WASHINGTON (AP) _ The State Department’s annual report on international religious freedom ranks China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia among the world’s worst persecutors. Burma, Eritrea , Iran, Sudan and Uzbekistan also are called countries of particular concern. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says some governments actively persecute people of faith, while others turn [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Barack Obama has signed an executive order regulating federally funded partnerships between the government and religious-based and neighborhood organizations. The order says faith-based groups that receive federal money may provide social services without removing religious objects or scriptures from the premises and can keep religious terms in their names. The government [...]
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ The Reverend Franklin Graham says his Samaritan’s Purse ministry will deliver 8 million gifts to 110 countries this year through Operation Christmas Child. But he says shoeboxes containing those gifts need to be collected this week to be delivered before Christmas. Collection sites and tips on preparing a gift are on [...]
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) _ A Christian blogger says “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” which opens in theaters Dec. 10, preserves the book’s focus on temptation, sin and redemption. David Sutton, who writes for NarniaFans.com, says he recently got to preview the third film in the series adapted from C.S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of [...]
VATICAN CITY (AP) _ Pope Benedict XVI is calling for more help to be sent to Haiti as it struggles with an outbreak of cholera. Benedict told pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square Sunday that he was expressing solidarity and offering prayers for the Caribbean nation. He says he wants to encourage those who [...]
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va. (AP) _ The director of the chaplains service at the Department of Veterans Affairs has thanked God for the men and women who have served in America’s armed forces. Chaplain Keith Ethridge delivered the invocation at Thursday’s Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. He said veterans are God’s gift to [...]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ For Michael W. Smith, “Save Me From Myself” is more than a song — it’s a personal daily prayer. Smith says that as a teenager, he abused drugs and alcohol for four years, living so recklessly that his life was at risk. He says that culminated in a nervous breakdown in [...]
CAIRO (AP) _ In Egypt, Coptic Christians and Muslims have held a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of the horrific Oct. 31 attack on a Catholic church in Baghdad that killed 58 people. Dozens gathered in front of the Iraqi embassy in the Egyptian capital Cairo, holding candles and signs reading: “No to [...]
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) _ The Rev. Billy Graham, who celebrated his 92nd birthday Sunday, wants to preach one more time, and is working toward that goal. That’s according to grandson and fellow evangelist Will Graham. He says his grandfather has been working on a sermon and is trying to regain strength in his voice. Will [...]
BAGHDAD (AP) _ Iraqi Christians have held Sunday Mass in the church that just a week before was the scene of a horrific bloodbath in which dozens died. Parishioners gathered in Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation church, which still bore bullet holes along its walls and blood stains on its chandeliers and ceilings. Islamic militants [...]