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The biggest thing that Evangelicals can learn from Catholics is how to worship. This might seem like an odd thing to say because many Catholics who leave the Church to join an Evangelical congregation often mention the “dead” character of Catholic worship as one of their main reasons for leaving. It’s true that a shoddy execution of the liturgy, combined with content-free homilies, and a lack of vibrant fellowship, can make a parish seem lifeless. However, liturgy, when celebrated reverently, can also give worshipers a connection to the sacred that is just not available through the type of worship service...

A former Pentecostal bishop has admitted stealing nearly $160,000 by fraudulently soliciting loans from parishioners and religious associates in New Jersey. Steven Parrott of Newark pleaded guilty Friday to misconduct by a corporate official.

A gay San Francisco pastor, who has historically fought for gay rights in the Lutheran Church, was arrested on charges of possession of child pornography, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The Reverend Steven Sabin, pastor at Christ Church Lutheran at Quintara Street and 20th Avenue, was arrested November 15 on three felony charges. Sabin, 59, was arraigned November 21 and pleaded not guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography and two counts of possession or control of child pornography, according to a spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney's office. Private defense attorney Art Lipton is...

A group of Ohio religious leaders criticized lawmakersÂ’ efforts to pass protections for unborn babies Thursday during a pro-abortion protest at a church in downtown Columbus. The event at Trinity Episcopal Church, coordinated by the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, included Christian and Jewish leaders who oppose a bill to prohibit abortions after unborn babies have a detectable heartbeat, about six weeks of pregnancy.The state House passed the bill in November, and the Senate is considering it this week. It is expected to pass the Republican-controlled legislature. HAPPENING NOW: Faith leaders organized by @OhioRCRC are speaking against bans on...

Even those who accept that unjust laws must be observed until they are repealed say that the actions of Russian officials in Naberezhny Chelny against a Baptist minister are intended not to enforce the law but to intimidate Evangelical Baptists... A week ago, police in that Middle Volga city arrested Baptist minister Leonid Povorov for baptizing believers in public without securing advanced permission from officials even though they had not given him notice, brought the pastor in shackles to the courtroom, and imposed a 20,000-ruble (330 US dollar) fine. Both locally and at the national level, Baptists have protested these...

An atheist minister in a Christian denomination got to keep her job leading a congregation after several years of turmoil that could have led to a “heresy trial” later this month, the Toronto Star reported. The Rev. Gretta Vosper — with the theologically liberal United Church of Canada — said in a Friday interview she’s free to minister at West Hill United Church in Toronto after a confidential settlement with the denomination, the paper reported.

The identity statement of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) states it is “a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of the one body of Christ we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.” But congregational reporting numbers made available in the annual Disciples of Christ yearbook show that the denomination continues to welcome fewer people to that table – so few that its ability to minister as a nationwide Christian denomination is imperiled in the immediate future. Church membership shrank to 411,140 in 2017 (down from 497,423, or 17 percent, from 2014),...

If you want fresh evidence that Donald Trump has turned American politics upside down, here it is: Former Gov. Christie Whitman, a lifelong Republican, is so appalled by him that she wants Democrats to take over the House. "I'm hoping we lose the House, that would be a good thing," she said Friday. "Congress could stand up to him and could be dialing back a lot of this. They have ceded too much to this president." But be careful, she says. Don't kill the moderate Republicans, they are the ones who can help steer the country back to safe ground....

Bob Jones University is what most would call a fundamentalist school. No one, however, should think that it has low academic standards or is anti-cultural. The heavy emphasis on producing Shakespeare’s plays, the gallery of great religious art, as well as an exact replica of the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey tell us otherwise. One thing nearly all of us Protestants who have visited this beautiful and well-presented gallery cannot help noticing is the heavy preponderance, not only of Roman Catholic artists, but also of specifically Catholic themes. When Bob Jones, Jr. was challenged with the question, “Why do you...

In the past five or six years, I have known several people who have left Reformed Christianity for Eastern Orthodoxy. Their reasons for making that decision varied. Some were mesmerized by the beauty of the Divine Liturgy. Others found Eastern Orthodoxy (hereafter EO) to offer a greater appreciation for mystery and religious experience than what they had known as a Protestant. All of them, however, were attracted by and eventually convinced of EO’s claim to be the original church founded by Christ. While I do not agree with their decision, I sympathize with their desire to be part of the...

Protestants cannot and must not view these events with a kind of detachment or distance, for numerous reasons. First, we cannot forget that each and every revelation of abuse is the revelation of a life-altering (and sometimes life-shattering) event for the victim and a faith-crippling moment for friends, family, and countless others. Second, given the plethora of recent sexual scandals in Evangelical churches and seminaries, the Catholic catastrophe should remind us that perhaps only the lack of an equivalent hierarchy has spared Evangelical churches from similar, systemic sin. “Our” scandals are more fragmented only because our churches are more fragmented.

Over the past five years, in fact, it has become increasingly clear—even to some conservative Christians—that fundamentalist churches face a widespread epidemic of sexual abuse and institutional denial that could ultimately involve more victims than the pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church. In 2012, an investigation at Bob Jones University, known as the “fortress of fundamentalism,” revealed that the school had systematically covered up allegations of sexual assault and counseled victims to forgive their attackers. Sovereign Grace, a network of “neo-Calvinist” churches, has been facing multiple allegations of child molestation and sexual abuse. In 2014, a New Republic investigation found...

As my friend Doug Phillips has pointed out, this year has brought, in the providence of God, a strange confluence of anniversaries. The two men who have had the greatest impact on these United States may well be, on the one hand, Charles Darwin, and on the other John Calvin. Darwin was born two hundred years ago this year, Calvin five hundred years ago. Our perspective on each of these men will serve as a potent bell-weather for our perspectives on a whole host of issues. In the culture wars most of our enemies will celebrate the birth of Darwin...

The President of Ireland has led calls for a “culture of peace” as Omagh marks the 20th anniversary of the worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict. Twenty nine innocents, including a woman pregnant with twins, died when a massive car bomb ripped through the Co Tyrone town just months after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement was supposed to have largely ended violence. A splinter dissident republican group opposed to the peace process, the Real IRA, was blamed for the carnage after inaccurate warnings meant police evacuated shoppers towards the bomb site. Twenty years later, nobody has been...

On Oct. 31, 1517, Luther nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the wooden doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. In his theses, Luther criticized the pope and Catholic Church practices like the selling of indulgences for redemption. But Luther wrote more than just the 95 Theses. He’s also the author of a corpus of virulent anti-Jewish writings. Over the next 30 years, as Protestantism took root, Luther evolved from being tolerant of Jews, hopeful they could become good Christians, to being disgusted with them. He described Jews as blasphemous, contaminators and murderers who should be expelled by...

The Minister for Health has said women in Northern Ireland will be able to access abortion services in the Republic when the legislation is introduced here. Speaking in Belfast this evening, Simon Harris said his concern for a woman’s right to access health services in crisis pregnancies situations does not stop at the border. He said while he respects the abortion law in northern Ireland, he hopes it is addressed in the near future. Britain’s Abortion Act does not extend to Northern Ireland and an abortion is only allowed if a woman’s life is at risk, or if there is...

“Today, Russia ranks among the worst violators of religious freedom and human rights,” Ambassador Callista Gingrich said during a roundtable discussion on Ukraine held at the US embassy in Rome. “There is no sign that its persecution of religious minorities and foreign missionaries is coming to an end.” “Russia routinely conducts sham trials to persecute Ukrainians,” she explained. “Religious freedom also remains heavily constricted in areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation and control." The ambassador is married to former House of Representatives Speaker, Newt Gingrich, an adviser and ally of the president, who has repeatedly stressed there is no evidence...

Over the years, I’ve had several Catholic friends and converts ask why I ultimately didn’t convert to their denomination. During my first two years of college, I spent a significant amount of time with Catholics, including at the (then?) US Opus Dei headquarters in NYC. I attended these gatherings with a good friend, who eventually decided to convert from Evangelicalism. I came close to converting, but ultimately decided against it. This has surprised some Catholics. I suspect this is because the standard narrative is that Protestants, especially Evangelicals, are crossing the Tiber in great droves. Statistically, the narrative isn’t quite...

An updated survey from Gallup, which it has conducted every 10 years since 1955, shows that only 39% of Catholics and 45% of Protestants attend church weekly. Back in 1955, about 75% of Catholics went to Mass every week. For the Protestants, about 42% went to church weekly.

Nearly half a century after Mao Tse-Tung banned religion in China, the country is home to an estimated 72 percent of the world’s religiously unaffiliated people. Yet if Christianity continues to grow at its current rate there, in a few years there will be more Christians in China than in any other country in the world. By claiming just a sliver of China’s population of 700 million religiously unaffiliated people, religious groups can drastically change their size and influence. As Christian religions lose ground across much of the Western world, China is one of the few countries where Christianity is...