News

Religious tourism has been significantly affected by the spread of the coronavirus, with 63.8% of travelers reducing their travel plans as a result. As COVID-19 evolved to become a global pandemic, governments across the globe closed sacred sites and temporarily banned religious travel.

Once Hurricane Laura passes and assessments are in, faith-based disaster-relief groups will be among the first to respond. Already, teams have been watching the storm and making plans all week.

Two significant, global religious bodies on Thursday (Aug. 27) called on Christians to band together to fight “sins” laid bare or aggravated by the pandemic, including racism and economic injustice.

Throughout Latin America, evangelical churches have flouted public health guidelines by holding in-person services, or have personally ministered to church members in homes and other settings. In at least two countries, evangelical pastors have died in alarming numbers during the pandemic.

After the massive explosion on Aug. 4 in Beirut, Lebanon, some mental health professionals have offered to help those grappling with the shock and trauma of a blast that devastated a people wearied by severe economic turmoil and the coronavirus pandemic and related hardship.

While millions of Americans watch the Republican National Convention, a smaller group of Republicans, former Republicans, and independents is tuning in to a counter-convention — one they hope might put the United States on what they consider a more principled path. 

Over the years, throngs of protesters — many of them people of faith — have assembled to remember the March on Washington. This year, the gatherings will both resemble and differ from the first one on Aug. 28, 1963.

Muslim and Christian leaders are decrying the police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as authorities begin an investigation into the incident and the governor calls for a special session of the legislature to address police accountability.

Jerry Falwell Jr., the embattled president of Liberty University and one of the biggest champions of President Donald Trump, has resigned within hours of the publication of a news story that alleged he and his wife Becki had a years-long sexual relationship with a business associate. 

President Donald Trump falsely claimed that “the Democrats took the word God out of the Pledge of Allegiance” at the Democratic National Convention. But while the DNC did include the phrase “under God” in the Pledge, the socialist Baptist minister who wrote the Pledge left God out of it.