Faith & Culture

(AP) — In a legal case with profound implications for LGBT rights and religion's place in public life, the opposing sides agree on this: It's not about the cake.

BOSTON (RNS) – Quick! The cameras are rolling! Cue the religion scholar to compress centuries of religious history into a sound bite, elucidate complex theology in eight-word sentences — and guard against any stereotyping.

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (RNS) — To hear Bruce Bachman tell it, he's just a guy with a bell, a red apron and a heart to serve who gives a little of his time during the holiday season.

He's just one of the thousands of volunteer bell ringers who keep alive a 127-year tradition.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (RNS) — After a 1993 fire, accidentally triggered by federal authorities, killed 75 members of an obscure Christian sect near Waco, Texas, one of the “lessons learned” was this: Call in religion experts in a crisis where faith is a factor.

Most Americans probably don’t realize that we have a very limited understanding of the first Thanksgiving, which took place in 1621 in Massachusetts.

Indeed, few of our present-day traditions resemble what happened almost 400 years ago, and there’s only one original account of the feast.

NOXON, Mont. (BP) -- There was a petition circulating to remove violent brawler Jim Webley from town when God intervened and changed not just Webley's life but, years later, the course of a church and a Montana community.

(RNS) — Della Reese, a onetime gospel singer and groundbreaking African-American talk show host later known for her lead role in the TV series “Touched by an Angel,” has died at age 86.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Celebrating Mass with poor people in the splendor of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis on Sunday denounced those who dismiss poverty as "not my business" and defined indifference to the needy as a "great sin."

(RNS) — In 2015, Montreal-based artist Guy Laramée placed a large-format Bible from the 19th century upright with the spine open. Then, using a power grinder, he carved a landscape into the pages and painted along the curvatures, evoking the space of a cave whittled into a sheer mountainside.

One of his most controversial statements of support for Roy Moore against recent allegations came from Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler, who declared, “There’s nothing immoral or illegal here… Maybe just a little unusual.”

Zeigler went on: “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”

Early Christians believed that Mary and Joseph did not have sex, but there was much more that was worth learning from that relationship.