NEW YORK (ABP) — What do warthogs, pelicans, energy swords and Spartan lasers have in common? And how do they relate to John 1:17? They're all part of a video game called Halo 3, the top-selling video game of 2007…
FAITHSHAPERS: Spiritual formation 2: Indoctrination
During the school years, children develop greater ability to focus and sit still, and their brains are developed enough to soak in staggering amounts of information. As preschoolers, children also learn quickly, but they learn primarily through direct experience —…
Study links subprime mortgage crisis to U.S. poverty & hunger
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The poorest counties in the United States are among the hardest hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, according to a study released by the Christian anti-hunger advocacy group Bread for the World. The report, titled “Home Ownership,…
Methodist group targets Israeli violence in Gaza
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) — Several groups within the United Methodist Church have responded to Israel's clampdown on the Gaza Strip by urging divestment in companies that do business with Israel and publishing media critical of the Jewish state. The United…
Human rights faltering in Iran, say experts
WASHINGTON (BP) — Basic human rights, including religious freedom, have deteriorated under Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses testified in a Capitol Hill hearing. Iranian citizens have suffered “systematic oppression by the regime, … denial to freedom of religion, expression, politics…
Some Southern Baptists decry timidity on environmental issues
WASHINGTON (RNS) — A group of Southern Baptists has launched a new initiative on the environment, saying that their denomination's past declarations on the issue have been “too timid.” “We believe our current denominational engagement with these issues have often…
Circumcision: Are parents cutting out the sign of the Covenant?
NEW YORK (ABP) — The foundational symbol of God's ancient covenant with his people is getting a lot less common in the United States, but medical and theological debates still rage about the propriety of circumcision. Recent legal battles over…
FIRST HAND: Camp Alkulana offers year-round setting
Camp Alkulana — a ministry of the Richmond Baptist Association — has served as a summer haven for Richmond's inner-city children since 1915. But what many Virginians don't know is that Alkulana is available year-round to other groups looking for…
Oxford researchers get $4 million to study origins of belief in God
LONDON (RNS) — Oxford University researchers have been given nearly $4 million to investigate the origins of belief in God. The three-year project titled “Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology” is designed to determine if belief in…
Indiana Jones would be proud
LONDON (RNS) — Brushing back a thick layer of dust, Tudor Parfitt revealed a distinctive interwoven pattern carved around the outside of the “terribly, terribly damaged” wooden artifact tucked away on the bottom shelf of a Zimbabwe warehouse. “The moment…
Muslim leader decries American ‘bigotry’
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) — American culture's view of American Muslims and Islam steadily is deteriorating under an onslaught of “bigotry” on cable news shows, newspaper op-ed pages and in the blogosphere, an Arab-American activist said. Commentators and politicians have devoted…
Catholics paid $615 million on abuse claims
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The U.S. Catholic Church paid out $615 million in costs related to sexual abuse claims in 2007, even as the number of victims coming forward fell for the third straight year, according to an annual report issued…