Submit

As polyamory gains visibility, monogamy faces a vote in the Presbyterian Church (USA)

(RNS) — A proposal that would require ordained clergy to be monogamous is on the docket at the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly this summer.

 

25

Taylor Tomlinson’s Netflix special is too ungodly for many churches. This one welcomed her.

(RNS) — “My iPhone started capitalizing the G in God again without asking me,” Taylor Tomlinson says in her latest Netflix stand-up special, gripping a mic beneath the ornate ceiling of Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

 

45

Starseeds, government plots and an alien mantis: Inside New Age spirituality’s new age

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — “This ship was huge. It was like a city-sized ship. And there was hundreds of beings on board,” said Debbie Solaris, a military veteran and one of six panelists sharing their alien encounters with a packed room at the LAX Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on a recent February Friday.

 

New pipe organ signals rebirth for Episcopal parish after fire, flood and ‘plague’

NEW YORK (RNS) — The organ arrived from Utah on a warm August morning. Greeted by holy water, incense and slide whistles, it came in a 53-foot-long truck that was double-parked on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

 

How Christian ‘momfluencers’ are reshaping the American right

(RNS) — Years before she became a homeschool influencer in western Arkansas, Taylor Moran was a liberal Dallas mom who voted for Bernie Sanders.

 

42

After Oct. 7, Jews seek healing from kabbalah-informed psychedelic retreats

(RNS) — For nearly two decades, Larry Hertz, a 64-year-old professional, had found healing and spiritual enrichment through underground ceremonies where he and others took psychedelics.

 

In Dallas, 6,700 women rally for culture war battles after Kirk’s death

DALLAS (RNS) — “Welcome to the fight,” said commentator Allie Beth Stuckey as she greeted the 6,700 conservative Christian women assembled in the Dallas, Texas, arena on Saturday morning (Oct. 11): “The fight for truth, the fight for our Christian faith, the fight for our children, the fight for the

 

For some Dobson kids, focusing on the family led to estrangement

(RNS) — Growing up as a child of a Focus on the Family executive in the 1990s, Amber Cantorna-Wylde belonged to a seemingly idyllic family at the epicenter of American evangelicalism.

 

In temples and churches, sensory rooms remove barriers for neurodivergent worshipers

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (RNS) — From organ blasts and incense to forced hugs and hand shakes, for folks who struggle to process sensory input, houses of worship can quickly feel anything but holy.

 

Christian broadcasters ask listeners to tune in to the fight for AM radio

(RNS) — Faith Radio president Scott Beigle’s quest for Christian radio started with 1070AM, a former CNN news station in Tallahassee, Florida.

 

With fewer ordinations, seminaries find ways to serve young professionals in other fields

PRINCETON, N.J. (RNS) — On a Tuesday evening in early April, an audience sat enraptured in Princeton Theological Seminary’s dining hall as, one by one, adults in their 20s walked up to a platform, took the microphone and shared a story.

 

After exiting the Christian music industry, these artists engage religion on their terms

When former Christian artist Michael Gungor first hosted a new spiritual community in Los Angeles this year, worship began not with an organ blast or sermon series video promo, but with blowing bubbles.

 

Animal chaplains offer spiritual care for every species

(RNS) — Sarah Bowen says she’s been doing the work of an animal chaplain since she was 6 years old.

Raised in the Midwest as a Presbyterian preacher’s kid, she was often hauled to hospice facilities and funeral homes but noticed that the chipmunks and other animals crumpled by the side of the road weren’t treated with the same compassion shown to people.

 

For Black ‘nones’ who leave religion, what’s next?

(RNS) — When Black Americans leave religion, it’s rarely a clean break.

Take Rogiérs Fibby, a self-described agnostic, atheist and secular humanist who grew up in the Moravian Church.

 

East Palestine church hosts chemical exposure study in wake of train disaster

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (RNS) — More than five months after a train carrying noxious chemicals derailed down the street from the hydraulic equipment supply store where he works, Tim Cumberlidge is still trying to find out exactly what he was exposed to.