Activist and abuse survivor Rachael Denhollander will be awarded the 2021 Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life, Calvin University announced Tuesday (Dec. 7). Denhollander will receive the prize, which includes a $10,000 award, and deliver…
Ultra-Orthodox ‘in war for honor of God’ over gov’t religious reforms
Shas Party chairman MK Arye Deri said Monday that the ultra-Orthodox sector and political parties were embroiled in a “[religiously] obligatory war” against the government’s various bills, laws and proposals to reform aspects of Jewish religious life in Israel.
IRS Filing Offers New Insights into Patterson Nonprofit
Months after Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, accused its former president Paige Patterson of stealing from the school, a newly-released financial report offers more insights into the case. The 2019 990 form from the Sandy Creek Foundation, the personal…
Does religion make people more likely to welcome refugees? It’s complicated.
On Sunday (Dec. 5), Pope Francis, visiting the Greek island of Lesbos, made an emotional pitch for European states to be more welcoming to foreign migrants. The pontiff called on Europeans to stop ignoring their suffering, insisting that Jesus “is present in the…
This Supreme Court Case Could Take a ‘Wrecking Ball’ to Separation of Church and State
Amy and David Carson were high school sweethearts. They met at Bangor Christian Schools, a private religious K-12 school in Bangor, Maine, when they were in their early teens. Their siblings attended the school. Family members have taught there. “It’s…
Can Maine Cover the Cost of Christian School Tuition?
The latest Supreme Court case over public funding for religious schooling examines a policy in Maine, a state dotted with small towns too tiny to run their own public schools. Over half of the state’s school districts (officially called “school…
As COVID continues, church-run food pantries, ministries adapt and expand
On a cold, cloudy afternoon in late November, two dozen volunteers were busy unloading a truckload of food in the parking lot just south of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, setting out a table filled with produce, staples and other groceries…
$6.6M awarded to Tree of Life synagogue, site of massacre
The state of Pennsylvania is pledging $6.6 million toward redevelopment of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, where a gunman killed 11 people in 2018 in the nation’s deadliest attack on Jews.
Is the growing anti-pope ‘rad-trad’ community poised to become ‘Qatholics’? History isn’t encouraging
On Halloween, Rhode Island police announced that they had arrested Father James Jackson, the pastor of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP)’s church of St Mary in Providence, Rhode Island, for possession and transfer of child pornography.
Scientists use stem cells to create models of pre-embryos
Scientists are using human stem cells to create a structure that mimics a pre-embryo and can serve as a research alternative to a real one.
Celebrity surgeon Dr. Oz seeks to be first Muslim elected to the US Senate
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity surgeon and host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” has launched a campaign for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat now held by Pat Toomey, who is retiring. If Oz wins the Republican nomination, he will be the…
U.S. Catholic bishops encourage government search for boarding school graves
Two influential U.S. Roman Catholic Church bishops are encouraging their peers to cooperate with a federal investigation into abuses committed within the former Native American boarding school system.