Volunteers Still Needed for Historic Midwest Flooding
With tornado season looming and increased volunteer needs anticipated nationwide, SBDR leaders are asking Southern Baptists to consider opportunities to aid flood relief efforts in Nebraska and Iowa.
Anti-Muslim Hate Is Driven by Politics, Not Faith — and It’s Preventable, Study Suggests
(RNS) — Americans who personally know a Muslim are more than twice as likely to have a favorable opinion toward Muslims than those who do not, according to a new report.
China, Two Dozen Other Countries Top Religious Freedom Offenders List in USCIRF Report
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan organization created 20 years ago, concludes in its 2019 report that “innumerable believers and nonbelievers across the globe continued in 2018 to experience manifold suffering due to their beliefs.”
2nd Mozambique Cyclone Met with Prayer, Response
PEMBA, Mozambique (BP) -- With Mozambique suffering its second major cyclone in the past six weeks, Baptist Global Response has requested prayer for ongoing disaster relief ministry in the southeast African nation.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: Halima Aden First to Wear Hijab, Burkini
(USA Today) — MJ Day, SI Swimsuit editor, promised an issue with “a wide range of age and race and levels of modesty that really is a first for us” in a recent "Good Morning America" segment.
Pew Study Finds Continued Support in Western Europe for Paying Church Taxes
PARIS (RNS) — To Americans who drop coins into the collection plate, write a check or perhaps text in their Sunday donation, the idea that the state would charge an annual tax to support their church can seem strange and off-putting indeed. Not so in Western Europe.
2020 Democratic Hopefuls Field Faith Forum Invites
(RNS) – Democratic White House hopefuls — from Elizabeth Warren to Pete Buttigieg — are already talking a lot about God. Turns out both conservatives and progressives have been listening, and they want to hear more.
In N.C., a Religious Coalition Welcomes the Formerly Incarcerated Home
As inmates are being released from prison, states, cities and municipalities are recognizing the need to provide services to help people reenter society if they are to remain out of prison.
In a Time of Rising Suicide, Religious Communities Move Beyond Condemnation to Care
(RNS) — The suicide rate is on the rise, contributing to a drop in life expectancy. In the midst of the shock and pain that often attends such unexpected deaths, it's crucial that clergy and congregants reach out to those left behind, offering a message of grace and hope rather than one of rejection and condemnation
IRS: The Satanic Temple is a Real Religion
(RNS) — The Satanic Temple announced this week that the IRS now recognizes it as a church. As courts wrestle with the First Amendment implications of what is — and isn’t — a religion, scholars who study religion agreed that the term is slippery.