ArcaMax

BOISE, Idaho — A court has dismissed a lawsuit by a former state senator against the Idaho Department of Education that accused the department of infringing on his family’s freedom of religious expression.

Chris Trakel, a former senator from Caldwell who helped advocate for bills that would have allowed families to use taxpayer money for ...Read more

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: The world seems so noisy these days. I miss sitting on the front porch with my grandparents listening to the breeze, the crickets and the occasional hoot of the owl. A grandmother myself now, I’m concerned about all the distractions my grandchildren are exposed to, what their eyes see and ears ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV is calling for the release of eight hostages in Haiti, including a 3-year-old boy and a longtime Irish missionary who remain in captivity after being abducted from a mountaintop orphanage by armed gangs in the middle of the night.

“I make a heartfelt appeal to all responsible parties to release the hostages immediately,” the ...Read more

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: I’m writing a term paper on what people believe to be the glories of Heaven. I know it will be a place of perfection, but I cannot use anything but the Bible as my resource. Are there thoughts that most people never ponder based on Scripture? – H.I.

A: The journey God has set before us isn’t ...Read more

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: Does the Bible really teach that all believers are actually itinerant evangelists? – I.E.

A: Itinerant evangelists are the most important ambassadors and messengers on Earth. They are a mighty army, spreading out across the world with a vision to reach their own people for Christ. Evangelism is ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For nearly 70 years, a little-known tax code provision has served as a firewall between U.S. politics and its nonprofit sector.

Now, Minnesota nonprofit leaders say that wall is showing cracks — and if it falls, public trust could collapse with it.

At issue is the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law named for then-Sen. Lyndon B. ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The message for the dozens of volunteers who would soon be supporting immigrants at their court hearings was clear.

“We’re not there to obstruct or prevent any arrest,” said the Rev. Hung Nguyen, associate pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Logan Heights. “We’re there to accompany people.”

The orientation ...Read more

MIAMI -- The past two years have been rough for Christopher Saunders.

Saunders, originally from Ohio, moved to North Miami Beach in 2023 seeking a warmer climate to relieve his arthritis. Things were going fine, until costly car and rental bills forced him into chapter 13 bankruptcy. Around the same time, the rent on the 43-year-old’s less-...Read more

MIAMI — After months of requesting permission to hold religious services at Florida’s controversial detention center for migrants in the Everglades, the Archdiocese of Miami finally got an answer.

“I am pleased that our request to provide for the pastoral care of the detainees has been accommodated,” said Archdiocese of Miami Archbishop...Read more

Q: I do not believe in reincarnation. It is not comforting to think I would be back here after I die in a world where there is so much turmoil. Instead, I love the idea of my soul going back to God at the end of my life and then, when time here is over, my body will be reunited with my soul and I will live with God/Jesus for eternity in ...Read more

New guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration outlining how federal employees may engage with faith practices in the workplace garnered mixed reactions from religious groups, with some raising concern about the blurring boundary between church and state.

The guidelines, announced by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in a ...Read more

Eleven religious groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security in response to a Trump administration policy reversal ending a decades-long practice protecting houses of worship, schools and hospitals from immigration officials looking to enforce action.

The lawsuit, filed July 28 by Democracy Forward and the Washington Lawyers’ ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Safehouse, the nonprofit aiming to open a supervised drug consumption site in Philadelphia, is legally entitled to argue that it has a religious right to prevent overdoses by operating a facility where people can use drugs under medical supervision.

The decision overturns a previous ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Amid a wave of arrests and apprehensions of undocumented immigrants, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced plans to bolster delivery of hot meals, groceries and prescription medicines to parishioners living in fear of deportation and ongoing enforcement raids.

The archdiocese’s donation-funded Family ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez has released a letter calling for solidarity with immigrants, as ICE increases its enforcement in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“You are not alone. The Church is a community of faith, and the divine person of Christ, who was forced to flee his homeland as a child, holds you in his ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Joseph O’Connor, pastor of the Sacramento Fijian Seventh-day Adventist Church, doesn’t mind that his congregation meets in a rented space off Arden Way.

On Saturdays, the church is one of many spaces where Sacramento’s Fijian community explores fellowship, food and faith within California’s capital city. Sacramento...Read more

Lots of comments about our new, big mystery topic: Are we reincarnated into another life, or is this life the only one we will ever know?

Q: I’m a practicing Catholic. I follow most of their beliefs but have worked for years as a hospice nurse and could not fathom a Purgatory or a Hell. I believe God is all-forgiving and when we die, we ...Read more

One of the strongest proofs for the divine nature of the Bible is the way we turn to it in times of catastrophe. Unfortunately, one of the strongest refutations of the belief in a good and all-powerful God is the obvious fact that God allowed the catastrophe to occur.

The dilemma of evil in a world with a good, powerful God was eloquently ...Read more

How fortuitous or how planned that I have taken up the topic of reincarnation and sent out a survey to my dear readers to share their beliefs as to whether our souls are implanted in a new body after the death of our old one and given a chance to live a new embodied life.

Well, this week, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, Tenzin Gyatso, the...Read more

Thomas Jefferson’s first version of the Declaration of Independence told the truth about America that we would all be well served to remember and exalt this Fourth of July. He wrote,

“We hold these truths to be sacred, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable ...Read more