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Perhaps the third time will be the charm for United Methodists awaiting a vote to officially split the denomination. The United Methodist Church has announced the dates for the next meeting of its global decision-making body after postponing its 2020 General Conference meeting three times for pandemic-related reasons.

Over the weekend, the ReAwaken America Tour rolled into Branson, Missouri. This traveling variety show of Christian Nationalism, anti-vaccine rhetoric, QAnon conspiracies, and election denialism featured significant political figures in the MAGA world.

One candidate in Georgia’s Senate contest warns that “spiritual warfare” has entangled America and offers himself to voters as a “warrior for God.” But it isn’t the ordained Baptist minister who leads the church where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

Each faith leader took turns denouncing ReAwaken and its headliner, General Michael Flynn, in front of a mobile billboard that offered messages like “stop twisting our faith to attack democracy” and “beware of false prophets.” The ministers also called out other notable far-right speakers at the event, such as Mike Lindell, Clay Clark, and Eric Trump, for their COVID-19 conspiracy theories and continued election denialism.

As the Jan. 6 insurrection showed, our democracy is under attack. And Christian nationalism, which seeks to privilege one faith tradition over others, has fueled the anti-democratic efforts. Rather than serving as a balm for our fractured nation, religion is being used to further divide us.

A group of prominent Christian leaders, including the heads of major denominations, say they submitted a letter earlier this year to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, urging members to examine Christian nationalism and arguing the ideology played a crucial role in the insurrection.

Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, makes the case that with hundreds of right-wing political candidates using Christ’s name to deny election results, demonize their opponents, and spread discrimination – all with the blessing of far too many evangelical pastors and activists – Christian Nationalism is the single biggest threat to both democracy and the church today.

With the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference beginning this coming Sunday in Egypt, we are offering a piece originally published as the cover story of Word&Way magazine in October 2019 but which has never been published online. In addition to making an argument for why Christians should care about climate change, it includes reports from when Brian attended COP21 in Paris, France, in 2015.

Calvin University’s board of trustees has allowed a group of faculty members to dissent from a clause in a confession of faith that regards sex outside of heterosexual marriage as sinful, thus enabling them to continue to work at the school while also respecting their convictions. The Grand Rapids, Michigan, school is wholly owned by the Christian Reformed Church, a Dutch Calvinist denomination of about 200,000 members.

An ancient Christian monastery possibly dating as far back as the years before Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, officials announced Thursday.