All posts tagged: Church

The Black Church and the Gutting of the Voting Rights Act with Rev. Thomas L. Bowen

The Black Church and the Gutting of the Voting Rights Act with Rev. Thomas L. Bowen

Published by Sam Flores

 In the same two weeks, the Trump Anti-Christian Bias Task Force filled 560 pages with reports of deliberate discrimination by the Biden administration (and pretty much everyone else), and the Supreme Court ruled that anti-minority bias is gone from our elections and the landmark Voting Rights Act is no longer needed. That’s exactly backwards, and we’ll get a chance to hear the expert opinion of Rev. Thomas L. Bowen, General Secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention—the denominational home of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Thomas was Senior Advisor for Faith Engagement in the Biden White House, so he had a front-row seat for how decisions of faith were actually handled. He’s also already organizing to reduce the damage todemocracy that the high court’s anti-VRA decision is sure to cause. More about Rev. Thomas L. Bowen Rev. Bowen is General Secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. (PNBC). Headquartered in Northwest Washington, D.C. and boasting more than two and a half million members, the denomination is known as the spiritual home of …

Rejecting Church and State Separation Is on the Wish List for Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission

Rejecting Church and State Separation Is on the Wish List for Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission

Published by Sam Flores

Another calls for court interventions by the Department of Justice on behalf of Amish parents fighting New York vaccine requirements and Catholic nuns challenging that state’s requirement that they accommodate hospice patients’ gender identities. And the chair of the Religious Liberty Commission is calling for a federal hotline with this automated recording: “There is no separation of church and state.” These are just some of the recommendations that members of the advisory panel formed by President Donald Trump last year want to see included in the commission’s final report. That report is still in the works, but commissioners had an opportunity to describe their wish lists during their most recent meeting in April. There was little dissent as the commissioners, most drawn from Trump’s base of conservative Christian supporters, covered the items they want in the report. Their ideas reflect the prevailing perspectives on the definition of religious liberty among many conservative Catholic and evangelical activists: increasing avenues for religious expression in public schools; expanding opportunities for faith-based organizations to receive public money; and allowing …

Want your kids to keep their faith? New research says it’s about conversation, not just church attendance

Want your kids to keep their faith? New research says it’s about conversation, not just church attendance

Published by José Betancourt

An analysis of Communio data found that more frequent religious engagement in childhood and better family experiences were associated with greater religious participation in adulthood. Children who frequently talked about faith with their parents tended to attend religious services more frequently as adults and were more likely to transmit their faith to their own children. The paper was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Religiosity and spirituality are central parts of many people’s lives. They shape people’s moral frameworks, inform commitments, and guide behaviors, while also supporting many aspects of their health and well-being. As concepts, religiosity and spirituality are related, but not identical. Religiosity is the degree to which a person believes in, practices, and identifies with an organized religion. Spirituality is broader and usually refers to a person’s search for meaning, connection, transcendence, inner peace, or relationship with something larger than the self. Both religiosity and spirituality can help people make sense of suffering, uncertainty, loss, and major life transitions. They can provide comfort, hope, emotional regulation, and a …

The LDS church posted about supporting working moms. The influencers’ hot takes took off.

The LDS church posted about supporting working moms. The influencers’ hot takes took off.

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Last month, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shared a young man’s story about deciding to support the career of his wife, a pediatric neurologist — a career he says she was born for. “Supporting her doesn’t shrink my purpose — it expands it,” he said, according to a post from the church’s official Instagram account. Judging from some of the 2,100 comments across Instagram and X, you’d think the guy had just proclaimed motherhood was dead and the church had planned the funeral. The dude-bros came out in force, with comments like, “How is she gonna have children if she’s busy being a doctor all day?” and accusations that the church’s public relations department had suffered from “estrogen poisoning.” But then there was a backlash to the backlash — a string of social media posts from orthodox young Latter-day Saints who applauded the church’s new positive messaging about women’s careers. Some are claiming that position isn’t new for the church, and that it has always been supportive of women achieving …

Church Leaders Briefed by US Intelligence – OpentheWord.org

Church Leaders Briefed by US Intelligence – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Photo of UFO sign in Madrid, New Mexico Credit: Bruce Warrington, unsplash.com According to the Daily Mail, Perry Stone, a well know American pastor, announced that members of US Intelligence community recently met with a small group of leading American pastors. The purpose of the gathering was to prepare the church for the upcoming release of secret data held by the American government on the existence of extraterrestrials. Stone who is based in Tennessee was told about the meeting by a trusted friend. In mid February, US President Donald Trump ordered the government to release all its data on UFOs and alien life. The government officials were concerned that when released, these files could cause Christians to question their faith. ‘You’re going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth, and you’re going to have people that’s going to apostatize and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they’re about …

Gabrielle Goliath’s Canceled South Africa Pavilion Opens at Venice Church

Gabrielle Goliath’s Canceled South Africa Pavilion Opens at Venice Church

Published by José Betancourt

The South Africa Pavilion in the Giardini will sit empty for the entirety of this year’s Venice Biennale, the result of a decision by culture minister Gayton McKenzie to cancel a planned pavilion by artist Gabrielle Goliath for being “highly divisive.” But while the building will remain closed, Biennale attendees can see the planned installation just half a mile away at the Chiesa di Sant’Antonin. The show appears stronger for the move. Inside the 12th-century church, Goliath has arranged several filmed iterations of Elegy, her ongoing performance series honoring victims of atrocities in South Africa and beyond, including killings of queer people and women, as well as the German-led genocide in colonial Namibia in the early 1900s. While the versions of Elegy concerning the South African femicide and the Herero and Nama genocide appear as one- and two-channel works, a new edition mourning the death of Gazan poet Hiba Abu Nada—who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in October 2023—takes center stage. In that work, which is set across five screens at the center of the nave, Abu …

After she complained of gender bias, a PCA church fired her. A judge ruled it retaliation.

After she complained of gender bias, a PCA church fired her. A judge ruled it retaliation.

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — A Chicago-area church led by bestselling author and pastor Dane Ortlund must pay $93,000 in back wages and damages to a former staffer after a judge ruled the church retaliated against her. Administrative Judge Azeema Akram of the Illinois Human Rights Commission ruled last week that Naperville Presbyterian Church’s firing of Emily Hyland in 2021, after she claimed she had been mistreated because of her gender, qualified as retaliation and violated Illinois law. “Complainant successfully proved retaliation by a preponderance of the evidence, as she was able to show that she engaged in a protected activity when she complained about sex-based discrimination, that Respondent knew about it, and that there was a causal nexus between her complaints and her subsequent termination,” Akram wrote in her decision. Akram also ruled that Hyland failed to prove the church had discriminated against her. Church officials argued that Hyland was fired for poor job performance and denied any retaliation. Emily Hyland. (Courtesy photo) The ruling came just over five years after Hyland was terminated from her role …

Sam Allberry exits church, Keller Center over relationship with man

Sam Allberry exits church, Keller Center over relationship with man

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Sam Allberry, a pastor and apologist who advocates for celibacy as the faithful path for LGBTQ+ Christians, has been “disqualified from gospel ministry” following an “inappropriate relationship with an adult man in 2022,” according to a statement from elders at Immanuel Nashville, a nondenominational church where he has served as an associate pastor since 2023. The Nashville, Tennessee, church’s statement, first reported by Protestia, said church elders were first made aware of the relationship between Allberry and another man in spring 2024, and based on “information available at the time and the posture of Sam and the other party,” the church determined it wasn’t disqualifying behavior. But after receiving new information this January, per the statement, the elders reopened an investigation into Allberry’s actions. “(W)hile the relationship did not go as far as it could have, Sam’s conduct constituted a serious breach of trust and a failure to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel,” the statement said. “The Elders are unanimous in their decision that Sam is currently disqualified from gospel ministry. …

Separation of Church and State Was a Baptist Idea. What Happened?

Separation of Church and State Was a Baptist Idea. What Happened?

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The Baptist preacher (and Texas Lieutenant Governor) who stood before the White House Religious Liberty Commission had a message: There is no separation of church and state in the Constitution. That’s a shift… For two centuries, Baptists didn’t just support the wall of separation between church and state — they built it. They famously asked Thomas Jefferson for it. And then as recently as 1960, Southern Baptist leaders argued that a Catholic president would surely subordinate the Constitution to the Pope. This devotion to a secular state was deep. But that was then, this is now… Baylor University historian Elesha Coffman suggests Southern Baptists have become the very force they feared Catholics would be — a dominant religion using political power to shape society along theological ideals. According to Coffman, the receipts are right there in the historical record.  In this episode, Amanda Henderson talks with Coffman about her recent article, “Southern Baptists have become what they once feared Catholics would be,” about the winding path from Jefferson’s reply to the Danbury Baptists, …

Jesuit artist’s exhibition ‘Twilight of the Idols’ finds new home at the Church of St. Francis Xavier after sudden Sheen Center cancellation

Jesuit artist’s exhibition ‘Twilight of the Idols’ finds new home at the Church of St. Francis Xavier after sudden Sheen Center cancellation

Published by Sam Flores

Originally scheduled for The Sheen Center, the exhibition now opens in the parish in partnership with Xavier High School, following concerns about the work NEW YORK — The Church of St. Francis Xavier and Xavier High School have stepped in to present “Nicholas Leeper, SJ: Twilight of the Idols,” an exhibition originally scheduled at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, which canceled the show following concerns about how the work might be received. The Church of St. Francis Xavier and Xavier High School are proud to provide a new home for the exhibition in support of Leeper and the way his work provokes, examines, and seeks to deepen the relationship between faith, culture, and a life of prayer. The exhibition will be on view from May 9 through May 29, with an opening reception following the 5:00 p.m. Mass on Saturday, May 9. The exhibition’s central work, Madonna and Child (Tomatokos), reimagines Mary as a mid-century housewife from a 1950s Campbell’s soup advertisement, holding a can of tomato soup in place of the infant Jesus. …