News

NASHVILLE (BP) -- When it comes to charity, a personal touch works 10 times better than Facebook -- at least for churchgoers, according to a study released April 17.

(RNS) — Barbara Bush, who died Tuesday (April 17) in Houston, always seemed a little old-fashioned to me. But it wasn’t until a few days ago, when news broke that the former first lady was dying, at age 92, that she seemed old.

Like other aspects of her persona, Bush had an old-fashioned sort of religious faith.

(RNS) — In his 32nd book, titled simply “Faith,” Jimmy Carter looks at how belief in God and others has shaped his 93 years.

“To me, ‘faith’ is not just a noun but also a verb,” the former president writes in his latest — and possibly last — book.

(RNS) — A group of religious leaders is condemning a Missouri bill to permit people to carry concealed firearms in church without permission from clergy, with St. Louis’ Catholic archbishop threatening to sue if the bill is signed into law.

The bill would “broaden Second Amendment rights at the expense of the First Amendment right of religious liberty,” said Archbishop Robert J. Carlson.

(RNS) — Despite the slaughter of nearly a million Jews — as well as hundreds of thousands of Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others — at the World War II Nazi death camp, a survey commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany found that 66 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 “cannot identify what Auschwitz was.”

Southern states remain the most religious in the U.S., according to a Gallup report released on April 6.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- On the 50th anniversary of America's Fair Housing Act, Baptists noted progress in eliminating race-based housing discrimination while also citing a need for further improvement.

PAICINES, Calif. (RNS) — Sometimes a tomato isn’t just a salad ingredient. Sometimes it’s a call to action.

That’s the revolutionary idea of about 40 farmers who gathered for a first-of-its-kind interfaith weekend at a working ranch in the rolling green hills 60 miles southeast of San Jose. Christians, Jews, Muslims and the spiritual-but-not-religious united to seek nothing less than a complete disruption of how food is grown, distributed and even served.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Has playing the organ become a dying art?

What has happened to the organists -- the ones who read three staffs of music, dance on the pedals, maneuver multiple manuals, pull organ stops, push pistons, manipulate swell and crescendo pedals and follow a director -- all at the same time?

Visitors to Southwest Baptist University can now see about 50 artifacts unearthed in Israel, Jordan and Syria. The free exhibit, “Khirbet el-Maqatir — A Journey through Biblical History,” will run through Dec. 8.