CHRISTIANITY

An ancient Holy Land mosaic inscribed with an early reference to Jesus as God is at the center of a controversy that has riled archaeologists.

Throughout his life, Paul Schrader has had a complicated relationship to Christianity.

A century ago, artists in Mexico began transforming walls into works of art, fueling the country's burgeoning muralist movement.

It’s Palm Sunday.

On Super Bowl Sunday, advertising’s biggest night, religion rarely makes an appearance among the much buzzed about beer and fast-food commercials.

A 1,300-year-old gold and gemstone necklace uncovered near Northampton in central England is being hailed as a find of major significance.

Tensions over gender identity and sexual orientation pervade the campuses of hundreds of U.S. Catholic and Protestant universities.

More than 400 Detroit families came to Faith Xperience Church to watch 10,000 eggs drop from a helicopter!

Pope Francis has made an Easter plea for peace in Ukraine and in other wars in the world.

Jessika Sessoms grew up in a conservative Black evangelical family, attended Christian schools, and often heard that being gay was an abomination, until she understood that she was queer when she was studying to become a missionary at Liberty University.

(Tiziana Fabi/Pool photo via AP)ROME – The Vatican declared Monday that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless gay unions. Since gay unions aren't intended to be part of that plan, they can't be blessed by the church, the document said. Francis has endorsed providing gay couples with legal protections in same-sex unions, but that was in reference to the civil sphere, not within the church. At the time, Argentine lawmakers were considering approving gay marriage, which the Catholic Church opposes. AdSpeaking of families with gay children, he said: “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this.

(AP Photo/Marianne Armshaw, File)PORTLAND, Ore. – Luis Palau, an evangelical pastor who was born in Argentina and went on to work with Billy Graham before establishing his own powerhouse international ministry, died Thursday. The Luis Palau Association said he died at his home in Portland, Oregon. “This is hard news, but Luis is experiencing the beauty of the Lord face to face.”Born to an affluent family in Buenos Aires, Palau rose from obscurity to become one of the most well-known international Christian evangelists. How many people we’ve reached with the Gospel.”His radio programs, including the international Spanish-language “Luis Palau Responde,” are broadcast on 3,500 stations in 48 countries, and his Portland-based Luis Palau Association organizes dozens of events each year on five continents. “Luis Palau was the Apostle Paul to the Spanish-speaking world.

Pope Francis delivers his speech during a meeting with bishops and priests, at the Sayidat al-Nejat (Our Lady of Salvation) Cathedral, in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, March 5, 2021. The pontiff’s landmark visit has been months in the making and is the first papal visit to Iraq, one that eluded his predecessors. The Alitalia flight, with both Vatican and Iraqi flags, carrying the pope and his delegation landed just before 2 p.m. (1100GMT). Dozens of Christians are gathering at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Baghdad hours before Pope Francis was due to land in Iraq for a first papal visit to the war-weary country. The papal visit has raised alarm among public health experts, who fear large crowds will inevitably gather to see the pope.

Iraqi Christians place a cross on a church in Qaraqosh, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. Iraq's Christians are hoping that a historic visit by Pope Francis in March will help boost their community's struggle to survive. Iraq’s Christian communities in the area were dealt a severe blow when they were scattered by the IS onslaught in 2014, further shrinking the country's already dwindling Christian population. Many hope their struggle to endure will get a boost from a historic visit by Pope Francis planned in March. The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, estimated that 1 million Christians have left Iraq since 2003 and about 500,000 remained.

Travis Lowe, second from right, pastor of Crossroads Church in Bluefield, W.Va., raises his arm during services Sunday Jan. 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – If you’re Christian in Bluefield — and most everyone is, in this small city tucked into the Appalachian Mountains — you have your choice. Or you can venture up East River Mountain to Crossroads Church, where Pastor Travis Lowe eschews Bradford’s fiery political rhetoric, seeking paths to Christian unity. AdJoe Biden carried parts of Bluefield itself, small splotches of blue in the sea of red that is West Virginia. But Mercer County gave more than three-quarters of its votes to Trump, and Bradford and his pronouncements are very much in line with that.

The Christian imagery and rhetoric on view during this months Capitol insurrection are sparking renewed debate about the societal effects of melding Christian faith with an exclusionary breed of nationalism. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)WASHINGTON – The Christian imagery and rhetoric on view during this month’s Capitol insurrection are sparking renewed debate about the societal effects of melding Christian faith with an exclusionary breed of nationalism. The rise of what’s often called Christian nationalism has long prompted pushback from leaders in multiple denominations, with the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty forming the Christians Against Christian Nationalism coalition in 2019. “But as a Christian, my highest allegiance is to Christ.”Yet some supporters of former President Donald Trump say that denunciations of Christian nationalism are a way of attacking them politically. Ad“The fact that we saw QAnon, white supremacy and white Christianity all carried together in a violent attack on the Capitol means that particularly white Christians have got some real soul-searching to do,” said Jones, author of two books on white Christianity in America.

Dubbed Not Our Faith, the new super PAC plans to roll out six-figure TV and digital ads focused on Christian voters — particularly the evangelical and Catholic voters who helped power Trump to victory in 2016. Urging Christians to break from Trump, the ad states that they “don’t need Trump to save them. “Trump eked out 2016 with unprecedented support from white evangelicals and, important to note, a really strong showing among Catholics. Whether Biden backers’ bid to peel away evangelical support from Trump is making headway remains to be seen. But the new PAC sees room for a wide-ranging connection with Christian voters beyond Trump’s white evangelical base.

CNN, Vatican TVVATICAN CITY - The Pope wants us to stop using so many adjectives. In a speech on Monday to the Dicastery for Communications, the Vatican's communications authority, Pope Francis urged people not to describe Christianity with qualifiers and adjectives. "We have fallen into the culture of adjectives and adverbs, and we have forgotten the strength of nouns," he said. The term "Christian" is strong and authentic enough as it is, without the need for adjectives, he said. He's also active on Twitter, and even tweeted out a reminder on Wednesday to "call people by their name, as the Lord does with us, and to give up using adjectives."