Pope Francis recently hit out at conservative Catholic bishops in the United States who have criticized him, suggesting they exhibit what he described as a "suicidal attitude." ... Read full Story
Almost five years after hiring its first black lead pastor, Maranatha Baptist Church, in Plains, Georgia, where former President Jimmy Carter is a member, has hired The Rev. Ashley Guthas as its first woman pastor. ... Read full Story
The Rev. William Lawson, a veteran civil rights activist and founding pastor of a historically African American megachurch in Texas, has died less than two months before his 96th birthday. ... Read full Story
Thaddeus Matthews, pastor of Naked Truth Liberation and Empowerment Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee, known popularly as the “Cussing Pastor,” has gone viral again for dishing out a profanity-laced rebuke to comedian D.L. Hughley for accusing him of swearing in the pulpit. ... Read full Story
Only 2% of Evangelical Protestants believe that the term "Evangelical" should be defined in part or fully by political views, according to a new report. ... Read full Story
A Catholic priest has apologized after using the term "holy spouses" when providing a blessing to a same-sex couple and saying the rings they exchanged were a "sign of their fidelity." ... Read full Story
The Presbyterian Church in America has canceled a panel event slated for their churchwide gathering next month that would have included Evangelical writer and New York Times columnist David French. ... Read full Story
The priest of the oldest Roman Catholic church in Portland, Oregon, recently urged his congregation to pray for the vandal who recently defaced the church with vulgar pro-abortion graffiti. ... Read full Story
As pastors and ministry heads face rising exhaustion and as each day seems to bring another leader facing allegations of misconduct, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability is developing a new "leadership standard" for member ministries in the hopes of combating burnout and "integrity failures" in churches and charities. ... Read full Story
Calvary Chapel of The Woodlands, Texas, which hosts services in the auditorium of McCullough Junior High School, has announced the firing of their longtime pastor, Bruce Hollen, following his arrest for possession with intent to promote child pornography. ... Read full Story
The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism intends to spend more than $6 million to "transform" Papua New Guinea by renovating a Baptist college and medical clinic to enhance theological education and evangelism in the Pacific country with over 600 islands and 800 languages. ... Read full Story
The Village Church Pastor Matt Chandler has said he believes the mark of the beast is “active even now in this moment of history that we're in." ... Read full Story
In a revelation that appeared to some as almost as unusual as his announcement of the suicide of his wife, Mica Miller, Pastor John-Paul Miller of Solid Rock at Market Common in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, said he tried to raise her from the dead but it didn’t work. ... Read full Story
The centuries-old Church of the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg, Germany, drew more than 1,200 people on Sunday for worship services featuring the music of Taylor Swift. ... Read full Story
Since October 2022, Daystar Television Network’s ministry jet has made 24 round-trip flights from Fort Worth to Colorado Springs and 13 round-trip flights from Fort Worth to Destin, Florida, at an estimated cost of $769,220. ... Read full Story
Former megachurch Pastor Perry Noble didn't mince words when he criticized ministry leaders who say women shouldn't preach during a sermon earlier this month. ... Read full Story
Events that occurred this week in Christian history include the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, the death of Pope Sylvester II, and the commissioning of missionary Althea Brown. ... Read full Story
While many clergy in the United States will be preaching sermons in celebration of Mother’s Day, one pastor in Texas avoids doing so in consideration of those for whom the day brings pain and heartache. ... Read full Story
K.P. Yohannan, the founder and director of Gospel for Asia and the Metropolitan of the Believers Eastern Church, has died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 74. ... Read full Story
Around 100 people professed faith in Jesus at worship services held in wildfire-ravaged Hawaii last week, the culmination of Harvest Christian Fellowship's "Hope for Lahaina" outreach efforts to share the hope of Christ with a community devastated by the deadliest wildfire in the United States in over a century. ... Read full Story
"At the time, almost every comedy on air was filmed live in front of a studio audience—or at least pretended to be. Pretty much all of the biggest shows used a laugh track—The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres. Savvy viewers might have figured out that not all of the giggles and guffaws were real, but few people outside the industry understood the extent of the artifice." — Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 15 Apr. 2024
Did you know?
Do great actors display artifice or art? Sometimes a bit of both. Artifice stresses creative skill or intelligence, but it also implies a sense of falseness and trickery. Art generally rises above such falseness, suggesting instead an unanalyzable creative force. Actors may rely on some of each, but the personae they display in their roles are usually artificial creations. Therein lies a lexical connection between art and artifice. Artifice comes from artificium, Latin for "artistry, craftmanship, craft, craftiness, and cunning." (That root also gave us the English word artificial.) Artificium, in turn, developed from ars, the Latin root underlying the word art (and related terms such as artist and artisan).