Obviously, Trump knows he has enemies who want to help him spend eternity in real estate infinitely hotter than South Florida. The president believes God saved his life for a purpose. That's interesting, considering his history of remarks doubting whether he is worthy of heaven.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In other words, this is another case of “good” religion vs. “bad” religion.
Read MoreWhat do you know? If you go to a typical online dictionary and look up the verb “drawl,” you will find, “to speak slowly with vowels greatly prolonged.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) Many congregations have developed safer celebrations — often called “Holy-ween, “fall festivals” or similar terms — which almost always offer “trunk 'r treat” options, with families parked in church lots and children going car to car collecting candy.
Read MoreIf the president of the United States boards Air Force One for a dramatic trip to Israel — in the larger symbolic region often called the “Holy Land” — please consider putting at least one or two skilled religion-beat specialists on the airplane.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The “Hear Us” exhibition added flashy decals to the columns, walls and floors of the iconic sanctuary, imitating the spray-paint art form common in alleys, road underpasses and urban neighborhoods. The images even offered up some bold challenges.
Read MoreThe bottom line: Weiss (a liberal Jew who is married to another woman) has demonstrated a strong belief that real religious believers, acting on real religious beliefs, can shape real news events in the real world.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A reporter asked the Pope about the decision to give a U.S. Senator Dick Durbin a lifetime achievement award. The problem: Durbin consistently backs abortion rights and remains barred from receiving Holy Communion in Springfield, Illinois, his home diocese.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Days after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi poured gasoline on raging national debates about social media chatter celebrating the 31-year-old activist's death. Prominent conservatives immediately rejected her words, noting that her use of the term “hate speech” is one that, historically, has been used by the hard left.
Read MoreIt’s time to play “spot the headline,” a game that I have — for decades — watched mainstream journalists play as they cover the papacy.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The question is whether Vatican leaders can build unity between bishops who back Pride Masses and those who approve Latin Masses.
Read MoreDoing this interview was consistent with Charlie Kirk’s history of reaching out to leaders on the other side of the chasm between red and blue America. I would argue that many other conservative groups should take a similar approach, if their leaders are sharp enough to handle these kinds of encounters (with both sides recording what happens).
Read MoreIn her 30-minute testimony, Erika Kirk said her husband knew his life was in danger, but he stressed the biblical message in a verse from Isaiah: “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” Kirk said she once told him: “‘Charlie, baby, please talk to me next time before you say that statement.’ ... When you say, ‘Here I am, Lord. Use me,’ God will take you up on that.’ ... God accepted that total surrender from my husband, and then called him to His side.”
Read MoreIn the past decade, leaders in America’s newsrooms have tried to find journalists who can help them understand the language, symbols and beliefs of Americans with different cultural backgrounds. An editor in Miami will want a large percentage of the staff to speak Spanish. What about reporters who can speak conversational “evangelical” or what some call “Christianese”?
Read More(ANALYSIS) Months before his assassination, Charlie Kirk joined comedian Bill Maher on the “Club Random” podcast for a wide-ranging conversation on faith, science, politics and free speech. Despite Maher’s irreverence and marijuana use, Kirk held firm to his Christian convictions during that Eastertime conversation, especially in defending the hope of eternal life.
Read More(ANALYSIS) What do Joe Rogan, Charlie Sheen and Charlie Kirk have in common? On many levels, the correct answer is, “Not much.” And I never thought that I would be discussing Sheen in the context of someone like Kirk who, whatever you thought of his MAGA messages, was maturing into an increasingly effective public apologist on topics of faith, family and public life.
Read MoreAfter 40-plus years on the Godbeat, let me offer this observation: It’s extremely difficult to write about ancient, complex, often mysterious religious beliefs and doctrines in language that is both accurate and easily understandable in the mainstream media.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Every decade or so, it's common to see news reports about pastors leaving pulpits in search of less stressful work. Consider the 2024 Hartford Institute for Religion Research poll in which more than half said they have considered quitting. According to 2022 polling by the Barna Institute, the main causes for anxiety were strong job stress (56%), followed by feeling isolated (43%).
Read MoreAnyone who follows Catholics in cyberspace knows that Phil Lawler of Catholic Culture is an outspoken doctrinal conservative who is openly hostile to attempts to edit the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” However, he is also a realist who can read between the lines of the official pronouncements issued by the Vatican, as well as the hints, rumors and strategic silences that surround those documents.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It’s hard to take Jell-O salad to the after-church brunch a few hours after your husband of 33 years runs off with a younger woman. But the old-fashioned church Leanne Morgan attends in her summer Netflix sitcom does have a Philippians 4:13 poster in the fellowship hall proclaiming: “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”
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