Politics

(ANALYSIS) The 2024 election faced a situation that echoes the circumstances of 2004. In the Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court essentially turned the question of abortion regulation back to the states. That means that the ballot initiative/referendum has become the instrument through which states can set limits (or not) on abortion access.

Pete Hegseth wears his Christian pride on his sleeve — literally. The Minnesota National Guard veteran, TV host and now nominee for U.S. secretary of defense has a slew of religiously inspired tattoos that have drawn attention as Hegseth's public vetting for a senior position in President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet has begun.

(REVIEW) “We Who Wrestle with God” is a solid compilation of Peterson’s views on the continuity between biblical testimony and the human condition. If he’d been more disciplined with his prose, the good in his work would have been more readable. And if he’d taken more seriously wrestling with the text itself, there would have been a lot more good to read.

(ANALYSIS) Do the Ten Commandments have a valid place in U.S. classrooms? Louisiana’s Legislature and governor insist the answer is “yes.” But on Nov. 12, 2024, a federal judge said “no.”

(ANALYSIS) In 2023, 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes were documented in 35 European countries. This included 232 personal attacks, such as harassment, threats and physical violence. At least 2,000 Christian places of worship were damaged. Attacks took place throughout the continent, including Germany, the United Kingdom and especially France.

(OPINION) As someone who battled unhealthy eating habits the first 59 years of my life, I am the last one to criticize someone for trying almost anything to lose weight. These are difficult battles, and many of us will take a lifeline wherever we find it. So, to repeat, I am the last one to criticize.

(ANALYSIS) Does anyone remember Oct. 7, 2023? Do you recall the heart-stopping morning news, declaring that Hamas terrorists had carried out the most horrifying, brutal massacre imaginable?

(ANALYSIS) Turnout! Due to the stay-at-home factor, Democratic votes for president fell by some nine million from 2020, causing political scientist James Galbraith to say the party had committed “suicide.” Kamala Harris and the Democrats had a problem with men. Donald Trump’s Republicans had a big problem with women (though Harris did a bit worse with them than the male Joe Biden had).

It turns out what happens in Vegas doesn’t necessarily stay there. In fact, sin is everywhere — from beer-loving Milwaukee to decadent New Orleans — meaning that the U.S. is filled with people behaving badly, a new study finds. The report compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 37 key indicators and seven sinful behaviors, including greed, lust, vanity and laziness.

(ANALYSIS) Democracy depends upon using words wisely. With the right words, citizens can live and work together, even in disagreement – and resolve conflicts peacefully. A lesson from Buddhism seems particularly apt in this moment of enemyship: Treat the people you disagree with as mistaken rather than evil.

(OPINION) So what are we to do? Wring our hands and swallow nerve pills like they’re Pez? Stay hopping mad at those on the other side of our political barricades? That’s sure no way to spend the next four years. That’s a recipe for madness, both personal and societal.

(ANALYSIS) Now, thanks to a brave young Yazidi woman, Mediha Ibrahim Alhamad, the struggle to reestablish life after years of enslavement is brought to the surface, with a documentary from director Hasan Oswald and executive producer Emma Thompson.

(ANALYSIS) I’ve been a party to a lot of conversations about being mainline over the last 20 years. And sometimes I get the distinct impression that evangelicals really, really don’t like mainline Protestants. But do prefer nonbelievers to mainline Christians?

Soon after becoming president, Democrat Jimmy Carter signed the Hyde Amendment into law — barring the use of federal funds for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake. When the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration attempted to kill the Hyde Amendment, a small — but symbolic — group of Democrats appealed to the elderly Carter for help.

(REVIEW) In 2018, Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared on the East African nation’s political scene almost from nowhere. Claiming to be responding to an assignment by God, the young Pentecostal Christian promised democratic salvation and national unity to a hopelessly divided nation.

(OPINION) It was all the rage back in 2020. A chorus of prophetic leaders announced with certainty that Donald Trump would be reelected and serve a second term in the White House, but he did not — at least, not in 2020.

(ESSAY) When we finally arrived, I was greeted with an obvious sort of curiosity. I later learned that I was the first white person to visit the city since the violence broke out over a year ago. I was stunned by this revelation. In a city that is under siege and giving refuge to 40,000 people, not a single emissary, journalist or missionary from a Western nation had bothered to visit?

Freedom of religion or belief, a right that speaks to something so deep-seated in each of us that it practically defines what it is to be human, is under attack in many parts of the world. Repressive laws, exclusion, deportation, imprisonment and out-and-out genocide threaten the liberty of far too many religious communities in far too many places.

As President-elect Donald Trump huddles with his transition team to shape his new cabinet, several influential figures who played a key role in his campaign’s outreach to Arab American voters in Michigan are pushing for him to adopt a more favorable stance toward Palestinians in a post-war effort for regional peace.

Members of the small Jewish community in Amsterdam confronted the city’s deputy mayor Friday morning, demanding answers for its failure to prevent violent attacks on Israeli soccer fans the night before that international Jewish organizations and leaders condemned as a pogrom. Videos showed men running through the streets beating Israelis and shooting fireworks at them.

As I watched Tuesday’s returns roll in, I kept noticing that much of the “news” in the 2024 election was actually old news for people who have been following the “Crossroads” podcast for the past decade.

Fethullah Gulen was an Islamic cleric who had built a powerful global movement — but eventually found himself exiled in the U.S. and caught up in accusations that he had orchestrated a military coup against Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan. 

(ANALYSIS) Forget the opinions of newspaper czars. The question many voters needed to know in this feverish White House race was simple: Who did Hell endorse? Writing in the style of “The Screwtape Letters” by Christian apologist C.S. Lewis (in which a veteran tempter lectures lesser demons), Dominick Baruffi didn't answer the question.

Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris and returning to the White House for the second time following his unexpected victory in 2016. The win marked an unlikely political comeback for Trump. Faith voters were a big reason why Trump and the GOP dominated the 2024 election cycle.

(ANALYSIS) If you tune into mainstream media, especially in India, you might find yourself asking, “What the heck is going on in Bangladesh?” With that same question in mind, we left Delhi for Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. However, our six-day journey through Dhaka and Dinajpur left us feeling more hopeful than fearful about Bangladesh’s future.

Check out all the state-by-state results in the presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races.

Donald Trump's fans and critics alike have compared him to some of history's most famous rulers: Cyrus the Great, Adolf Hitler, King David and more. But a celebrity pastor named Jonathan Cahn wants his evangelical followers to think of the Republican candidate as a present-day manifestation of a far more obscure leader: the biblical king Jehu.

(ANALYSIS) Here’s a behind-the-scenes bit of information: I don’t have any raw data at my disposal about how religious groups are intending to vote in the 2024 presidential election. However, I do have a way to back into some information about how things should shake out come Tuesday night.

(ANALYSIS) That was the eye-catching headline for a 2019 article. Last month, the watchdog website Ministry Watch pursued its long-running concern that’s also raised in a September article by University of Notre Dame law professor Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a tax expert.