Jelly Roll has become the leading figure in this wave of what one could call barstool conversion rock: faith-flavored, hopecore, God-finds-us-at-the-bottom-of-a-bottle pop rock recorded by popular male artists. The genre (if we can call it that) is noticeably present on the Billboard Hot 100 and platforms like TikTok, where Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” has been used in nearly half a million videos. (McGinnis, Christianity Today)
Read MoreIn her 25 years in the Christian music industry, Holly Zabka, president of Provident — a Sony subsidiary dedicated to Christian music — has never encountered a moment of such prominence for the genre. "This is the most exciting time to be in Christian music," she says. "I don't think we've ever been in this season of opportunity." (Madden, NPR)
Read MoreHarvard University is suing the Trump administration over its accusations that the Ivy League school has failed to keep Jewish students safe by allowing antisemitism to flourish. But over the past few months, the university has quietly gutted a Harvard Divinity School program that its own antisemitism investigation found was critical of Israel and may have been biased against Jewish students. (Shimron, Religion News Service)
Read MorePope Leo XIV has appointed a new president for the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, a bioethics think tank that Catholic conservatives criticized under Pope Francis for departing from official church teaching on issues such as contraception and euthanasia. (Giangravé, Religion News Service)
Read MoreA 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)
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