News

(RNS) — During his lifetime, John Wanamaker built two megachurches.

One tried to save souls.

Another sold clothes, jewelry and perfume.

As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year in the case Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, In. v. Comer, Missouri taxpayers are footing the bill for new playground surfaces at churches and Christian schools — and that likely means some public schools and city parks did not receive funding.

(RNS) — The Rev. Mark Harris, a Southern Baptist pastor turned aspiring congressman, is facing allegations of election fraud in North Carolina, where authorities are investigating whether an operative for his campaign paid workers to take absentee ballots from voters illegally.

(RNS) — Hanukkah is meant to mark the victory of the Jewish people over religious oppression.

But in the days and weeks leading up to Hanukkah, which began Sunday (Dec. 2), many Jews have felt defeated as a steady wave of anti-Semitic incidents roiled the country.

DEAD SEA, Israel (BP) -- The Dead Sea has been receding for decades, with some experts predicting its total demise by 2050. But a $1.5 billion plan to resurrect the biblically prominent sea is nearing fruition, NBC News reported Nov. 29.

HOUSTON (AP) — George H.W. Bush, a World War II hero whose presidency soared with the coalition victory over Iraq in Kuwait, but then plummeted in the throes of a weak economy that led voters to turn him out of office after a single term, has died. He was 94.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (RNS) — Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has appointed its first “women’s support coordinator” to address any gender-related "difficulties or challenges” that women encounter on its campus.

(RNS) — A handwritten 1954 letter by physicist Albert Einstein in which the Nobel laureate is dismissive of religion in general and Judaism in particular is expected to bring a seven-figure price when auctioned by Christie’s in New York City on Dec. 4.

EDMOND, Okla. (RNS) — When Cody and Breanna Brumley began the process of adoption a few years ago, they asked two dear friends in their Sunday School class for advice.

“This is going to be hard,” Breanna Brumley remembers the friends telling them. “This is going to change you, but for the better.”

A former corrections officer, Rev. David Tolliver serves as chaplain at Jefferson City Correctional Center. As the pastor of Jamestown Baptist Church, he tries to bring light into what can be a dark place, encouraging those serving time in the medium- to maximum-security prison.