Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed outside an event in Washington, D.C., around 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to local and federal officials, by a suspect who appeared to target them in what many Jewish leaders are calling an antisemitic attack. The shooting took place following an American Jewish Committee event for young Jewish professionals and diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Read MoreDisgraced televangelist Jim Bakker has pleaded for viewers to send him $1 million, saying his ministry will be shut down if he doesn’t get the funds. Bakker, who was at the heart of a notorious religious financial scandal in the 1980s, said he needs cash now to keep running Praise the Lord (PTL) Network, and his program, “The Jim Bakker Show.”
Read MorePublishing or distributing sexually explicit material of a person without their consent is now a federal crime, and social media platforms and other websites must remove such images within 48 hours of notification.
Read MoreMessianic apologist Michael Brown engaged in “sexually abusive misconduct” with one young woman and an “inappropriate relationship” with a second married woman in the early 2000s, a third-party investigative report by Firefly has found.
Read MoreHoping to persuade Missouri lawmakers to end nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and the statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims, multiple survivors of abuse at two evangelical ministries testified powerfully in a hearing last week.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Justice informed Southern Baptist Convention lawyers on Wednesday that its investigation into the SBC and its entities was closed. No sexual abuse-related charges were filed.
Read MoreFormer Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary interim provost Matt Queen received today a judgement of time served with one year of supervised release, six months of home confinement and a $2,000 fine related to a federal investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention regarding sexual abuse.
Read MoreFor decades, the Nyachuru family has hoped for closure, which has proved to be elusive. When the scathing Makin Report released this past November — which ultimately resulted in the resignation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby — recommended that the Church of England also probe the atrocities committed by Smyth in Zimbabwe, the family was hopeful.
Read MoreThe North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision means that cases filled by other child sexual abuse survivors, like Stuart Griffin’s case involving Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church and Charlotte Christian School, during the look back window will continue.
Read MorePresident Donald Trump is calling for federal prosecutors to push for the death penalty in capital cases involving undocumented people. The move was one of dozens of executive orders the president signed on day one of his second term. The order encourages the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty and prioritizes two sets of cases: Those involving the murder of a law enforcement officer and those for crimes for which the death penalty is an option and the defendant is undocumented.
Read MoreAfrica, with more Christians than any other continent, has in Nigeria the deadliest nation for believers at the hands of Islamic terrorists and suffers persistently high violence in a dozen countries in its sub-Saharan region. Add to that the civil war in Sudan that has created the largest displacement crisis in the world, as well as lingering civil wars elsewhere, and it’s no wonder that an additional 15 million Christians are suffering high levels of persecution.
Read MoreGlobal Christian Relief (GCR), the watchdog group launched in 2023 when Open Doors USA reorganized, has released its first persecution report, citing top five countries persecuting Christians in select categories. The 2025 GCR Red List is marketed as a “first-ever quantifiable and verifiable index” of incidents in five key areas.
Read MoreWhile the global median score on the Government Restrictions Index (based on several factors) held steady in 2022 at 3.0 out of 10, the number of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of government religious restrictions rose to 59, which accounts for 30% of the 198 countries and territories Pew Research Center studied.
Read MoreTen Catholic priests and a seminarian were murdered during the six-year term of former Mexican President López Obrador that ended Sept. 30, the Catholic Multimedia Center said in its 2024 annual report.
Read MoreFaith leaders called on President Joe Biden on Monday to commute all federal death row sentences before President-elect Donald Trump, who supports capital punishment, takes office next month. The group — which includes Black pastors, Catholics, former corrections officials, civil rights advocates, current and former prosecutors — reflects bipartisan concern about the use of capital punishment.
Read MoreLine of Fire radio program host Michael Brown has agreed to a third-party investigation after allegations of sexual impropriety surfaced this week. He acknowledged a “lack of judgment,” but denied any sexual misconduct.
Read More(OPINION) A thorough analysis of the autopsy reports for the 10 Kuki-Zo “village volunteers” killed in Manipur during an alleged gunbattle with the Central Reserve Police Force suggests that the young men were shot from behind or from multiple directions and at close range. Some of them also sustained injuries that cannot solely be attributed to gunfire.
Read MoreThe autopsy reports reveal that each of the deceased sustained multiple gunshot wounds from behind. This pattern of injury indicates that the young men were either fleeing or not directly engaging at the time they were fatally shot.
Read MoreA former student who suffered severe injuries at Asbury University in Kentucky last year has filed a lawsuit for negligence, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Isabella Willingham was found unconscious in her room in November 2023 with cuts, bruises and other injuries.
Read MoreThe site of the deadliest church shooting in the nation no longer stands, as First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs moved forward this week with a 2021 decision to demolish its former sanctuary. Church members voted 69-35 to demolish the Texas sanctuary after a gunman killed 25 there in November 2017, including a pregnant woman, and injured 20 others before killing himself.
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