For decades, leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination mistreated survivors of sexual abuse, labeling them as troublemakers and enemies of their church while claiming there was little the leaders could do to address abuse in local congregations, often in the name of protecting their vast missionary operations.

Then, in the summer of 2021, Southern Baptists had had enough.

Angered over a groundbreaking newspaper ...

The birth of Stanley Francis Rother was by all accounts ordinary, aside from the weather. The Catholic farm boy came into the world during an Oklahoma dust storm.

But in life – and in death – he was extraordinary.

The 46-year-old priest, shot to death in Guatemala in 1981, became the first person born in the United States to be declared a martyr by the Catholic Church.

Source:...

It's a somewhat familiar story: A group of religious leaders last month filed an abortion-related lawsuit. They argued their religious freedoms were being violated.

But, instead of challenging abortion rights, they wanted to see an abortion ban overturned. The leaders are seeking to reverse Missouri's abortion ban, arguing lawmakers imposed their religious beliefs on others through passing it.

“We want this not just to be a lawsuit but also a public awareness campaign to show people they can be religious and also in support of abortion rights,” said the Rev. Cindy...

When medical personnel rushed onto the field to save Damar Hamlin’s life after the Buffalo Bills’ defensive back collapsed during a game last month in Cincinnati, many people witnessing the horrifying scene did the only thing they could to help. They prayed.

Players and coaches from both teams took a knee, held hands and through tear-filled eyes called on God to heal their fallen brother.

Fans inside the stadium and millions of viewers watching at home did the same, sharing and posting their prayers on...

A new survey finds that fewer than a third of Americans, or 29%, qualify as Christian nationalists, and of those, two-thirds define themselves as white evangelicals.

The survey of 6,212 Americans by the Public Religion Research Institute...

He frequently preaches forgiveness, yet Darius Pridgen, pastor of one of the largest Black churches in Buffalo, said it's taken him months to consider forgiving the teenager who killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack at his neighborhood grocery store.

Pridgen, who is also president of the Buffalo Common Council, the equivalent of a city council, told ABC News he lost several friends in...

The morning after a mass shooting by a Chinese gunman killed 11 people in a predominantly Chinese suburb during Lunar New Year festivities last month, news and commentators buzzed about the weight of the tragedy for the Asian American community. But many Chinese churches in the US didn’t bring it up.

Current events rarely make it into sermons or public statements from the pulpits at Chinese congregations, a reality that...

For decades, Missouri executions played out in similar fashion: An inmate was strapped to a gurney in a drab room, alone except for the eyes of witnesses staring through thick, soundproof glass as unidentified executioners administered the lethal chemical from behind a cinderblock wall.

But in November, convicted killer Kevin Johnson spent his final moments speaking softly with a pastor, praying, being assured of forgiveness. When ...

St. Rita Parish on Indianapolis' east side is a community of firsts and of unique contributions — starting with its founding in 1919 as the first designated Black Catholic parish in Indiana.

It was the first archdiocesan parish to offer kindergarten and accredited day care. It sponsored Indianapolis' first interracial, parochial versus public high school football game. Its boxing club produced three-time light heavyweight world champion Marvin Johnson.

"Nationally recognized architectural and artistic significance" can now be added to that list. The parish's church...

A Roman Catholic Diocese that covers central Massachusetts has published a new report about clergy sexual abuse of minors between 1950 and 2022, but unlike similar reports released by many other dioceses, the report did not include the names of the priests who were found to have committed abuse.

In the report made public Friday, Bishop Robert McManus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester said...

Nearly four years ago, the United Methodist Church approved an exit plan for churches wishing to break away from the global denomination over differing beliefs about sexuality, setting in motion what many believed would be a modern-day schism.

Since then, a new analysis has found, it’s fallen well short of that.

That analysis of ...

When a fire devastated the Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village two years ago, East End Temple, a nearby Reform synagogue, welcomed church-goers to worship in their sanctuary.

Since then, a relationship has blossomed between the synagogue and the church, which has remained homeless due to the six-alarm fire that  destroyed most of the historic building in 2020.  

But this weekend, when the congregations get together...

Despite the short-term upheaval COVID-19 caused among American churches, the pandemic’s long-term effect on worship attendance patterns was minimal, according to a study released Thursday by researchers at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the University of Chicago. The biggest exception to that trend occurred among young adults, whose church attendance took a major hit.

“Rather than completely upending established patterns, the pandemic accelerated ongoing trends in religious change,” wrote study authors Lindsay Witt-Swanson, Jennifer Benz, and Daniel Cox....

With a cheerful “soy Marcos” – “I’m Mark,” in Spanish – Bishop Mark Seitz introduced himself to migrants eating soup in the shelter on the grounds of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, less than two miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

The migration crisis roiling the borderlands is literally in the backyard of the new chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee, a ministry started a century ago. Seitz will be the first border...

Many of the conservative prelates who dominate the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were appointed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. His recent death deprives them of a symbolic figurehead but is unlikely to weaken their collective power or end the culture wars that have divided the USCCB, according to Catholic academics and clergy.

David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture, noted that conservative-leaning bishops were...