Man's word vs. God's Word is the battle that's been raging since the garden of Eden! Will we start with God's Word or human wisdom?

Actress Candace Cameron Bure recently shared a video in which country singer Hillary Scott of Lady A leads worship at church.

Let us not give up meeting together—even when we disagree.Recently, a woman at my church approached me with a question borne out of genuine curiosity. She asked, “You’re a female theologian. Why did you choose to come to our church when women aren’t allowed to preach here?”Since much of my work as a Bible scholar is public, it is no secret that I support women’s full participation in ministry, including in church leadership. So I wasn’t surprised that someone happened to notice my convictions did not match our church’s practice on this issue.It’s a good question, and one I’ve wrestled with regularly—since, at present, I don’t feel I’m able to serve our church in all the ways that God has called and equipped me. I so long for the body of Christ to embrace the gifts of all its members, not only here but around the world. But as CT’s April issue reminds us, the global church is far from united on what women can and can’t do in church.Still, I was glad my friend asked me about our family’s decision-making process, because it’s face-to-face conversations like this that prevent polarization. The role of women isn’t the only issue that divides us today. Approaches to racial reconciliation or diversity initiatives, our posture toward climate change, and politics—particularly when there’s another contentious presidential election in sight—are all areas that threaten to fracture our faith communities.According to The Great Dechurching, a recent book by Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan P. Burge, people are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers. Forty million Americans who used to attend church no longer do—that’s 16 percent ...Continue reading...

The government plans to close its porous border with Myanmar to boost security, separating ethnic groups that straddle the boundary.Ngamreichan Tuithung runs a Christian boarding school that sits right at the border of India’s Manipur state and Myanmar. Amazing Grace Mission School is based in Wanglee Market, a small Indian town, and serves around 150 students from Myanmar and 6 from India.Since Myanmar’s 2021 coup, the school has become a safe haven for parents wanting to send their children away from the violence of the war raging on in Myanmar. To Tuithung, it’s an opportunity to share with students and parents “about God’s love and how God is taking care of us.”For decades, some parents in Myanmar (also known as Burma) have been able to easily send their kids to school in India, thanks to a government policy that allows citizens of either country living within 10 miles of the border to freely enter the other country without a visa. Many tribal communities share ethnic ties, familial bonds, and a way of life transcending territorial boundaries. Tuithung, who is from the Naga ethnic group, grew up in India but has many relatives in Myanmar. Because of their close ties, he can speak Burmese and visits them often.However, all this will change as the Indian government proceeds with its decision to close the international border between India and Myanmar, which shares boundaries with four Indian states: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram. India’s home minister Amit Shah says the action is needed to “ensure the internal security” and “to maintain the demographic structure” of northeastern India as the war in Myanmar continues. Plans include constructing a fence and implementing a surveillance system.Tuithung believes that even with tightened borders, the government will provide ...Continue reading...

Do activists often invest their work with religious significance? All the more reason for Christians to be discerning co-laborers.I love nature documentaries, especially those narrated by David Attenborough. Whether watching with my children or on my own, I love seeing the majesty of the snowy Alps or kelp forests.But I’ve noticed that in recent years, nearly every somber vignette of a species struggling on the edge of survival ends with a call to action. Viewers are beckoned to take responsibility for causing a poor animal’s plight and to consider how they can fix things before the species is gone forever.I understand the impulse to believe that animals’ struggles should move humans to action. However, it is the ethics informing the narrator’s pleas that seem a bit muddled.By many documentarians’ admission, the species we marvel at on screen have emerged out of eons of struggles to survive and adapt to their surroundings. Sometimes, the narrators even remind us that this process has resulted in countless prior species disappearing into extinction.Whether you believe in a young or an old earth, in God’s hand or in meaningless physical forces guiding history, we can all agree that change, death, and selection favoring adaptability are features of life on earth. Witnessing it in real time makes for compelling television drama, but the moral indictment that you and I contribute to grave evil when one of these species goes extinct does not seem to square with the documentarians’ worldview.What compels us to see polar bears possibly going extinct in terms of moral right and wrong? If we take human action out of the equation, isn’t history littered with the bones of countless species that have gone extinct? Are not humans and their actions part of nature?A robust theology of creation careIf we listen closely, ...Continue reading...

I recently read an article from our friends at Patterns of Evidence which reported on the recent finding of much of the upper half of the colossal Rameses statue.

The British government asked for the visits to be held as part of a procedure designed to determine whether there was justification for imposing an arms embargo on Israel.

I recently read an article from our friends at Patterns of Evidence which reported on the recent finding of much of the upper half of the colossal Rameses statue.

By Neenah Payne Klaus Schwab is the founder of the World Economic Forum. Henry Kissinger was Schwab's mentor at Harvard and was a frequent honored...Documentary: No Farmers No Food!

Grammy-nominated Christian singer Anne Wilson has released a new album blending contemporary Christian music with mainstream country stylings and a theme stressing that Christians are viewed as "rebels" in society, just like Jesus.?

Comedian Bill Maher condemned the sexualization of children and push to expose them to drag and trans ideology, warning that the “tribal” nature of American politics is leading people to abandon the long-held consensus that “exposing kids to an adult world of lurid costumes and garish makeup borders on abuse.”

Fellow musicians have reflected on the passing of fellow Christian artist Mandisa Hundley as police provided an update on their investigation into the 47-year-old's April 18 passing.?

I recently read an article from our friends at Patterns of Evidence which reported on the recent finding of much of the upper half of the colossal Rameses statue.

ByteDance has no plan to sell TikTok, the company's official account said in a statement posted on Toutiao, a media platform owned by the China-based firm.The Information earlier reported that ByteDance is exploring scenarios for selling TikTok's US business without the algorithm that recommends videos to TikTok users.US President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law a bill that bans TikTok in the country if its owner, ByteDance, fails to divest the popular short video app over the next nine months to a year.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre distanced President Biden from supporting or opposing National Guard involvement in handling campus Gaza solidarity protests a day after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson stood on the steps of Columbia University saying he'd call Biden and ask him to take appropriate executive action.? Johnson said there is an appropriate time for the National Guard if the protests are not contained.? Jean-Pierre emphasized it's up to the governor of the state to enact the National Guard.? "When [Biden] talked about Passover as Jewish Americans were celebrating, he said antisemitism is wrong and we should call it out," Jean-Pierre said. "There is no place for hate or hateful rhetoric or any type of violence, obviously, and that is something we continue to be very consistent about."

Israel Air Force jets struck a Hezbollah military structure in the Aalma El Chaeb area in addition to launch posts and terror infrastructure in the Kfarchouba area in southern Lebanon, the military said on Thursday.? The IDF further stated that it had attacked various areas of southern Lebanon to eliminate a threat.The military added that several launches had been identified crossing from Lebanon throughout the day in the areas of Arab al-Aramshe and Mount Dov.IDF strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. April 25, 2024. (Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit).

China must stop supporting Russia's war in Ukraine if it wants to enjoy good relations with the West, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, warning Beijing in unusually harsh words it cannot have it both ways.During a visit to Berlin, the chief of the Western military alliance said Beijing's help was vital to Moscow's war effort as it was propping up Russia's war economy by sharing high-end technology like semiconductors."Last year, Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. China is also working to provide Russia with improved satellite capabilities and imaging," Stoltenberg said."China says it wants good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing continues to fuel the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War Two. They cannot have it both ways," he warned.Stoltenberg cautioned Western allies against becoming as dependent on China as they had been on Russia."In the past, we made the mistake of becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas," he said."We must not repeat that mistake with China. Depending on its money, its raw materials, its technologies - dependencies make us vulnerable."China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies imposed sanctions on both, but particularly Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.China-Russian trade hit a record of $240.1 billion in 2023, up 26.3% from a year earlier, Chinese customs data shows. Chinese shipments to Russia jumped 46.9% in 2023 while imports from Russia rose 13%.Last month, Reuters reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China in May for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in what could be the first overseas trip of his new presidential term.

Iraq had hanged 11 militants sentenced to death on terrorism charges, local security officials said on Thursday.The executions were carried out on Monday at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya, and all those executed were Iraqi nationals, said a prison police officer and a local security official. They declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.They said the 11 men were convicted of joining the Islamic State militant group and taking part in "terrorist actions."In a report issued on Wednesday, Amnesty International raised concern that many more people may have been executed in secret, given a "disturbing lack of transparency" regarding executions in Iraq in recent months.Iraq has put hundreds of suspected jihadists on trial and carried out several mass executions since defeating Islamic State fighters in a US-backed military campaign in 2014-2017.

US Senator Bernie Sanders released a statement on Thursday addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing the Israeli leader of labeling criticism of Israel antisemitic in order "to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government."? The statement came in response to a video posted by Netanyahu to X on Wednesday, addressing ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations, many of which are explicitly pro-Hamas, at university campuses in the United States.? In the video, Netanyahu "equated criticism of his government's illegal and immoral war against the Palestinian people with antisemitism," the statement said.?

Beyoncé's right. Whether listening to Cowboy Carter or reading theology, diversity is a good thing.I wasn’t planning to listen to Cowboy Carter, the eighth studio album from American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. I’ve always had a love for her music—but country has never been my thing.Plans changed when I started to read what people were writing about the record, from comments on social media to reviews in major publications. Their reactions were bitter, even cruel. “Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ isn’t a country album. It’s worse,” proclaimed one review in The Washington Post. “Beyoncé has chosen to do Dolly Parton karaoke,” writes the reviewer. “She sounds like she’s doing Wild West bedroom cosplay in outer space.”“The lefties in the entertainment industry just won’t leave any area alone, right?” asked an interviewer on a One America News program. “They’ve got to make their mark, just like a dog in a dog walk park,” responded the interviewee.It’s not that Cowboy Carter is exempt from criticism. Its genre-blending experimentation won’t be to everyone’s taste. Some listeners may have reservations about Beyoncé’s departure from her earlier pop and R & B records. That’s fine. Music, like all art forms, is subjective. Thoughtful critique can serve as a means for musicians to grow as artists, and to engage audiences in meaningful ways.But that’s different from implying that Beyoncé can’t and shouldn’t sing country music simply because of who she is: not a white man from a rural small town, but a Black woman raised in Houston. A “stay in your place” undercurrent cuts through how critics have spoken about her ...Continue reading...

The world is realizing anew that our faith has tangible benefits. This is an opportunity for the gospel.As Christianity continues to decline in the West, the broader world has begun to notice something’s missing. There seems to be a growing awareness that—for all the scandals and failings of the church—the loss of a Christian culture leaves us all worse off, and that there are benefits to being a Christian and to living in a Christian society.For example, Derek Thompson recently wrote in The Atlantic about the loss of community that comes with declining church attendance. “Maybe religion, for all of its faults, works a bit like a retaining wall,” he concluded, “hold[ing] back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism, which threatens to swell and spill over in its absence.”Likewise, Harvard scholar Tyler J. VanderWeele has extensively researched the benefits of participation in religious services, finding that it leads to improved mental and physical health, happiness, and sense of meaning. Statistically, going to church regularly will help you flourish as a human being. As Brad Wilcox, a professor at the University of Virginia, has shown, regular church attendance even correlates with a more satisfying sex life!And then you have those like former atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali who explain their conversion to Christianity at least partly as a response to the decay of the contemporary world, a world threatened by “woke ideology,” “global Islam,” and authoritarianism. “The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” Hirsi Ali said in an essay announcing her new faith. Famous atheist Richard Dawkins objected to Hirsi Ali’s conversion yet seems to ...Continue reading...

How the keeper of the beat is adapting to shifts in worship music.It was a church drummer’s worst nightmare. In the middle of a service, David Wagner was playing “Heaven Invade” with his worship band when his in-ear monitors stopped working.Wagner posted a clip on Instagram of what happened. It includes the audio that should have been coming through in his monitors: a mix of the sound from the band, some added reverb, and of course, the click track—a repetitive tapping sound that keeps time, usually sounding for each beat. Halfway through the video, one of the vocalists—his wife—passes him a new pair of headphones.The role of the worship drummer has changed a lot over the past 20 years. In addition to the evolving sound of worship music—moving away from rock and toward electronic dance music— drummers have adjusted to new production setups, becoming the person on stage who makes sure that musicians and tech are fully in sync.Since the rise of contemporary worship bands during the late 1990s, many churches have adopted technologies that were once reserved for live concerts in stadiums and large auditoriums, where musicians needed in-ear monitors and click tracks due to crowd noise and echoes.For veteran church drummers, these changes are pushing them to develop new skills and to adapt their approach to the music. Some say these shifts are making drumming more boring, lower stakes, and monotonous. Others are finding that new tools allow them to be creative, to explore using their instruments in different ways, and to experience new freedom as worshipers on stage—even if they are behind a Plexiglas cage.Wagner, who has been a drummer for 12 years, moved to a church in Murray, Kentucky, that uses in-ear monitors (IEMs) about 3 years ago. ...Continue reading...

Columbia University announced a shift to hybrid classes due to the ongoing anti-Israel protest, prompting calls for the Biden administration to take away the school's federal funding and discipline the demonstrators, which some say should include revoking the visas of the students expressing support for terrorist groups.?

If you care about someone whose K–12 school or institution of higher learning receives any federal funding, take note: their school may have to open girls' bathrooms, locker rooms, housing accommodations, and sports teams to boys who claim to “identify” as girls.

On Wednesday the Arkansas Senate passed? S.B. 64? by Sen. John Payton (R – Wilburn). The measure passed overwhelmingly without a single senator voting against it. S.B. 64 is a good bill that provides $2 million in state funding for pregnancy help organizations — including pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and other organizations — that […]The post Arkansas Senate Votes to For $2 Million to Fight Maternal and Infant Mortality appeared first on LifeNews.com.