Growing up Southern Baptist in West Virginia in the 1990s and early 2000s, Anna Rollins heard one message clearly: Your body is a liability. Like many evangelical Christian women raised at a time when secular America became consumed with diet culture and evangelicalism sought to control young women through purity culture, Rollins tried to transcend her body altogether, restricting her eating and exercising obsessively.
At first glance, the Nativity scene outside Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, has all the traditional hallmarks: Figures resembling Mary and Joseph stand near a baby Jesus, who rests in a manger.
But this year, the details are decidedly different. For starters, Mary and Joseph are wearing gas masks. Jesus, who typically is depicted lying in hay, is instead nestled in a reflective blanket often used by immigrants in detention, with his hands bound with zip ties. And behind the family stands three Roman centurions wearing vests with a very modern label: ICE, or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
African Christian leaders attending a conference with faith-based health organizations in late November called for countries on the continent to do more to replace U.S. Agency for International Development funds that were cut by the Trump administration earlier this year.
As December begins, we want to start looking forward to celebrating a joyful Christmas. Doing so is tough with wars still in Ukraine and the Middle East. The world situation is so bleak, some are tempted to give up hope. The Christian Advent is full of hope, but it also reminds us that we have to work to prepare the way for the Lord, not just wait passively for his coming.
On Nov. 18, the pastor of an 80-person Latino Pentecostal church got a concerning WhatsApp audio message. The message, allegedly created by an unidentified pastor, circulating among Atlanta-area evangelical faith leaders, claimed massive immigration raids would occur there that week on Thursday and Friday.
ccording to some archeologists and historians, the basilica was the meeting place for the roughly 200 bishops convened by Emperor Constantine in 325 to confront a theological crisis and articulate the foundation of their shared Christian faith.
Some in Tanzania are facing a death sentence for demonstrating against what they see as flawed elections. Some who have been arrested await word on their fate. Hundreds of others died in the protests, according to news reports in recent days, leaving hundreds more to mourn and bury their relatives or to desperately search for the missing.
