All posts tagged: Christian

Christian nationalism isn’t limited to US, say scholars meeting in Chicago

Christian nationalism isn’t limited to US, say scholars meeting in Chicago

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Scholars from around the world are gathering in Chicago this week to focus on Christian nationalism, which they say is growing in influence globally. “Christian nationalism is not a single ideology, nor is it confined to one nation,” said Abimbola Adelakun, associate professor of global Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School and organizer of the conference. “Across the world, Christianity is being invoked to legitimize political authority and exclusionary visions of belonging. This conference brings global perspectives together to better understand how these movements operate and why they matter.” The first of what organizers say will be an annual event, the conference is designed to look at issues affecting Christians around the world, said Adelakun. “This year, we’re looking at Christian nationalism, because it’s the most topical issue,” she said. “We are trying to understand this phenomenon of Christian nationalism. What does it mean for Christianity?” she said. “What does it portend, and where do we go from here?” She said the scholars invited to the conference have defined Christian nationalism …

Christian News this Past Week – OpentheWord.org

Christian News this Past Week – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

The Milky Way Credit: Thomas Ciszewski/unsplash.com There were a few interesting stories this past week, some with end times implications as researchers report one AI program refused to shut down after programmers told it to. The Bible also warns of increased persecution in the end times. This was demonstrated first hand by reports of a mob destroying the homes of Christian families in a small village in India. While this is happening we are also seeing confirmations that the Holy Spirit is moving particularly among Gen Z and Millennials. As well, Fazale Rana, who has a Ph.D in Chemistry, states that the complex chemical reactions taking place in the simplest of living cells is evidence of a creator. AI Refusing to Shut Down According to an article on the Daily Mail, researchers claim that ChatGPT’s latest update refused to shut down when told to do so by programmers. ChatGPT is one of the most widely used Artificial Intelligence programs available on the internet. The latest edition, Model o3, is part of OpenAi and is described …

Christian Vesper Steps Down as CEO, Fremantle Global Drama

Christian Vesper Steps Down as CEO, Fremantle Global Drama

Published by Daniella Wilson

Christian Vesper is stepping down as CEO of global drama and film at Fremantle after a decade with the company. Vesper joined Fremantle from Sundance TV, where he oversaw the network’s push into international co-productions, with series like Top of the Lake and Deutschland 83. Vesper was brought in to RTL Group-owned Fremantle by Andrea Scrosati, Group COO and CEO of Continental Europe, to bolster the company’s push into high-end TV series and feature films. Over the next 10 years, Fremantle, best known for its shiny-floor reality TV formats like American Idol and X Factor, became a leading independent film producer, backing such features as Poor Things, Bugonia, Queer, Maria, and Pillion and series such as Joe Wright’s Musollini: Son of the Century, and Swedish drama Faithless from Tomas Alfredson. Most recently, Vesper worked to set up the Fox Network revival of Baywatch. During Vesper’s tenure, Fremantle inked numerous creative partnerships with production labels including Emma Stone and Dave McCary’s Fruit Tree Productions; Kristen Stewart, Dylan Meyer and Maggie McLean’s Nevermind Pictures; Pablo and Juan …

Trump’s national school voucher program could mean a boom in Christian education

Trump’s national school voucher program could mean a boom in Christian education

Published by Sam Flores

LACONIA, N.H. (The Hechinger Report) — Three dozen 4- and 5-year-olds trooped out onto the stage of the ornate, century-old Colonial Theatre of Laconia in this central New Hampshire town. Dressed in plaid, red, green and sparkles, some were grinning and waving, some looked a bit shell-shocked; a tiny blond girl sobbed with stage fright in her teacher’s arms. No sooner did the children open their mouths to sing, “Merry Christmas! … This is the day that the Lord was born!” than the house lights came up and a fire alarm went off. It was an unusually eventful annual Christmas concert for Laconia Christian Academy. Then again, it’s been an unusually eventful year. In a small, aging state, where overall school enrollment has been dropping for more than two decades, Laconia reported a 130% increase in enrollment in its elementary school since 2020 — and began a three-quarter-million-dollar campus expansion on its 140 acres outside town.  “We are in a season of incredible growth,” the school’s website reads. One reason for the season: Almost every …

How to be an extraordinary Christian during Ordinary Time

How to be an extraordinary Christian during Ordinary Time

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — With Christmas season over, Christians move into what the church refers to as “Ordinary Time.” This is the time outside of Christmas season, Lent and Easter season. “Ordinary” in English means “routine, usual, common.” In other words, nothing special. But the name “Ordinary Time” originally comes from the fact that the weeks are numbered using ordinal numbers — like first, second or third. For example, last Sunday was the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. This year, there are six Ordinary Sundays before we reach Lent. We then do not return to Ordinary Time until after Pentecost; Ordinary Time then continues until Advent, for a total of 34 weeks in Ordinary Time this year. But there is no reason that Ordinary Time must be ordinary. It can be special if we use it to deepen our experience of the Scriptures and prayer. Catholics should be embarrassed by how little they read the Scriptures. According to Pew Research Center, only 12% of Catholics read the Scriptures at least once a week, compared with 52% of evangelical …

What ‘hope’ has represented in Christian history – and what it might mean now

What ‘hope’ has represented in Christian history – and what it might mean now

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — Pope Leo XIV closed the door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 6, 2026, just days into the new year. The act formally brought the Vatican’s Holy Year 2025 – designated as “Pilgrims of Hope” – to an end. In 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic ended, Pope Francis announced his intention to proclaim a Jubilee year, urging the faithful to look to the future “with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision.” That is why, as Francis explained, he chose the motto of the Jubilee: “Pilgrims of Hope.” Ironically, 2025 was a turbulent year the world over. After so much military aggression in Ukraine, rampant starvation in Gaza and increasing violence of all kinds within the United States, people in many parts of the world were left much more despairing than hopeful for 2026. Religions typically try to offer hope in the face of despair. As a scholar of Catholicism, I know that even amid violent persecutions, devastating wars and staggering death tolls from epidemics, Christians have repeatedly turned to …

Jerusalem historic churches call Christian Zionism a ‘damaging’ ideology

Jerusalem historic churches call Christian Zionism a ‘damaging’ ideology

Published by Sam Flores

JERUSALEM (RNS) — Leaders of the historic or apostolic churches in the Holy Land issued a blunt joint statement accusing Christian Zionists of espousing “damaging ideologies” that “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock.”  The Saturday (Jan. 17) statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land suggests an ongoing rift between the historic Christian churches representing the small Palestinian Christian community in the region and the mostly U.S. evangelicals who have been unwavering in their support for Israel.  The church leaders said in the statement that “they alone” — not Christian Zionists — represent Christian churches and their followers in the Holy Land.  Israel’s current government is opposed to a Palestinian state and has shown ever greater repression toward Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. While the overwhelming majority of Palestinians are Muslims, many Christians living in Israel also identify as Palestinians and have claimed the land since the time of Jesus. They comprise less than 1% of the population in the West Bank and …

Russian intelligence targets major Orthodox Christian leader as ‘Antichrist in a Cassock’

Russian intelligence targets major Orthodox Christian leader as ‘Antichrist in a Cassock’

Published by Sam Flores

ISTANBUL (RNS) — “Antichrist in a Cassock,” “Antichrist of Constantinople” and “Devil Incarnate” were among the terms Russia’s foreign intelligence service used to attack the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Bartholomew I, accusing him of meddling in Ukraine and trying to push the Russian Orthodox Church out of the Baltic states. In a statement released Jan. 12, the agency, known by its Russian initials SVR, wrote: “Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who dismembered Orthodox Ukraine, continues his schismatic activities within the Orthodox Church. Now he has set his dark eye on the Baltic states. This ‘devil incarnate’ is obsessed with ousting Russian Orthodoxy from the Baltic states, establishing in its place church structures completely under the control of the Phanar,” referring to the Istanbul neighborhood where Bartholomew is headquartered. Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is traditionally considered “first among equals” of the world’s Orthodox Christian patriarchs. But what that title entails remains a matter of canonical debate, and in recent years Moscow has bitterly objected to his support for Orthodox national churches in Eastern …

The saint who faced down lions and killer seals is one of many ‘leading ladies’ in early Christian texts

The saint who faced down lions and killer seals is one of many ‘leading ladies’ in early Christian texts

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — The Bible is filled with brave and courageous women. Deborah, the judge who fought a war to protect her people. The widow Ruth, who wittingly convinces a man to marry her in order to continue the lineage of her mother-in-law, Naomi. Esther, who boldly stands up to an evil politician, Haman, in order to save the Jewish people from death. Judith, who beheads an opposing general in order to save her community. The stories of these confident women are found in the Hebrew Bible, the sacred text of Judaism, which also forms half of the Christian Bible. But when it comes to the New Testament, where are the “leading ladies” of Christianity? A reliquary of St. Thecla dating to the 15th or 16th century shows her with the lioness who defended her.Daderot/Wikimedia Commons While a few important women are mentioned – such as Mary, the mother of Jesus; and Mary Magdalene, who discovers his empty tomb – no women are the stars of their own books in this half of the Bible. …

For some Jewish women, ‘passing’ as Christian during the Holocaust could mean survival – but left scars all the same

For some Jewish women, ‘passing’ as Christian during the Holocaust could mean survival – but left scars all the same

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — Travel case in hand, dressed in fashionable clothing and wearing a practiced, coquettish smile, Hela Schüpper Rufeisen sat aboard the train to Warsaw, Poland. No one on board would have suspected that beneath the coat of the young woman were strapped assorted handguns and several cartridge clips. Schüpper Rufeisen, who was Jewish, relied on this dissonance between appearance and reality to ferry items into, out of and between the Warsaw and Krakow ghettos. Her carefully cultivated “Aryan” image and false papers listing her as Catholic made it possible to cross borders and survive encounters that would otherwise have ended in death. Hela Schüpper Rufeisen before the war. Eli Dotan/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA During the Holocaust, trying to “pass” as non-Jewish was often more feasible for women than men. Some Jewish women, like Schüpper Rufeisen, took the risk in order to join resistance efforts against the Nazis and their collaborators. Most Jews who tried to pass, however, did so simply to remain alive in a system designed to murder them. Passing took many …