Can Empathy Be Learned? Science Offers Some Clues
(RNS) — The mass shooting in Las Vegas has become yet another example of human capacity for evil. Almost immediately, people cried for gun control, greater checks on assault weapons and measures to increase hotel security.
But what about calls for increasing levels of empathy in society?
Church Clarity Pressures Pastors and Churches to Disclose Views on Homosexuality
(RNS) - In a time when the church is bitterly divided over sexual ethics and LGBT issues, it is, well, unclear, whether Church Clarity’s effort will create more division or less.
MercyMe, Williams, Winans Have Big Night at GMA Dove Awards
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Gospel music veterans MercyMe were named Artist of the Year at the 48th annual Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards Oct. 17 in Lipscomb University's Allen Arena in Nashville.
Study: Young Bible Readers More Likely to Be Faithful Adults
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Most churchgoing Protestant parents of young adults say their kids grew up to be Christians.
According to a LifeWay Research survey released Oct. 17, the biggest factor predicting their spiritual health as young adults is whether they read the Bible regularly as kids.
New Film on Mark Twain Highlights Journey’s Impact on His Religious Views
(RNS) — Mark Twain, a.k.a. Samuel Clemens, didn’t have much of anything good to say about religion, at least the organized kind.
“I have a religion — but you will call it blasphemy,” he wrote in a letter in 1865. “It is that there is a God for the rich man but none for the poor … Perhaps your religion will sustain you, will feed you — I place no dependence in mine. Our religions are alike, though, in one respect — neither can make a man happy when he is out of luck.”
Center for Congregational Song Launches as Antidote to ‘Worship Wars’
(RNS) — Praise team leaders, organists, gospel choir members and other lovers of church music will gather in Dallas this weekend to launch the Center for Congregational Song in an effort to counter the “worship wars.”
Christian Women Gather on National Mall for Day of Prayer
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Twenty years ago, men gathered as “Promise Keepers” and filled the National Mall for a prayer rally seeking repentance and spiritual revival.
On Monday (Oct. 9), it was the women’s turn.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Discovery — Still Riveting After 70 Years
(RNS) — For many people, biblical scholarship — with its archaic languages and ancient texts — is boring stuff.
But that’s not true of the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1947 in Judean wilderness caves near Jerusalem.
RNS Fall Religion Reading: Heavy-Duty Edition
(RNS) Fall is when reading turns serious again, after the light-as-a-breeze books of the summer. This list of new and recently released books reflects that return to seriousness, as many ask big questions to which there are few (if any) answers.
Commuting to Nairobi, the Train Becomes a Church
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) – This commuter train takes its passengers to work, but the preacher aboard hopes it will also take them to God.
Starting in the suburb of Ruiru, about 19 miles north of Nairobi, the train for the past five years has informally hosted a growing number of self-styled pastors and a makeshift, moving congregation eager to hear the gospel.