Ministry can mean feeding the hungry, praying with the sick or visiting the imprisoned. But it can also mean coaching a basketball team, organizing track-and-field events or cheering on a child-athlete. At least it does for people of faith who…
Pastor: ‘Protecting borders’ was also the excuse for detention of Japanese-Americans
Jennifer Ikoma-Motzko, a Japanese-American mom and Baptist minister, says an unusual weariness crept over her this summer when news broke of the forced separation of immigrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border. “As the images and stories started…
Civil Rides sends cyclists pedaling into history, ministry
Some of the photos on Jason Coker’s Facebook page may give the impression he’s out riding the Tour de France these days. But the helmet, colorful team jersey and cycling pants he and others are wearing in the April picture…
Trump, Kavanaugh and their strange (religious) bedfellows
It’s not every day that the progressive Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the conservative American Family Association agree on something. But it’s happened thanks to President Trump, whose nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, 53, to the…
Why Americans prefer a Bible in their hands to one at their finger tips
Americans are online for everything nowadays, but evidence shows most prefer paper and ink to read the Good Book. And that’s no surprise to Troy Dixon, the lead pastor at Normandy Park Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. “As the world…
Baptist uses literacy work to promote love, oppose ‘zero-tolerance’
There was plenty of outrage to go around in mid-June when news of President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy broke across the nation and the world. Non-stop images of infants, toddlers and other youth being ripped from their loved ones’ arms generated…
Research group sees Catholics, Baptists and Mormons as Christians (because they say so)
It isn’t hard to find Baptists and other Protestants who believe Mormons are not Christians. But about half of all Americans and nearly every Mormon believe they are, the Pew Research Center has found. So who is right? Well, what…
Researchers discover another reason Americans leave church
The forces driving Americans from churches apparently aren’t limited to the generational and cultural factors that grab headlines these days. LifeWay Research has found that departures also are likely to occur if a congregation’s core values are altered in some…
Opposition to Trump ‘zero-tolerance’ must go grassroots, organizers say
Public outrage over President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy has given way this week to controversial Supreme Court rulings, including one upholding the president’s Muslim-focused travel ban. But religious and other non-profit groups that serve immigrants have not taken their…
Religion Notes: Mercer on Mission program fits 10,000th prosthesis in Vietnam
An occasional compilation of events from around the religious world. To suggest items for inclusion, email assistant editor Jeff Brumley at [email protected]. Mercer on Mission reaches prosthetic milestone in Vietnam Mercer University’s Mercer on Mission program has fitted its 10,000th Vietnamese…
U.S. not only place where ‘nones’ on the rise
Looks like you don’t have to be American or European to give up on religion. And the same is especially true for young adults, who are becoming “nones” around the planet just as they are in the U.S., according to…
‘Zero-tolerance’ support thrusts Sessions into Methodist justice process
The political uproar over the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the southern border may have halted the Trump administration policy. There are even reports that some families have been reunited. But the theological uproar created when Attorney…