Author: US. Correspondent.
Daniel Silliman/US Correspondent. Charismatic megachurch pastor Bill Johnson urged Bethel Church, in Redding, California, not to dismiss fake prophecy just because it’s fake. Speaking at a “family meeting” on Feb. 3, Johnson said that a made-up revelation, with information taken from Facebook and manipulated to sound like a divine “download” could, in fact, be from God. “I would say be careful before you throw it out, before you flush it,” Johnson said. “I don’t know if this is the right time for it or not, but just, if you received a prophetic word from somebody that you question, go ahead and question…
Aleja Hertzler-McCain – Religion News Service Pastors Nepthali Zozaya Saucedo and Cinthia Sarai Cardona Otero led their Edinburg, Texas, congregation on Sunday praising God for their recent release from immigration detention and praying for those left behind. “As the body of Christ, we can intercede, and not just for our family and friends, but also for people we maybe haven’t even seen, but who also endure pain, who also suffer injustice, who are also fighting to see the light of the sun again and have dignified food for themselves, a space to sleep and a space to be, and above…
Sarah Holliday /Decision Magazine. Artificial intelligence is advancing at a breathtaking pace. Developers sell its promise, organizations rush to weave it into daily operations, and professionals across nearly every field scramble to define its place. Yet Christians confront a deeper question: How should believers engage a technology that presents itself as the source of all answers—when it is programmed by people who do not have them? Opinions about AI flood the political arena, the church, and the public square as a whole. Some embrace it without reservation; others dismiss it entirely. Between those extremes lies a different posture many walk in:…
OPINION: Oliver Melnick The word Genocide has become a leitmotif when Israel is being discussed among foes. It has become the main recurring excuse to accuse Israel in this current exponentially growing campaign of delegitimization, demonization, and double standards. After all, any leader, government, or people group committing genocide against another people group is indeed guilty of murder and should be stopped at any cost, but before we dig deeper, let’s define the meaning of the word genocide. The word “genocide” was coined in 1942 by Polish Lawyer Raphael Lemkin and didn’t exist prior to World War Two. As a result of…
J. Freya H. Latwin/US Correspondent. When disaster strikes — a hurricane, wildfire or pandemic — we often focus on who needs the most help. But what if we shifted the frame? What if, instead of seeing disabled people only as “vulnerable,” we recognized them as experts in adaptation, resourcefulness and creative problem-solving under pressure? People with disabilities have always navigated a world built without them in mind. Every day, they invent ways to move through inaccessible spaces, communicate across barriers and manage uncertainty. Their lived experience offers precisely the mindset and methods we all need to strengthen emergency preparedness in an age…
Jonathan Brentner Many recognize the myriad of signs pointing to Jesus’ soon arrival to take us home to glory. However, as the days become weeks and then months and years, we sometimes struggle to maintain an eager anticipation of Jesus’s appearing. If you are like me, you wonder how much closer can we get to the start of the Tribulation before we meet Him in the air? The silence in most churches regarding our “blessed hope” makes our expectation all the more difficult to maintain. Many of our Christian friends and family members believe it’s irrational to regard the Rapture…
Peter Isackson Two AI chatbots, Claude and ChatGPT, diverge on whether human moral responsibility can ever be computationally replicated. Claude acknowledges an existential boundary separating human and machine judgment; ChatGPT remains agnostic, leaning toward functionalism. Both ultimately recognize value in a new form of human–AI collaboration, though from different philosophical starting points and with differing degrees of humility. My previous column ended when I proposed to submit for ChatGPT’s approval the very satisfying conclusions Claude and I had reached concerning the complementarity of human and artificial intelligence. We agreed on the need for a collective effort by sentient humans to collaborate on the creation…
Some significant progress was made in a room where communities in conflict grappled with peaceful agreement and disagreement. Opinion: Michael Gamal I challenge you to name a place where a Coptic Egyptian who once considered himself anti-Zionist could spend two days in candid conversation with Jews, Druze, Muslim reformers, Iranians, Assyrians and representatives from Somaliland. That was the scene in late June, when I traveled to London for the Tel Aviv Institute’s New Middle East Laboratory, a gathering of activists, writers and community leaders brought together to explore what a genuinely different Middle East might look like. The goal wasn’t…
Peter Isackson AI’s true threat lies not in its own power, but in humanity’s surrender to economic illusions and self-regulating market ideology. While CEOs and investors control AI for profit, we must collectively develop a culture of use rooted in shared intelligence — before meritocratic individualism and market faith destroy us. I recently engaged Claude in a wide-ranging conversation on how human and machine intelligence in its current state can interact productively and how that might evolve in the future. We agreed on the principle that what happens as we move forward depends on the decisions humans will make rather than how…
Megan Specia/New York Times Andy Burnham is set to be the first lifelong Roman Catholic to become prime minister of Britain when he is appointed on Monday. At one point, that would have been a big deal. For a time, until the early 19th century, Britain barred Catholics from even becoming a member of Parliament, let alone prime minister. Modern Britain is notably secular — less than half of the people who described their religion in the most recent census of England and Wales said “Christian,” and 37 percent answered “no religion” — but the state retains deep historical ties with Protestant Christianity.…
Mark Henry/US Correspondent. Finding a good church is hard. Most people looking for a church these days desire one that’s welcoming with a genuine community atmosphere, authentic leaders, music that resonates, engaging family and youth programs, is not too far of a drive, and has services at convenient times. But above all these factors, many newcomers prioritize whether the teaching is accurate, understandable, and relevant to their lives. Preaching is one of the highest factors affecting whether someone decides to call a local church their home or move on to the next one down the street. This task was, to…
Aundrea Gomez As the Trump administration considers new rules governing in vitro fertilization, the pro-life movement is grappling with a new ethical challenge.For more than five decades, the pro-life movement has focused on abortion and consistently upheld the scientific principle that life begins at conception. But if that principle is true, it cannot stop at the doors of an IVF clinic. We grieve the loss of roughly 1 million unborn children killed through abortion each year. We advocate, vote, donate, and pray for an end to abortion, just as we did to end Roe v. Wade. Many people who are otherwise pro-life support IVF. Their logic is simple: Abortion destroys life, while IVF makes it. Thus, IVF is said…
Shawn Akers Bucket lists have been around for a long time. The idea has gained additional traction, however, since the release of the 2007 comedy-drama starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. We’d like to suggest an inviting, and doable, Marriage Bucket List for Men. You don’t have to wait for retirement. You won’t need to win the lottery. And we’re quite sure a terminal diagnosis isn’t required to get you motivated. Take a look, think in terms of this coming calendar year, and try to check off this Marriage Bucket List for Men one item at a time over the…
Kevin Briggins, There was recently a debate between Christian apologist Frank Turek, who is white, and Pastor Charlie Dates, who is black, moderated by Pastor Derwin Gray, who is also black. I use the word moderated loosely because Pastor Gray was not a neutral party. Throughout the debate, he consistently sided with Pastor Dates, frequently interrupted Frank Turek, and inserted his own rebuttals rather than facilitating an even-handed discussion. One exchange was especially revealing. Frank asked how our society can move forward without embracing reverse racism. Pastor Gray responded: “Racism is different than prejudice. Racism means there’s a group of people who actually have…
Nathanael Blake The inherent radicalism of same-sex marriage can’t help but lead to other rebellions against the created order Keep it gay. That’s the plea of Matthew Vines, author of God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships. Vines recently warned New York Times readers that “the broad support that made marriage equality possible has grown more vulnerable,” which he blames on those who want “same-sex orientation” to be “part of a wider rebellion against social norms.” And this “queerness” is provoking backlash. Andrew Sullivan made a similar argument in the same paper a year ago, lamenting that the gay-rights movement…
Carl Trueman. (See editors note below) For any wishing to see where the West’s culture of assisted death is heading, Canada and the Netherlands have long been the harbingers of things to come. It is well-known that 1 in 20 Canadian deaths now comes at the hands of Canada’s own government. And in the Netherlands, a new boundary has now been crossed: The government has recently reported the first euthanizing of a child between the ages of 1 and 12 who was suffering from a terminal illness. While the issue of terminal illness is fraught with emotion and references to “unnecessary suffering”…
Graham Faulkner. Are aliens among us, or are people seeing a lot of demons lately? Many prominent Catholics seem to believe the latter. In March, Vice President JD Vance said on The Benny Show that he believes UFOs are demons. Father Chad Ripperger, one of the most famous Catholic exorcists in the world, made the same argument on the Shawn Ryan podcast. More recently, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, another Catholic exorcist with a large social media following and head of the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, said, “There’s no question in my mind—again, this is not de fide—it’s my personal belief that probably many, if not most,…
Samantha Kamman, One of the last remaining historic Protestant churches in Iran is reportedly facing the threat of confiscation by the Iranian government, drawing renewed international attention to the country’s treatment of religious minorities. Iran has threatened to seize Tehran’s historic St. Peter Evangelical Church and evict the 20 families who reside there, according to multiplereports. Authorities have already seized a 10,000-square-meter garden belonging to the church, which is being occupied by four officials with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, The Jerusalem Post reports. “I will tell you the literal words they used,” Sasan Tavassoli, a U.S.-based minister with ties to…
Lianna Peters. A memorial commemorating the lives lost in Nigeria last year due to a jihadist terrorist group, which remains one of the deadliest incidents of anti-Christian violence in the region and displacing 3,000 people. The new monument had the 270 victims’ names engraved, located in Nigeria’s Benue State, unveiled in Yalwata, where men, women and children were killed on Father’s Day last year. The memorial was unveiled by missionaries from Equipping the Persecuted, an organization that supports persecuted Christian communities around the world. “Their names are now engraved in stone so they will never be forgotten,” said Judd Saul, founder…
Susannah Black I love being a Christian. I mean, I love Jesus, but I love all the rest of it too: brunch after church with friends and hylomorphism and late-night Eucharist on Christmas Eve and C.S. Lewis and John Donne and Charles De Koninck. I love Durham Cathedral and the Aksum Empire and Neoplatonism and canon law and candles and martyrs who chose death over denial and countless little communes of monks and Anabaptists and Puritans and Methodists and charismatics who read Acts 2 and 4 and decided to just go ahead and do it. I love knowing that nothing good will be…
Rachel Gilson Jesus himself says not to judge.” Thus many a conversation about Christian ethics has come to a swift end. I often hear this verse quoted to me in conversations about the Bible’s sexual ethic, especially when these conversations occur in progressive, secular spaces. But it doesn’t take much imagination to guess how it might be deployed elsewhere. When used to shut down conversations, the implicit meaning is something like this: Jesus says it’s wrong to tell me I’m wrong. Why does it work? For starters, Jesus really did make such a statement: “Judge not, that you not be…
Ryan Foley, As Samaritan’s Purse battles a growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), CEO Franklin Graham is urging Christians around the world to pray for the ministry’s frontline workers as they care for patients under what he described as increasingly difficult conditions that are “much worse than we initially thought.” In an X post Tuesday, Graham said Samaritan’s Purse has opened two 40-bed Ebola treatment centers in northeastern DRC, the region he called “the epicenter of the outbreak.” The facilities opened as concerns grow that the outbreak might be more widespread than initially believed. “We believe the…
Fewer than nine players on the 28-man roster were willing to play in the ‘Pride’ uniforms. Doug Mainwaring/US Correspondent. A professional baseball team in Pennsylvania was forced to forfeit its “Pride Night” game on Thursday after the majority of its players refused to wear rainbow “Pride” jerseys. The York Revolution team threw its players who declined to wear the LGBTQ-themed jerseys under the bus in a searing public statement condemning the brave, principled team members’ actions. “It is with great disappointment that the York Revolution have issued important changes to our 11th Annual Pride Night on Thursday, June 18th,” began the team’s statement. “Unfortunately,…
Doug Mainwaring/US Correspondent. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has notified the U.S. District Court that it intends to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against the State of New York, challenging a State law that requires housing biological men with women in the Sisters’ residential hospice care program. The DOJ announced in a press statement that it supports the Sisters of Hawthorne’s argument that the New York law violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection of religious groups. The Dominican Sisters, who for over 125 years have provided nursing care to poor patients dying from cancer, had…
Julie Roys/US Correspondent. John Cooper, the lead singer for the band Skillet, posted a stunning response on Facebook recently to the recent public renunciations of Christianity by Joshua Harris and then Hillsong songwriter, Marty Sampson. (Sampson has since slightly walked back his initial statement after Dr. Michael Brown posted an open letter challenging Sampson’s assertions.) Below is Cooper’s entire statement, which was also published at Cogent Christianity. I’m reposting it here because it’s so good and so important, and I want to make sure everyone who follows this blog sees it. Thank you, John Cooper, for saying what few have the insight or courage to say. God bless you, brother!…
OPINION: SA McCarthy/The Washington Stand I generally don’t watch sports and can honestly say that I have never watched a World Cup. I have, however, been following this year’s World Cup happenings with great interest — and no, I’m not talking about the soccer. I have lived in Europe for many years, along with my Polish-born wife and our daughter. Europe is a beautiful place, full of cultural riches, awe-inspiring architecture, scenic landscapes, and a wealth of history. Oxford, England, and Kraków, Poland, are easily two of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited but represent only a small sampling…
Adithi Ramakrishnan/ AP News Scientists have unearthed communities of marine life — including jellyfish, tubeworms and brittle stars — thriving on a millions-year-old whale graveyard. These graveyards form when whale carcasses fall to the sea floor, becoming a sustaining snack for nearby critters. This one, located up to 23,000 feet (7 kilometers) below the surface of the southeastern Indian Ocean, spans the largest area and is so far the deepest and oldest found. A whale’s sheer size and the unique chemistry of its bones are the keys to forming these unique underwater neighborhoods, said Xikun Song, a biologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of…
OPINION: Alex Ward. Recently YouTube and social media influencer Jesse Ridgway revealed that he and his wife had decided to terminate their pregnancy after the genetic testing came back with a Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) diagnosis. The decision of Ridgway and his wife, as tragic as it is, is all too common. In the United States, between 67%-85% of pregnancies with this diagnosis are terminated. In some European countries, children born with Down syndrome have become exceedingly rare. In Denmark (98%) and Iceland (100%) between 98-100% of pregnancies with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome are terminated. In that context, Ridgway’s decision is…
Debbie Weiss More than two and a half years after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, not one of the terrorists detained for taking part in the attack has been brought to trial, according to a new report by Israel’s State Comptroller, who warned that the delay is harming deterrence and denying justice to the victims and their families. “Bringing justice to the Hamas terrorists who committed crimes during the October 7 terror attack is of utmost importance, from a legal, moral and public perspective,” outgoing State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said. The report faulted the state for…
Deepa Bharath/AP News The Pentagon’s revision to its list of Christian religions this week has reignited a nearly 200-year-old debate: Is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a Christian denomination? Most Latter-day Saints do see themselves as Christians. But there are many prominent Christian clergy and scholars who disagree, citing core differences in how they view God and the Trinity and revere a scripture that is not part of the two-testament Christian Bible. Utah U.S. Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, both Republicans and Latter-day Saints, challenged the Pentagon’s exclusion of their faith from its list of Christian…
Opinion: Nathanael Blake Sexual sin destroys justice. This is a problem for those on the religious left who insist that social justice (by which they mean the Democratic Party platform) matters more than sins of the flesh—if they even consider those to be sins. Consider a recent New York Times piece carrying the headline “Pope Leo Chooses Social Justice Over Pelvic Theology.” The author, David Gibson of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, argued that the pope “is trying to shift Catholicism away from the near fixation on ‘pelvic theology,’ or sexual morality, that has come to define Catholicism, especially…
By Ian M. Giatti/Christian Post. Researchers say they have uncovered consistent biases and notable gaps in how leading artificial intelligence models handle faith, religion and ethics-related questions, even favoring certain religious traditions and non-faith traditions over others. The Consortium for Evaluation of Faith and Ethics in AI (CEFE-AI), a collaboration among researchers at Brigham Young University (Latter-day Saint), Baylor University (Baptist), University of Notre Dame (Catholic) and Yeshiva University (Jewish), published its findings after testing 14 large language models (LLMs) — including flagship versions from Anthropic (Claude 4.7), Google (Gemini 3.1), xAI (Grok 4.2) and OpenAI (ChatGPT 5.5). Using its newly released AllFaith…
By Katelyn Webb/ US Correspondent. Months after placing pastor Ben Armstrong on administrative leave amid sexual abuse allegations, Bethel Church has announced a sweeping review of its leadership culture and distanced itself from several controversial figures in the charismatic movement, including Todd Bentley, Mike Bickle and Shawn Bolz. In a lengthy update released by church leadership on May 28, the influential California megachurch said feedback from congregants, staff, alumni, elders and leaders throughout the broader Christian community revealed areas of its culture and leadership that require “attention and reform.” “This feedback was moving and important,” the church said. “It has shown us areas in our leadership and culture…
By Shobha Shukla /CNS (Citizen News Service) This year’s Menstrual Hygiene Day (observed May 28) as well International Day of Action for Women’s Health is a grim reminder that women’s health is far from being a fundamental human right in reality. The writing on the wall is clear: if we are to deliver on the goal of gender equality for all by 2030, we must dismantle deep rooted stigma, secure bodily autonomy and eliminate period poverty. Menstruation – or period – is a natural and healthy biological process. Every month, more than two billion people around the world menstruate. But…
By Mark Henry/Harbinger’s Daily As the month of June arrives each year, I find myself bracing mentally for the flood of rainbow flags on display, announcements of parades that celebrate perversion and ungodly lifestyles. However, this year feels somewhat different compared to the last few years. It almost seems as if there is a subtle reversal happening towards traditional views, family values, and even Biblical truth. Rather than accepting Pride activism as the norm, some cities, states, and individuals are beginning to push back against its symbols and events. Signs of Cultural Pushback Take, for example, Arlington, Texas, which announced…
By Ryan Foley/US Correspondent. Alan Chambers, the former president of Exodus International, a once-prominent Christian ministry that sought to help people with unwanted same-sex attraction, has been arrested in Florida after authorities say he attempted to arrange sexual activity with someone he believed was a 14-year-old boy. In a statement Tuesday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orange County, Florida, said announced the arrest of Alan Chambers, 54, for attempting to “meet someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy – but it was actually an undercover detective.” According to the sheriff’s office, Chambers faces charges of solicitation of a minor, transmission of…
By Taneise Perry One of the most sobering realizations I’ve had in recent years is this: It’s possible for someone to cause deep, ongoing harm and still be seen as a strong, faithful Christian. That realization didn’t come from theory. It came from experience. After more than 20 years in a close friendship, I began to recognize patterns I had never been taught to see: manipulation, confusion and a slow erosion of my sense of reality. What unsettled me most wasn’t just the behavior itself. It was how easily that same person could use church spaces, relationships and language to…
By Mandy Owen/Partner News Agency Across generations, believers have asked an important question: Does God still speak through dreams and visions? For many Christians, the answer is yes, and many believe we are presently witnessing an increased outpouring of dreams and visions in this generation. Scripture reminds us that God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and that He does not change (Malachi 3:6).Throughout the Bible, God spoke to people such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, Peter, Paul, Ananias, Joseph (the husband of Mary), and many more through dreams and visions. Since Scripture teaches that God does…
Sourced from Partner Christian Media. On May 1, 2026, the Christian music world was introduced to “The Author,” a sweeping ballad featuring worship leader Brandon Lake and pop sensation Nick Jonas. To the casual listener, it is a touching story of a “preacher’s kid” returning to his roots—a narrative fueled by Jonas’s history as an Assemblies of God preacher’s son. The song opens with Jonas singing, “Picked up the Book for the first time in ages / Still washed me clean with the dust on the pages.” For the Christian audience, “The Book” is unmistakably the Bible, and the imagery…
By David Maas We are acquitted before God through the faith of Jesus Christ, and not from the works of the Law – Romans 3:21-26. Having demonstrated that all men violate God’s revealed will, the Apostle Paul concludes that no man or woman is acquitted from the penalty of sin from the works and rituals required by the Law of Moses. Instead, we are declared innocent through the faith or faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We are reconciled with our Creator because of the death of the Messiah for us and his resurrection from the dead. Thus, Jesus has overcome the tyranny…