News

ASHKELON, Israel (RNS) — The moment Judy Spanglet heard the words “Color Red" come over Israel’s incoming-rocket alert system, she rushed into her apartment’s concrete-reinforced “safe room" and bolted the heavy door.

Moments later her building shuddered as a Grad rocket landed in a park across the street.

PARADISE, Calif. (BP) -- Members of Paradise Ridge Southern Baptist Church have asked pastor Bob Sorensen if they will continue to have a church but not because their building is gone. They ask because the Camp Fire destroyed much of their community.

(RNS) — “And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come — great responsibility!”

Those words, written by Stan Lee, appear in the momentous final panel of the first story to feature the Amazing Spider-Man, published in 1962’s "Amazing Fantasy #15."

ROCKVILLE, Va. (BP) -- International Mission Board trustees elected Chitwood unanimously as the entity's 13th president during a 20-minute executive session at the IMB's International Learning Center near Richmond, Va. They also elected IMB interim president Clyde Meador as interim executive vice president.

NASHVILLE, N.C. (RNS) — Inside a squat cinderblock building on the grounds of Nash Correctional Institution, 24 inmates are hunched over white plastic tables listening to Professor James Dew explain how God is omnipotent and omniscient.

But Dew is not preaching  to his audience as he paces the room posing questions about whether God can sin (No) or know people’s emotions (there’s disagreement, but most Christians say yes). He is teaching theology to prospective ministers.

(RNS) — Anyra Cano Valencia was having dinner with her husband, Carlos, and their family when an urgent knock came at their door.

The Valencias, pastors at Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo in Fort Worth, Texas, opened the door to a desperate, overwhelmed congregant.

HAYS, Kan. (BP) -- This is probably the last thing any of Bethany Wood's college friends would guess she's doing in her "grown up" years: mother of five, foster parent, direct sales business owner, photographer, arts council, community Bible study, 4-H and a lay leader in her local church.

MAGALIA, Calif. (BP) -- When one of the deadliest wildfires in state history struck the Northern California town of Magalia, pastor Doug Crowder didn't get to preach his Veterans Day sermon about risking death to save others. But he got to live it.

(RNS) — President Trump signed a proclamation Friday (Nov. 9) barring anyone who enters the United States outside of official border crossings from applying for asylum in the country.

Trump hinted at such plans before the midterms, while discussing a caravan of would-be asylum seekers traveling through Central America toward the United States. 

(RNS) — Muslim women were elected to Congress for the first time. The number of non-religious elected officials expanded. And for the first time in memory an incumbent senator mentioned the upcoming Hindu holiday of Diwali in an acceptance speech.