A new survey has found wide generational differences in socialization patterns of churchgoers as most Americans reject the idea that the church has become irrelevant. ... Read full Story
Events that occurred this week in Christian history include the founding of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, the assassination of Oscar Romero, and the consecration of Samuel Seabury. ... Read full Story
Expenses related to sexual abuse investigations in the Southern Baptist Convention since 2021 have cost the denomination almost $13 million thus far, according to a recent report. ... Read full Story
A Seventh-day Adventist Church regional body has reported that more than 16,000 people joined the denomination in a series of recently held baptismal ceremonies across Latin America. ... Read full Story
Christian charitable organizations are responding to a severe weather outbreak that left more than 40 dead and over 100,000 without power across seven states. ... Read full Story
Just over a month after publicly criticizing the handling of sexual abuse claims by his church's parent organization, John Kliewer, interim lead pastor of the Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, has voluntarily "stepped back" from the role after Vineyard USA accused him of leadership abuse. ... Read full Story
Bishop George Edward Battle Jr., the former head of The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, known for his championing of educational opportunities in North Carolina, has died at 77. ... Read full Story
Around half of Protestant churches in the United States have experienced growth in worship service attendance since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study. ... Read full Story
Gateway Church's embattled founder, Robert Morris, has formally pleaded "not guilty" to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child stemming from allegations made by 54-year-old Cindy Clemishire last June. Although some survivor advocates suggest the plea reflects a level of unrepentance, Clemishire sees something else. ... Read full Story
Mary Ann Lundy, who formerly served in leadership roles in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the World Council of Churches, has died at the age of 92. ... Read full Story
Robert Morris, founder of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, formally surrendered to the Osage County Sheriff's Office in Oklahoma Monday morning and is expected to enter a not-guilty plea in court days after being indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in that state last Wednesday. ... Read full Story
A Christian charity has distributed almost 4 million dresses to girls living in poverty abroad through a campaign that oversees dress-making efforts from numerous churches and nonprofits.
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Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, offered prayers to congregants and reminded them on Sunday that the church had drawn a “bright line” of separation from founder Robert Morris following his indicted last Wednesday on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma. ... Read full Story
Events that occurred this week in Christian history include the birth of George Leslie Mackay, the death of Alfred Edersheim, and the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in North America. ... Read full Story
Sixty-five years after his father, the late Billy Graham, first preached in Addis Ababa, Franklin Graham returned to the Ethiopian capital for a two-day evangelistic outreach on March 8-9 dubbed "Encountering God," drawing hundreds of thousands and witnessing over 4,000 commitments to Jesus Christ. ... Read full Story
A day after being indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma, the bond for disgraced Gateway Church founder Robert Morris was set at $50,000 on Thursday as he faces a possible 100 years maximum in prison if convicted on all counts. ... Read full Story
Presbyterian Church (USA) has approved an amendment to its constitution that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. ... Read full Story
Plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit accusing Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, of misallocating their tithes and failing to honor a money-back guarantee have removed former Executive Global Pastor Kevin Grove as a defendant. ... Read full Story
Rick Warren's X account promoted a fake meme coin when it was briefly hacked Wednesday, and appeared to mock him for his changing his views on women in leadership. ... Read full Story
Former pastor Steven Lawson acknowledged that he has “sinned grievously,” speaking out for the first time about the scandal that removed him from ministry. ... Read full Story
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 24, 2025 is:
garble \GAR-bul\ verb
To garble something, such as a word, name, message, etc., is to cause it to be unclear or distorted. This type of garbling can be the result of an accident, ignorance, or a transmission error. Garble can also mean "to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression or change the meaning."
"Noisy environments and interruptions garbled the audio or led to the services transcribing voices of people in the office who weren’t in our meeting." — Danielle Abril, The Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2023
Did you know?
Garble is a word with a spicy history, and we're not just saying that to curry favor with gastronomes. It is presumed that this word was passed from Arabic to Mediterranean Europe through trade in Eastern spices, and was first introduced into English from the Anglo-French verb garbeler, used for the action of sifting out impurities—such as dust, dirt, husks, etc.—from spices. In the 15th century, the English garble carried this same meaning as well as "to cull," i.e., to sort or pick out the best parts of something. If these origins seem curious given garble’s now more common meanings of "to so alter or distort as to create a wrong impression" and "to cause to be unclear or confusing; to introduce error into," consider that one way of garbling someone’s story is to take bits and pieces out of context.