News

(RNS) —  The past year on the religion beat began with a prayer meeting and retreat, and ended with a pair of attacks on faith groups. In between were moments of grief and scandal, hope and resilience. Here's what Religion News Service reporters will be following in 2020.

(RNS) — “God surprises us,” Pope Benedict XVI said in 2010, in a Christmas broadcast for the BBC. Assuring the English-speaking world that God always fulfills his promises, the pontiff cautioned that the divine doesn’t always do so in ways we expect.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., (BP) -- With the unfolding of a new year comes opportunities for new commitments, resolutions and goals. For many, these goals include dedications to Bible reading and thus, specific Bible reading plans.

Kenya, Somalia, and Bolivar, Mo. Civility, and suicide. Here are the ten most read pieces on the Word&Way website in 2019.

(RNS) — The past 10 years have witnessed monumental demographic shifts in the U.S., catastrophic natural disasters and new urgency on climate change, and a reckoning on sex abuse among religious groups. What will the next decade hold?

(RNS) — Over the last decade, prominent people — household names and lesser-known leaders on social and moral issues — died after playing an outsized role in the realm of religion.

STAFFORD, Va. (AP) — The holidays came early for some Virginia families struggling to pay school lunch debt.

(RNS) — Several recent examples demonstrate an atypically religious — and particularly Christian — impeachment process, with lawmakers, faith leaders and even members of the same famous evangelical family invoking the Almighty while making the case for and against the president.

(WW) -- With victims of fires holding a special place in her heart, Nebraska firefighter Carissa Smith began a local ministry targeted to help the victims of fires and disasters, as well as the first responders who work those tough scenes.

Economic security programs, also known as social safety nets, have been vital in efforts to reduce poverty over the past 50 years, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report published in late November.