“I always want to tell people that Ferguson erupted at a time when it had the eyes of the world on it, much like Birmingham, Alabama, which is where I’m from—when people saw from all over the country, all over the world what racial oppression looks like,” says UCC Pastor Traci Blackmon, a Black Lives Matter leader. “That happened in Ferguson, too. But sometimes we get so caught up in that particular place that we don’t recognize that Ferguson is everywhere.” More →

August 12, 2016

“We see increasingly the secularization of our culture, and the church is not really impacting the culture as it once did,” says Ken Ham, CEO of the Ark Encounter. “So what can we do to make an impact in the world? Well, why not build a Christian-themed attraction that the world is going to take notice of for the purpose of getting people talking about the Bible?” More →

August 4, 2016

“I’m very interested in seeing some basic values return to the country. I care very deeply about life, I care deeply about marriage, I care deeply about religious liberty, I care deeply about issues of fiscal solvency,” says Reverend Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego. “The national debt is a biblical-moral issue to me, thou shalt not steal from future generations.” More →

July 22, 2016

“We are looking at the popularity of Facebook Live, Snapchat and Periscope, so churches want to be there where they can reach people,” says DJ Chuang, consultant and leading expert on social media, the Internet and the church. More →

July 22, 2016

“We need to deal with the unconscious beliefs that we have about each other,” says Lisa Sharon Harper, author of The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can be Made Right. “We can’t restructure our society and actually begin to heal what race broke until we understand how our society structures have created biases in our own minds.” More →

July 15, 2016

“We had the exact same training – two nights a week, one weekend a month, summer internships. I wrote every paper he wrote,” says Maureen Garvey, who along with her husband took classes to prepare for the diaconate. “The only thing that was different was the day of ordination, I had tears in my eyes when all the guys were called up and they left their wives there sitting in the pews.” More →

July 15, 2016

“What we were looking for is an organ that sings, an organ that has a warm, mellow sound that accompanies singing,” says Rev. William Bradley Roberts, professor of church music and director of chapel music at Virginia Theological Seminary. More →

July 13, 2016

“This is nearly 10 years after the tragedy,” says Terri Roberts, the mother of Charlie Roberts, who murdered five Amish school girls in 2006, “and here I am. I’m alive and I am able to move forward because of the response of the Amish, because of forgiveness. I believe that so much light has been brought into such a dark place.”
More →

July 1, 2016

While the presumptive Republican nominee for president told evangelicals he is “a tremendous believer,” interfaith protests, vigils, and press conferences questioned the candidate’s religious claims and assertions. More →

June 24, 2016

“I was looking for a place where I could practice empathy,” says Randall Smith. “I’m looking for a place to practice tolerance. I’m looking for a place to practice compassion, love, truth. What I found in the Friends community is a place to do that that is safe, that is a very large tent. The great part of that is I ended up joining the most unorganized organized religion I could find.” More →

June 24, 2016