A 2025 poll of American evangelicals conducted by Lifeway Research, a publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, reveals a complicated picture of evangelicals’ views on immigration. Many told pollsters they see the number of immigrants as a drain on resources (44%), and the vast majority support immigration reform (80%) and stronger borders (90%). (Bacallao, Religion News Service)
Read MoreWomen had served as deacons in the early church, but the church restricted the ministry to only men during the Medieval period. Over the centuries, the idea of permanent deacons fell away and became a transitional step in the process of men becoming priests. (DeRose, NPR)
Read MoreA proposed amendment to the Southern Baptist Convention’s constitution, which would have kept any church that affirms, appoints or employs a woman “as a pastor of any kind” from belonging to the SBC, got 60.74% of the vote Wednesday (June 11), just shy of the two-thirds majority needed to move forward. A similar proposal failed last year on a second vote. (Smietana, Religion News Service)
Read MoreThe overwhelming sentiment is: Sure, cigarettes are bad for you, but they make you look good — as evidenced by Lucy, who keeps her smokes in an elegant silver case, perhaps to emphasize how sleek the habit is, and brandishes them to show just how effortlessly hot she can look bringing one to her lips. (Zuckerman, The New York Times)
Read MoreNearly 30 percent of Americans now call themselves “religiously unaffiliated,” according to the most recent round of Pew polling data: making them the largest single religious bloc in the United States. And that number is only climbing. Among the members of Generation Z, at least a third have dispensed with religion altogether. (Burton, Airmail)
Read MoreThe Satanic Temple Iowa on Tuesday filed a complaint accusing state officials of discriminating against the group because of its members’ religion, having denied them access to the state Capitol building for a December holiday display and event. (Fingerhut, AP News)
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