All posts tagged: churches

In the Easter story, women are the first to proclaim the resurrection – but churches today are still divided over female preachers

In the Easter story, women are the first to proclaim the resurrection – but churches today are still divided over female preachers

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — On Easter Sunday, festively decorated churches across the United States will be filled with worshippers eager to celebrate the most important day in the Christian year. While some will attend services led by pastors who are women, the overwhelming majority of worshippers will not. Women constitute 23.7% of professional clergy in the U.S. and an increasing percentage of people earning graduate theology degrees. However, data from 2018-19 shows that only 14% of U.S. congregations, most of which are Christian, are led by women. The number of women in Christian pulpits stands in jarring juxtaposition with the Easter narratives in the New Testament. The Gospel stories of the resurrection of Jesus point to how essential women’s witness and proclamation were in the earliest stages of Christianity. First witness Many denominations share a system assigning particular Bible verses to be read at each week’s services – a cycle that takes three years, called Years A, B and C, to complete. Because Easter 2026 falls in year A in the common lectionary, the Gospel reading …

Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix special is too ungodly for many churches. This one welcomed her.

Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix special is too ungodly for many churches. This one welcomed her.

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — “My iPhone started capitalizing the G in God again without asking me,” Taylor Tomlinson says in her latest Netflix stand-up special, gripping a mic beneath the ornate ceiling of Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “The robots are coming, and they love the Lord.” Wearing a cross on her necklace and a long leather jacket, Tomlinson looked right at home in the vaulted sanctuary. But the comedian’s set, filmed in November and released on Feb. 24 with the title “Prodigal Daughter,” would be regarded as irreverent at best by most nondenominational Christian congregations. Filled with sexual themes, f-bombs and jokes about everything from foreskins to the crucifixion — “I hope I die in a way that looks good on jewelry,” she quips — it would rate as blasphemous in many. But Tomlinson’s edgy content is exactly what made Fountain Street the perfect venue, church leaders say. The historic congregation is known for its support of abortion access, free speech and LGBTQ+ rights. It’s also an interreligious community that rejects specific doctrines. “The …

Mexican Drug Cartel Targeting Evangelical Churches – OpentheWord.org

Mexican Drug Cartel Targeting Evangelical Churches – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Credit: Jezael Melgoza, unspash.com You were probably shocked as I was by the videos pouring out of Mexico of vehicles and buildings being set on fire by members of drug cartels. This included popular vacation spots like Puerto Vallarta where tourists were stranded as airports closed down. It was the cartel’s violent reaction to the death of “El Mencho”, Rubén Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes. He led one of Mexico’s largest and most violent drug cartels, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). But what many don’t know is that CJNG was also attacking Evangelical churches across Mexico. The violent outburst started after El Mencho was killed in a battle with the Mexican army, on Sunday, February 22, 2026. The American government provided the necessary intel leading to his capture and death. Because he kept a low profile, El Mencho’s movements had been difficult to track. But he had recently contracted kidney disease. The purchase of equipment and medication served as a crumb trail to the gang leader’s location. In the raid, the Mexican government …

33 historically Black churches receive .5 million in preservation grants

33 historically Black churches receive $8.5 million in preservation grants

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church are among 33 Black churches receiving millions of dollars for preservation of their sacred and historic buildings. They are recipients of the fourth annual round of grants from the Preserving Black Churches program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The program, a $60 million initiative of Lilly Endowment, also announced $5 million in grants for five churches on Martin Luther King Day. It has supported 170 churches across the United States with a total of almost $34 million to provide funding and technical expertise to protect the assets and legacies of historically Black churches. The Birmingham church, which was bombed in 1963, will receive $300,000 for organizational and capacity building. Theodore (Ted) Debro, campaign chair for 16th Street Baptist Church, said the grant will allow the church to hire a director of development and fundraising for the building where four young Black girls were killed when members of the Ku Klux Klan set off …

Judge bars most ICE raids at a group of churches

Judge bars most ICE raids at a group of churches

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — A federal judge issued an order on Friday (Feb. 13) barring federal immigration enforcement agents from raiding certain churches except in a “true emergency,” handing a preliminary win to a growing number of faith groups that have sued President Donald Trump’s administration over its decision to end restrictions on raids at houses of worship. Judge F. Dennis Saylor of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction, siding mostly with the religious plaintiffs. The case, filed last July, centers on faith groups who argued their religious freedom — particularly rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — had been violated by the president’s decision to rescind a 2011 internal government policy that discouraged immigration raids at “sensitive locations” such as hospitals, schools and churches.  Although the judge decided that three of the plaintiffs — a trio of regional Quaker groups — lacked standing, the injunction will apply to all the other plaintiffs, which include five regional synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in …

Changes coming to Christian churches – OpentheWord.org

Changes coming to Christian churches – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Credit: Markus Winkler, unsplash.com So, let’s cancel someone. We live in a time of cancel culture, where people can be punished or at least ignored, if they have an unpopular opinion. The opinion might even be popular, with some people, but some social activists might object, and some activist opinions have majority power because they seem so right and correct to some groups. Majority power is not always based on power. For example, where I live, electric cars seem to be disappearing, but I won’t say that too loud. There are some strong arguments about climate change and the future of the human race, and I don’t want to be caught in that whirlpool. Notice, I didn’t say what I think about those issues, I just don’t want to be caught up in a fierce debate. Many people that I know keep their heads down when radical social debates are swirling around them. Yes, you can judge me, but I don’t have something constructive to say about every issue, and I’m not the only one. …

Protests inside churches are unusual despite long history of civil disobedience in the US

Protests inside churches are unusual despite long history of civil disobedience in the US

Published by Sam Flores

American religious history is rife with protest movements and civil disobedience. Yet it is rare for political protests to happen inside a house of worship. That is part of what makes the new case against anti-ICE protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota, unusual. The group interrupted a service last Sunday at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation, where one of its pastors works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three of the protesters were arrested on federal charges Thursday. Charles C. Haynes, a senior fellow for religious liberty at the Freedom Forum, a nonprofit group advocating for First Amendment rights, said disrupting a worship service is against the law – and that was likely the point. Civil disobedience is by nature violating the law to bring attention to a cause. Famously, civil disobedience by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others led to landmark legislation during the Civil Rights Movement. Before her arrest Thursday, civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who describes herself as a Christian, depicted the protest in religious terms on Facebook: “It’s time …

As Springfield’s 15,000 Haitians brace for deportations, local churches train to resist ICE

As Springfield’s 15,000 Haitians brace for deportations, local churches train to resist ICE

Published by Sam Flores

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (RNS) — “We have orders of deportation,” said a volunteer in a raised voice, posing as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and pounding on the sanctuary door. “What you’re doing is harboring.” Inside the sanctuary, hundreds of trainees blocked the large wooden double doors. One called out, “We’re exercising our First Amendment right to freedom of worship.”   The handful of faux ICE agents moved to a different entryway. As they pried open the side door to the sanctuary, some trainees held up phones to record the encounter while others blew whistles. The scenario was part of a roleplay exercise at a rapid response training in Springfield, Ohio, on Saturday (Jan. 24). Despite the winter storm in the forecast, nearly 200 people from in and around Springfield gathered at Central Christian Church for the event organized by G92, a new Springfield-based coalition of pro-immigrant churches and advocates named after the 92 times the Hebrew word “ger,” which means stranger or sojourner, appears in the Hebrew Bible. “For many people, this isn’t just …

Five Black churches each receive million grants for historic preservation

Five Black churches each receive $1 million grants for historic preservation

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Five historically Black churches have been awarded $1 million each from a grant program that aims to help preserve their assets and legacies and keep them vibrant for future generations. The $5 million in grants, part of the Preserving Black Churches program of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, were announced on Monday (Jan. 19) to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The recipients, including churches from South Carolina to Los Angeles, will also be offered consultation services and technical expertise for stewardship planning and long-term asset management. “These churches represent multifaceted legacies spanning critical moments in American history and culture,” said Brent Leggs, the fund’s executive director and strategic adviser to the CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in a statement. “Thanks to generous funding from … Lilly Endowment Inc. and our team’s strategic partnership, the Action Fund is ensuring that these historic churches can continue to exist as civic spaces of faith, education, beauty, and belonging for generations to come.” The five grant recipients are: First African Baptist …

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 …