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Israel is reassessing its visa policies for Evangelical Christian organizations, including the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, after years of restrictions. The move follows a surge in visa denials for Evangelical clergy and comes against a backdrop of rising tensions between religious communities in the country.Israeli authorities are in talks to establish new visa procedures for permanent staff of Christian organizations like the ICEJ, Bridges for Peace and Christians United for Israel, Al-Monitor reported, citing a spokesperson for the Israel Population and Immigration Authority.Founded in 1980, the ICEJ has a small permanent staff of 40 in Jerusalem and is involved...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Monday on ABC’s “The View” that she hoped evangelicals would “wake up and realize that God may not be on their side the way they think he is” while discussing former President Donald Trump at the recent Faith & Freedom Coalition convention. Co-host Sunny Hostin said, “What was shocking to me was the hypocrisy of the evangelical community, booing at the truth. I mean, we can all have differences of opinions, but the facts remain the same. And, he did these things, so it’s almost like they were going, ‘la la la la la la...

Former President Trump stressed his efforts to restrict abortion access during remarks to a group of evangelicals over the weekend in the early nominating state of Iowa. “Last year, after decades of work by organizations like yours, those justices delivered a landmark victory for protecting innocent life,” Trump, bragging about the three Supreme Court seats he filled with conservative justices, said Saturday about the fall of Roe v. Wade. “Nobody thought it was going to happen. They thought it would be another 50 years.” Trump’s victory lap on helping curb abortion access in front of the Iowa Faith and Freedom...

At issue is a provision in the bill that would impose, per the legislative text: "criminal penalties for persons who knowingly and willfully violate, or who reasonably should know and who violate, certain provisions relating to the transporting into or within this state, or the concealing, harboring, or shielding from detection, or the attempt thereof, of individuals who entered the United States unlawfully and without inspection by the Federal Government."Violators could be charged with a second-degree felony under the bill, which in Florida is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The bill is also opposed by the ACLU,...

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at evangelicals for not supporting his latest presidential campaign, saying it was a “sign of disloyalty” after he appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices and made their long-held dream of overturning Roe v. Wade possible. Trump, 76, told Real America’s Voice’s “The Water Cooler” Monday that the religious bloc of voters who were key to his 2016 victory have not yet come out to back his 2024 White House bid. “That’s a sign of disloyalty,” Trump told host David Brody. “There’s great disloyalty in the world of politics, and that’s a sign of disloyalty.”

The Observatory of Religious Pluralism in Spain has released an update of the data on places of worship, as well as the religious identification of the Spanish population according to the statistics published by the Sociological Research Centre (CIS).The Observatory aims to provide “data and diagnoses on the diversity of beliefs and the needs related to the effective exercise of religious freedom, in order to contribute to the improvement of public management”, explained on its website.In addition to provide reports and infographics on the situation of religious minorities in Spain, the Observatory updates data on places of worship every six...

Call it a crisis of faith. Despite appointing the conservative judges who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade — and fervently courting the religious right during his presidency — prominent evangelicals are beginning to shy away from supporting former President Donald Trump’s third bid for office. A major factor is the same issue driving leaders in other parts of the conservative coalition away from his campaign: They’re not sure he can win. “Evangelicals, conservatives and freedom-loving Americans … the common question is: Who can win in 2024?” Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of the Family Leader, told Semafor. “And I...

American evangelicalism is deeply divided. Some evangelicals have embraced the secular turn toward social justice activism, particularly around race and immigration, accusing others of failing to reckon with the church’s racist past. Others charge evangelical elites with going “woke” and having failed their flocks. Some elites are denounced for abandoning historic Christian teachings on sexuality. Others face claims of hypocrisy for supporting the serial adulterer Donald Trump. Old alliances are dissolving. Former Southern Baptist agency head Russell Moore has left his denomination. Political pundit David French has become a fearsome critic of ­many religious conservatives who would once have been...

On Jan. 6, 2021, a large group of evangelical Christians attacked the U.S. Capitol on the understanding that they were fighting for God's president. (Not all of those who stormed the Capitol were driven by religious convictions, of course, but a large proportion were.) They were ready to kill for their president, take down a democratic system that has endured nearly 250 years, and follow Donald Trump at God's supposed direction until America became a Christian theocracy. As the House Jan. 6 committee concludes its investigation, I think the power and significance of these evangelical believers have been overlooked. Most...

Every two years, Ligonier Ministries works with LifeWay Research to evaluate the theological temperature of the American church. This year’s State of Theology study’s results show that not just Americans but Evangelicals, in particular, are increasingly muddy on core truths such as the nature and character of God, the reality of human sin, the role of the Church in the world, and the exclusivity and divinity of Jesus Christ. For context, the survey defines “Evangelical” as a Christian believer who meets four criteria: that the Bible is the highest authority for what someone believes, that it is important for non-Christians...

Nearly half of Evangelical leaders said in a new survey that they have been disinvited, blacklisted or excluded because of their point of view or “guilt by association,” according to the National Association of Evangelicals.The NAE's July/August Evangelical Leaders Survey revealed that 48% of Evangelical leaders said they have been “canceled” by others “as a way of expressing their disapproval for the leader or the leader’s point of view.”The findings are part of a monthly poll of the NAE’s Board of Directors, which includes the CEOs of denominations and representatives of diverse Evangelical organizations, such as missions, universities, publishers and...

Despite an increase in the overall number of atheists worldwide, new research reveals that the population of religious people is growing at a faster pace than that of their secular counterparts. Lifeway Research has identified “7 Encouraging Trends of Global Christianity in 2022” based on data collected by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at the Massachusetts-based Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Specifically, the data titled the 2022 Status of Global Christianity report, demonstrates that “religious faith is growing faster than the irreligious.” The 2022 Status of Global Christianity report includes statistics about Christianity from 1900, 1970, 2000 and mid-2022...

New insights on Dennis Rader, the BTK killer who lived in plain sight in Wichita when he killed ten residents in 20 years, are revealed in a new docuseries Rader is sometimes remorseful, 'depending on the day,' says forensic psychologist Kathryn Ramsland, who spoke to him from jail for nearly a decade Ramsland said that Rader simultaneously views himself as a 'monster' and a 'good person who did some bad things' Exclusive conversations between Ramsland and Rader were aired on the A&E docuseries 'BTK: Confession of a Serial Killer,' which aired on January 8 SNIP

Some 51% of Evangelical Protestants in the United States say they believe Jews are God’s chosen people, according to a recently released survey. Titled “The Jewish Connection: Evangelicals and Israel,” the findings were announced this week by Infinity Concepts, a faith-based communications agency that co-produced the report with Grey Matter Research. Drawing from a survey of approximately 1,000 Evangelical Protestant Americans, the report found that 51% of respondents believed that Jews were still God’s chosen people. By contrast, 19% said they were unsure, 17% said they believe Christians have replaced Jews as the chosen people, 10% said they believe Jews...

White evangelical Christians have resisted getting vaccinated against COVID-19 at higher rates than other religious groups in the United States. A new study by Yale researchers provides evidence that persuading these vaccine holdouts to get their shots has only gotten more difficult. "At this point, unvaccinated white evangelicals seem resistant to messaging aimed at persuading them of the benefits of being vaccinated against COVID-19," said Gregory A. Huber, the Forst Family Professor of Political Science in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and a co-author of the study. "It's not clear whether this is because resistance to vaccination among white...

The U.S. State Department urged Americans to “depart Haiti now” before not even the government is able to help them leave as widespread fuel shortages triggered by growing violence in the Caribbean nation continued while 17 missionaries, including 16 Americans, were still being held hostage by a local gang demanding a $17 million ransom. “The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to make plans to depart Haiti now via commercial means. U.S. citizens should carefully consider the risks of traveling to or remaining in Haiti in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges,” a statement from the U.S....

The director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made a plea on Saturday to unvaccinated evangelical Christians to "look at the evidence" on COVID-19 vaccines and get the jab. CNN anchor Jim Acosta asked NIH Director Francis Collins during an on-air interview about his message to evangelicals and other religious communities who have cited their faith as the reason not to get the vaccine. Collins has previously stated that he is an evangelical Christian. Acosta noted that the NIH director received pushback over his faith and "how it might factor into your role as a man of science" when...

The Christian cold war will mean an increase in church splits, takeovers, and other power struggles as people choose sides on existential questions, including theology.Along with the rest of the country, American Christianity is in the middle of a cold war. As this war heats up, it will mean church splits, takeovers, fights over denominational resources, and other power struggles as the Donald Trump era has increasingly brought clarity and pushed people to choose sides on existential questions.The Southern Baptist Convention, the United States’ largest Protestant denomination, is one key example of this dynamic affecting American Christianity as a whole....

At the risk of pummeling an already, very dead horse, allow me to ask you once again: so, how is your pro-life vote for Joe Biden looking right now?As I’ve said repeatedly in the past, I can understand if you could not cast your vote for Donald Trump, despite all the good that he did. In your view, the damage he did and the example he set more than outweighed the positives. And so, as a lover of Jesus and the Word of God, you could not vote for him.But a vote for Biden, specifically, as a pro-life evangelical? What...

When his country came calling, Frank Capra had already won three best directing Oscars in five years—”It Happened One Night” (1934), “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” (1936), and “You Can’t Take It with You” (1938)—and had directed the incomparable “Lost Horizon” (1937) and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939). He could certainly have rested on his laurels, but he was too patriotic an American not to assist in World War II.Too old to fight on the battlefield, Capra waged his war in the editor’s booth, constructing a series of seven propaganda films known collectively as the Why We Fight series,...