Best of RNS
Trump is also baiting Christians with his anti-Muslim videos
By Matthew Kaemingk — December 1, 2017
(RNS) — As an evangelical Christian I am ashamed to say that Trump’s tactics are extremely effective with my own religious tribe.
Resisting Trump, churches give sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation
By Yonat Shimron — November 28, 2017
RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS) — Will law enforcement be sent into houses of worship — against the will of congregants motivated by sincere beliefs — despite the president's oft-stated commitment to religious freedom?
Why evangelicals might vote for Roy Moore anyway
By Yonat Shimron — November 20, 2017
(RNS) — Conservative Christians have developed a particular intellectual strategy for engaging with others called “presuppositionalism.”
Could it happen here? How churches are preparing for a mass shooting
By Emily McFarlan Miller — November 14, 2017
SCOTTS, Mich. (RNS) – The weekend after the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history, one small church in Michigan had security trainers teach congregants how to respond to an armed intruder.
In the Capitol’s shadow, massive Museum of the Bible readies for opening
By Adelle M. Banks — November 13, 2017
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The 430,000-square-foot museum with a view of the U.S. Capitol is meant to fascinate, educate and — depending on your point of view — evangelize.
The glue that kept Sutherland Springs together before and after the shootings
By Yonat Shimron — November 10, 2017
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (RNS) — Within 24 hours of the mass shooting, another church in town sprang into action, as the coordinating center for the emergency response.
Archaeologists say rebuilding Jonah’s mosque should wait
By Gilgamesh Nabeel — November 3, 2017
(RNS) — Now that ISIS has been driven from Mosul in Iraq, Muslim traditionalists say it is imperative to start reconstructing the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah, which had marked the site since the 12th century, along with the ruins of a seventh-century Christian church.
What came after: The Counter-Reformation art of Carlo Dolci
By Yonat Shimron — October 30, 2017
DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — His meticulous paintings of Christian themes, saturated with emotion and glistening with color, were everything the iconoclast reformers railed against.
Middle East’s Samaritans link Muslims and Jews
By Lauren Markoe — October 17, 2017
MOUNT GERIZIM (RNS) — Every Samaritan has both a Hebrew name and an Arabic name, and Samaritans are fluent in both languages — but not fully accepted by either Muslims or Jews, community members say.
Amid decline, one Lutheran church strives to live up to its namesake’s spirit
By Yonat Shimron — October 16, 2017
CARY, N.C. (RNS) — Christ the King, located in a bedroom community to Raleigh, is pushing forward with a new vision, one that has less to do with Luther's theology and more with the spirit of his reform.
In Las Vegas as before, spontaneous shrines bring healing after horror
By Kimberly Winston — October 8, 2017
LAS VEGAS (RNS) — The piles of flowers, teddy bears and candles recall sacred spaces created after terror attacks in New York, Madrid, London and elsewhere, and date back to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
Here he stood: Lutheran pilgrims travel to Germany on Reformation anniversary
By Emily McFarlan Miller — October 5, 2017
EISENACH, Germany (RNS) — 'For all of Luther’s vehemence against the veneration of relics, that’s exactly what we’re doing,' said the Rev. Patrick Shebeck, leading a group organized by his Minnesota church on a pilgrimage through Germany's Luther Country.
After 30 years, a farewell column
By David P. Gushee — September 14, 2017
(RNS) — 'Perhaps voices will emerge that will enable us to find new ways forward together, past the screaming and the litigation, through a return to deeper theological and ecclesial wellsprings. I pray that this is so,' writes David Gushee.
All the president’s clergymen: A close look at Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ ties with evangelicals
By Emily McFarlan Miller — September 5, 2017
WASHINGTON (RNS) — RNS interviews with key participants suggest that a cadre of conservative Christian religious leaders has the ear of the politically powerful on matters of national priority.
Where are the condemnations of Harvey as God’s punishment?
By Kimberly Winston — August 29, 2017
(RNS) — As Harvey continues to pound Houston, why are the religious finger-waggers who said Hurricanes Sandy, Isaac and Katrina were God's punishment for gay marriage or abortion rights strangely silent?
