WASHINGTON (RNS) — Hand sanitizer appears at the sanctuary entrance. Worshippers greet each other with a cautionary bow rather than a warm handshake or hug. Absences increase in Bible classes. The H1N1 flu pandemic is shaking up religious communities and…
FAITH DIGEST: American Christians dabble in New Age
Nearly one-fourth of the self-identified Christians in the United States delve into a range of Eastern or New Age beliefs, a new study shows. Asked about their supernatural experiences, significant minorities of American Christian respondents said they believe in astrology…
Obama’s Muslim outreach named top religion story of 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The nation’s religion journalists named President Obama’s speech to the Muslim world as the top religion story of the year. Members of the Religion Newswriters Association ranked the June speech in Cairo, in which the president quoted…
Use the Quran to share Christ with Muslim, veteran missionary suggests
ANGLETON, Texas — Winning Muslim converts to Christianity is difficult, but veteran missionary Kevin Greeson knows a way—start with the Quran. Greeson, who has served 16 years with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board working to start Christian movements among…
RIGHT or WRONG? Emerging Church
Our church just hired a pastor who is young enough to be the child of many members. His language about “the emerging church,” “postmodernism” and “interfaith dialogue” distresses older members. Communication and context seem to be the issues in conflict…
Religious games and toys more than child’s play, authors insists
BOSTON (RNS) — On the first day of her introductory religion class at Merrimack College, professor Rebecca Sachs Norris put her students to work at having some fun. She assigned teams of three or four students to play some of the…
Tumultuous times fuel End Times preparations
WASHINGTON (RNS) — For years, Ken Uptegrove believed another Great Depression was at hand. A computer professional in Springdale, Ark., Uptegrove started a garden and researched ways to live more simply. He studied the lives of early Christians and launched…
Persecution a recent concern in SBC resolutions
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — While staunch defenders of human rights and religious liberty for all, Southern Baptists rarely mentioned religious persecution in convention resolutions until the 1990s. That coincides with increased calls by social conservatives, including the newly conservative leadership…
Blessed are the Persecuted: Where persecution is real, it’s intense
WASHINGTON (ABP) — During the holiday season every year, America’s dutiful culture warriors spar over things like whether ecumenical holiday greetings are appropriate for retailers or Christian Nativity scenes should be displayed on courthouse lawns that Jews, Muslims and atheists…
2009: The year in quotes from Baptist newsmakers
(ABP) — A month-by-month summary of quotations from Baptist newsmakers over the past year: January "I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus [pronounced hay-SOOS], who taught us to…
Most-read ABP stories of 2009
(ABP) — If there’s one thing that the 2009 Internet statistics for Associated Baptist Press stories show, it’s that Wiley Drake knows how to draw media attention. Three of the ten most-viewed articles on ABP’s website between Jan. 1 and…
Most-read ABP stories of 2009 feature controversies, tragedies — and Drake
(ABP) — If there’s one thing that the 2009 Internet statistics for Associated Baptist Press stories show, it’s that Wiley Drake knows how to draw media attention. Wiley Drake Three of the ten most-viewed articles on ABP’s website between Jan….