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Prominent evangelical leader and pastor Billy Graham has died at the age of 99. He passed away from natural causes at his home in Montreat, N.C, Fox News confirmed Wednesday. BREAKING NEWS: Billy Graham has died at age 99. pic.twitter.com/oZbmCUwOU5— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 21, 2018 Graham, one of "the most admired men in the world," according to polls, held over 400 "Christian crusades," or evangelistic campaigns, between 1947 and 2005.His influence was vast. He preached to an estimated 250 million people and offered spiritual guidance to several U.S. presidents. During his life-long ministry, Reverend Billy Graham preached in person...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, during his 20th annual state of the nation speech on Sunday, said that "Christianity is Europe's last hope." He added that European leaders have "opened the way to to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam." Orban also stated that Hungary will continue to oppose efforts by the European Union and (to a lesser degree) the United Nations to encourage mass migration from the Middle East and Africa. That's all controversial enough in today's climate, but Orban wasn't done yet. He also described Europe as being steadily conquered by migrants. "Born Germans,"...

Reuters) - Hungarian leader Viktor Orban called on Sunday for a global alliance against migration as his right-wing populist Fidesz party began campaigning for an April 8 election in which it is expected to win a third consecutive landslide victory. Popular at home but increasingly at odds politically and economically with mainstream European Union peers, Orban has thrived on external controversy, including repeated clashes with Brussels and lately the United Nations. Those conflicts, mostly centered on migration since people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa flooded into Europe in 2015, have intensified as the elections approach...

A North Carolina mom started serving a week-long jail sentence for having her daughter baptized, according to reports. The 2016 baptism at St. Peter’s Catholic Church when the girl was 2 years old defied a judge’s order in a custody battle between unmarried couple, Kendra Stocks and Paul Schaaf, who are no longer together.

From escaping Iran through the mountains as a Muslim refugee, to surviving domestic abuse and imprisonment in a Turkish prison, to carving out a life in Sweden, Annahita Parsan’s story is the stuff of a Hollywood movie. Parsan, a convert from Islam to Christianity and mother of two, has emerged as one of the most prominent religious figures in Europe, both because of her unlikely geographic and spiritual pilgrimage and her decision to reach out to Muslims with the gospel -- at great personal risk. The former refugee is now the leader of two congregations in Sweden. She not only...

Dr. Andrew Walls, missionary to Sierra Leone and Nigeria and now professor at the University of Edinburgh, teaches on the history of Christianity in Africa.

Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday criticized ABC’s "The View" for being religiously intolerant after co-host Joy Behar compared his Christian faith to mental illness. Discussing Omarosa Manigault Newman’s comments about Pence, Behar said Pence’s belief that Jesus speaks to him qualified as "mental illness." Co-host Sunny Hostin also said Pence put a "religious veneer" on his views and said it is "dangerous" having him in office. Pence said that criticism "comes with this job," but he argued that this particular criticism went beyond him and insulted the faith of all believers. "An overwhelming major of Americans cherish their faith,...

Not for nothing, but the latest fruits of the sexual revolution are even more bizarre than most of us imagined.We knew things would get a little freaky, but maybe we didn’t know it would involve an upswing in polygamy, amorous activities with plastic women, or cuddling sessions with electric candelabra.But that is the state of affairs as we approach Valentine’s Day this year.We shouldn’t be surprised. When a society deifies sexual expression, it deifies a jealous god who will not be satisfied until every biological, social, and moral norm is overturned.Consider the upswing in open marriages. In a recent edition...

The women of ABC News' “The View” took a shot a Vice President Mike Pence’s Christian faith on Tuesday, mocking the former governor of Indiana for talking to Jesus and even calling it a “mental illness.” It all started when they played a clip from “Celebrity Big Brother,” in which former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman discussed the vice president. “As bad as you think Trump is, you would be worried about Pence… everyone that is wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their life,” she said in the clip. “I am Christian, I love Jesus, but he thinks...

Viktor Orbán has vowed to put “Hungary first” and fight those within the European Union who “want to change the Christian identity of Europe”. Echoing U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s “America First” rallying cry, conservative Prime Minister Orbán has hit out at Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel who said that Central European countries would be forced to accept migrants in terms described by Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party as “extortion”. “The presidency of Fidesz has discussed yesterday the announcement of the Belgian Prime Minister, that they will – if necessary with force – obligate Central European countries, including Hungary, to accept...

On January 31, 2018, my wife and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. At the end of this year, in mid-December, my wonderful parents will celebrate their 50th. Before my beloved father-in-law was criminally taken from us by a drunk driver in 2015, he and my sweet mother-in-law were married for almost 46 years. Taken together, those are rare numbers these days in our slow-to-marry, quick-to-divorce, sex-crazed, hook-up culture. Like every other marriage in human history, none of the unions mentioned above were, or are, perfect. Each of us has certainly seen our fair share of tough times, but, as...

Thousands of Christian villagers in China have been told to take down displays of Jesus, crosses, and gospel passages from their homes as part of a government propaganda effort to “transform believers in religion into believers in the party.” The news comes weeks after the CPC held its national congress, where Xi continued to consolidate party power and passed a historic measure to write his political philosophy into its constitution. SCMP called Xi “the country’s most powerful leader since Mao” Zedong, who also developed a personality cult through portraits in Chinese homes. The news outlet also noted Xi’s efforts to...

It's a common question asked by church leaders and laity: "Is American Christianity waning as our nation becomes more secular"? The statistics seem to support a "yes" answer to this question. I've been collecting data on this issue for over ten years. The surveys (more than 50 I've chronicled so far) reveal a disturbing, albeit unified, trend: Fewer people claim a Christian affiliation than ever before, and those who claim no religious affiliation are the fastest growing group in America.Despite these statistics, a recent article argues that religion "continues to enjoy 'persistent and exceptional intensity' in America." Glenn Stanton, writing...

Every now and then, I visit other churches in order to see what kinds of traditions they observe and what kinds of issues they tackle in their weekly worship services. Last weekend, I visited a non-denominational church. As I write this column on a Thursday morning, I am on my fourth day of trying to figure out what the pastor actually said, if anything. To be frank, I suspect that the pastor is still trying to figure out what he actually said, if anything.The thesis of the sermon, which was given to a church heavily populated with college students, seems...

We are in a time of the first ever mass conversions of Muslims,” Father Mitch Pacwa SJ told me in a phone interview. “God is doing a mighty work among them.” Pacwa said that mass conversions are happening even in very fundamentalist countries. There is rapidly growing number of conversions especially on the edges of the Muslim world in the western and southern parts of Africa, he said. “Africa is now growing predominantly Christian despite crackdowns,” Pacwa said. Some of the noteworthy countries he mentioned include Iran, reported to have 3 million Christians, and Indonesia with reports of 2 million...

Liberals have stuck to a pretty consistent strategy in dealing with American Christianity: If you repeat something often enough, people will start to believe it. With the media's help, they set out to convince the country that evangelicals were dying on the political vine. But, as so often happens, they were proven wrong on the biggest of stages when, in 2016, the church's "withering" influence proved to be anything but. Since then, teams of researchers have been trying to get a read on the state of Christianity in America -- and what they've found might surprise you. After years of...

A Russian Orthodox bishop has advised the faithful not to vote for Vladimir Putin when he stands for re-election in March, a nearly unheard of occurrence in the loyal church. The angry statement marked the first time an acting bishop has spoken against supporting the current president. Bishop Yevtikhy Kurochkin of the epiphany cathedral in the Siberian city of Ishim wrote on his page on VK, Russia's most popular social network, that he could no longer follow his “desire to vote for Putin” following “blasphemous” remarks by the president. “'If the light that is in you is darkness, how great...

It is now well over a year since Vladimir Putin's Russia passed 'anti-missionary' laws and more than 180 cases have since been brought. Activities ranging from prayer meetings in homes, posting worship times on a religious website and praying in the presence of other citizens have been interpreted as 'missionary activity' with Christians making up the vast majority of the law's victims. One case is that of Donald Ossewaarde, an American Baptist preacher living in Oryol, who was expelled for hosting a church meeting in his house. Having lost appeals throughout the Russian judiciary system, Ossewaarde's case is now with...

“Meanwhile, a widespread decline in churchgoing and religious affiliation had contributed to a growing anxiety among conservative believers.” Statements like this are uttered with such confidence and frequency that most Americans accept them as uncontested truisms. This one emerged just this month in an exceedingly silly article in The Atlantic on Vice President Mike Pence.Religious faith in America is going the way of the Yellow Pages and travel maps, we keep hearing. It’s just a matter of time until Christianity’s total and happy extinction, chortle our cultural elites. Is this true? Is churchgoing and religious adherence really in “widespread...

If there is a single problem with our lives today, it is the breathtaking shallowness of modern life. We seem infatuated with grade-school gossip and a breathless yearning for "stuff," as if the latest gadgetry or a fatter bank account could make anything real in our lives better. We seem to believe in nothing but this gossip and these gadgets. This infantile fixation stretches across political party and ideology. This is a reflection of godlessness, shattered families, and the wicked drumbeat in education and media of indoctrination instead of learning or amusement. It is astounding how little most people know...