News

LONGS, S.C. (BP) -- It didn't take disaster relief volunteer Ronnie Register long to describe the situation where he is serving.

"The situation here is pretty rough. There are a lot of hurting people," Register said as he looked across the church parking lot at a flooded subdivision in Longs, S.C.

(RNS) — The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, a singing phenomenon for more than 150 years, is changing its name at the request of its sponsor, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Thus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will now be called “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.”

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) — A pulpit is often regarded as a sacred and in many ways exclusive space. Most religions allow only the ordained to speak to congregants from this place. Ordinary voices seldom have access to the power of the pulpit.

Steve Norman wants to change that.

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi was rocked by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent 20-foot-high tsunami on September 28, followed by a volcanic eruption on the same island just days later. The current death toll is reportedly 1,407 and is expected to climb, with hundreds more reported injured.

NASHVILLE (BP)-- By the time churches have fully embraced Facebook, many of their members and those they are trying to reach may have left it behind.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A Christian TV network is entering the crowded world of 24-hour news broadcasting at a time when the mainstream news media are under increasing attack by President Trump and some of his supporters, many of them evangelicals.

Human trafficking offenses in the U.S. increased slightly in 2017, according to the FBI’s annual “Crime in the U.S.” report released on Sept. 24.

PALU, Indonesia (BP) -- Baptist Global Response is assessing needs on Indonesia's Sulawesi island after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami Sept. 28 killed at least 1,200 people, with the death toll expected to rise. More than 1.5 million people have been affected, according to initial reports.

Amid national media scrutiny, Hannibal-LaGrange University changed its promotional communications for Wednesday’s chapel talk by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. Word&Way first reported last week that HLGU, a Baptist school in Hannibal, Mo., could violate the IRS’s political activity ban (also called “the Johnson Amendment”) by hosting Hawley, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, a little over a month before the midterm elections.

CHICAGO (RNS) — The biggest reaction Eric Metaxas got from students this week at Judson University in suburban Elgin was when Judson President Gene Crume introduced him as one of the writers and voices on “VeggieTales,” a popular Christian animated series many millennials grew up watching.