hinders our ability to connect with the people and experiences at the center of the drama. The film follows Tabatha, a rebellious horse trainer, who, after her husband’s death, wrestles with unresolved grief while providing refuge for a group of teens.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Give up our rights? Become servants instead? Balderdash! If it matters, I don’t find what Paul says in Ephesians any easier to put into practice than anyone else does. I fail miserably. But I think he was right.
Read MoreIn a country known for its spices, yoga, the Taj Mahal and Hinduism, a movement is taking place to show the world that Christianity came to India as early as the first century CE. Indian Christians believe their history and heritage can be traced back to Saint Thomas the Apostle.
Read More(OPINION) Back in 2023, I wrote that I was “both frustrated and mesmerized” by the first season of this docuseries. “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” was a behind-the-scenes story of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their children, the stars of the TLC hit television series “19 and Counting” and a number of spin-offs.
Read More(ANALYSIS) International lawyers from a U.K.-based Doughty Street Chambers and Howard Kennedy raised the dire situation of Iranian journalists globally, with several of them being subjected to serious threats. According to their statement, over the past six weeks, Iranian authorities have intimidated and threatened 45 journalists and 315 of their family members.
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