After nearly two weeks of controversy following an unusual move to deny tenure or promotion to five faculty members, the Board of Trustees for Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, reversed some of those decisions in a meeting held virtually Tuesday (Feb….
U.S. Supreme Court sides with Alabama death row inmate, declines to lift stay of execution over state’s refusal to allow clergy in chamber
A stay of execution issued by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will remain in place after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition to overturn it filed by the state of Alabama. The appeals court halted the execution of Willie…
Survey: Black Americans attend church and pray more often
Black Americans attend church more regularly than Americans overall, and pray more often. Most attend churches that are predominantly Black, yet many would like those congregations to become racially diverse. There is broad respect for Black churches’ historical role in…
How Christian Bookstores Survived 2020
A new item at Christian bookstores in 2020 shot straight to the top of the sales charts: face masks with faith messages.
Celebrating Ash Wednesday in a pandemic? There’s an app for that
There are filters that blur “imperfections” in photos and filters that turn lawyers into cats on Zoom.
From ‘Lent-in-a-box’ to ‘ash n dash’
When Palm Sunday arrived in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had only just begun, and Tom Ancona’s church, Holy Martyrs, was entirely shut down. There was no way to bless and distribute palm branches to congregants.
No execution: Courts side with inmate wanting pastor present
An Alabama inmate won a reprieve from a planned lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court said the state must allow his personal pastor in the death chamber.
New Arkansas Law Exempts Churches from Pandemic Restrictions
A new act signed by Arkansas’s governor on Wednesday (Feb. 10) would prevent the governor or other state or local officials from enacting restrictions on houses of worship and religious groups during a public health crisis. Arkansas and federal law…
Survey: More than a quarter of white evangelicals believe core QAnon conspiracy theory
A new survey reports more than a quarter of white evangelical Protestants believe a QAnon conspiracy theory that purports former President Donald Trump is secretly battling a cabal of pedophile Democrats, and roughly half express support for the debunked claim…