Religion News Service

For creator Harry Lennix, the new movie "Revival!" — a retelling of the Gospel of John with a mostly black cast — is a film whose time has come.

Avenue Hoche, one of the tree-lined roads radiating out from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, seems like an ideal place to locate a church for foreigners. But that location also put the street in the middle of France's often turbulent politics.

When evangelical voters cheer on President Trump in the United States or newly elected leader Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, probably the last thing on their minds is that they might be creating problems for fellow evangelicals elsewhere in the world.

Sometimes, the most profound truths about humanity — and God — are revealed when we take a small step back. Or rocket ourselves about 238,000 miles into space.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. is best known for hosting global diplomats and prominent dignitaries in its lavish facilities. But on Dec. 7, one of the hotel's many glimmering ballrooms was transformed into a sanctuary.

Hope is a difficult virtue to maintain these days, when the future seems uncertain and religious and political leaders have lost all credibility.

After a tense standoff with officials at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday (Dec. 10), at least 30 American clergy were taken into custody over the objections of demonstrators, who had come to protest the treatment of Central American asylum-seekers.

Nothing gets the pope on the front page of newspapers faster than saying something about homosexuality. This was evident when reports of a book-length interview with Pope Francis focused on what he had to say about gay priests.

Now is the time for the proponents of religious liberty to offer to negotiate a grand compromise with those who promote women’s rights.

The British heir to the throne, who would become Supreme Governor of the Church of England when he becomes king, is to make an unprecedented plea for peace in the Middle East at a special service for persecuted Christians in London Dec. 4.

Samuel Oliver-Bruno left a Durham, N.C., church where he was taking sanctuary for fingerprinting at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He was tackled and whisked into a van by four plainclothes ICE agents, as church members who accompanied him watched in horror. 

The latest chapter in the child sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church played out Nov. 28 as police searched offices of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese in connection with an investigation into a local priest.

A popular meme on social media here shows an illustration of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. "Why did Mary and Joseph stay in a stable?" asks one version. "Because Airbnb blocked all listings for Jews in Judea," the Hebrew term for the West Bank.

The word "church" has multiple meanings. One theologian counted more than a dozen different ways "church" was used in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, referring to everything from a building to the Mystical Body of Christ.

A group of Vietnamese-American Catholics in Orange County, California, home to the largest Vietnamese Catholic community outside Vietnam, are leading the development of the United States' first major stand-alone shrine to Our Lady of La Vang.

Last week, many  on both sides of the Gaza-Israel border relied heavily on their faith to cope with the most recent violent escalation, as a clash between an undercover Israel Defense Forces unit and Hamas fighters in Gaza left seven Palestinian fighters and one IDF officer dead.

Signs of the Times: The U.S. bishops, meeting in Baltimore, felt their house was burning down, and the Vatican was asking them to delay turning on the fire hoses.

A number of churches are lobbying local, state and federal officials to limit the reach of predatory payday lending operations. In some instances, churches are offering small-dollar loans to members and the community as an alternative.

That clash between Jerusalem mayoral candidates Ofer Berkovitch, the secular candidate, and Moshe Lion, an Orthodox Jew, has become focused on religious issues, including sabbath restrictions in Israel's capital.

As the U.S. Catholic bishops gather in Baltimore to discuss controversial issues such as clerical sexual abuse and racism, some people are talking about the threat of schism.