News

The president of Turkey on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had made the religious landmark a museum. The decision sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly working on plans to annex about one-third of the Palestinian West Bank into Israel, but Baptists in the region are speaking out against such a move. While many U.S. evangelicals support the modern secular nation of Israel, Baptists who live and minister in that nation or the territory it occupies see the situation much differently.

Core principles such as support for equal rights, community engagement and eschewing partisan politics while not shying away from the pressing issues of the moment have guided St. John's for decades and continue to do so today, after the church once again found itself at the center of an American awakening over racial injustice following George Floyd's killing.

As some Black Southern Baptists urge Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, to remove from campus buildings the names of its founders who were enslavers, a Black student there is criticizing SBTS for featuring images of its founders on merchandise like mugs.

The Supreme Court is siding with two Catholic schools in a ruling that underscores that certain employees of religious schools, hospitals and social service centers can’t sue for employment discrimination. The high court's ruling on Wednesday was 7-2.

The paths of two New York City churches diverged this week — one reopened and one stayed closed. But they have shared a tragic fate, together losing at least 134 members of their mostly Hispanic congregations to the coronavirus.

As cases of coronavirus spiked upward in much of the country in June, churches and Christian camps found themselves with outbreaks in their communities. Although many congregations resumed in-person worship in May or June after a couple months of virtual alternatives, some are returning to an online format amid the latest coronavirus surge.

As Californians once again reckon with their statues of Junipero Serra, the 18th-century Franciscan priest who founded what would become 21 missions along the California coast, Native people and Indigenous scholars say it’s time for their voices to be heard and their existence to be recognized.

Popular author and speaker Tony Campolo, 85, is recovering from a stroke he had on June 20, his family shared publicly in a statement on Monday (July 6). The stroke partially paralyzed the left side of Campolo’s face and body. 

Megachurch pastor Darrin Patrick’s cause of death has officially been ruled a suicide, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.