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NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (RNS) — To hear Bruce Bachman tell it, he's just a guy with a bell, a red apron and a heart to serve who gives a little of his time during the holiday season.

He's just one of the thousands of volunteer bell ringers who keep alive a 127-year tradition.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (RNS) — After a 1993 fire, accidentally triggered by federal authorities, killed 75 members of an obscure Christian sect near Waco, Texas, one of the “lessons learned” was this: Call in religion experts in a crisis where faith is a factor.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- LifeWay Christian Resources dedicated its new corporate headquarters Monday (Nov. 27) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a prayer of thanksgiving and a pledge to remain faithful to God's Word.

The supply chain ethics of 20 leading electronics and jewelry companies were ranked based on conflict-free mineral sourcing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an Enough Project report released on Nov. 16.

Conflict-free minerals, the report explained, "do not directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups, including state military units from Congo as well as other predatory regional governments."

(The Conversation) — Over 300 people were killed and many more injured in an attack on a Sufi mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai region on Friday (Nov. 24). The assault began with a bomb exploding as people were finishing their Friday prayers. As people fled and ambulances arrived, militants opened gunfire on them. It is the deadliest ever attack on civilians in Egypt’s modern history.

This is not the first time a cherished Sufi site and Sufi worshipers have been the target of extremists.

Most Americans probably don’t realize that we have a very limited understanding of the first Thanksgiving, which took place in 1621 in Massachusetts.

Indeed, few of our present-day traditions resemble what happened almost 400 years ago, and there’s only one original account of the feast.

NOXON, Mont. (BP) -- There was a petition circulating to remove violent brawler Jim Webley from town when God intervened and changed not just Webley's life but, years later, the course of a church and a Montana community.

As The Baptist Home breaks ground for its new Central Missouri campus, administrator Steve Long reflects: "My vision is to be a spiritual visionary with a passion for creative leadership. I see myself as a pioneer blazing a trail and leading a path for others to follow.

"To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.'”

(RNS) — Della Reese, a onetime gospel singer and groundbreaking African-American talk show host later known for her lead role in the TV series “Touched by an Angel,” has died at age 86.

Religious bias was behind 21 percent of single-bias crimes in the U.S. in 2016, according to the FBI's 2016 Hate Crime Statistics released on Nov. 13.