Mathew Block

A recent report by the Public Research Institute and the Brookings Institution attempts to present a clearer picture of American religious orientation. One of the things it explores, as Lauren Markoe notes at Religion News Service , is differing views among Americans as to what being . . . . Continue Reading »

This past Saturday, the 2.2 million strong Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod announced the re-election of Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison as President. President Harrison was first elected in 2010. The same convention which elected him also adopted new policies for the election of the . . . . Continue Reading »

A few Fridays back, President Munib A. Younan of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) spoke to the LWF’s Council in Geneva about rising persecution of Christians in the Middle East , urging Christians there to remain as a witness to others. “We are seeing a global rise in extremism,” . . . . Continue Reading »

Sarah Pulliam Bailey has a comprehensive article over at  Religion News Service on the election of the first openly gay bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As she notes, the election comes four years following the events of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly when a narrow margin of . . . . Continue Reading »

Recent news that Christians (including clergy and foreign diplomats) were attacked by Israeli police as they attempted to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the day before Orthodox Easter stands as a stark reminder of the difficulties Christians face in the Holy Land. Israel is a land which . . . . Continue Reading »

New figures released yesterday by Statistics Canada suggest the increasing ethnic and religious diversification of the Canadian population. But, as Statistics Canada itself warns, the numbers (based on the 2011 Census) should be taken with a grain of salt, especially when compared to previous . . . . Continue Reading »

One of my favorite podcasts is The Christian Humanist Podcast . The podcast is “humanist” in the best sense of the term: the Renaissance sense. In other words, it’s committed to exploring “literature, philosophy and other things that human beings do well”—studying . . . . Continue Reading »

An update from Pravmir :  There have appeared many reports in both the Eastern and Western press that the two hierarchs who were  abducted yesterday  by terrorists in Syria, Metropolitan Boulos Yazge, Antiochian Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, and Archbishop Youhanna Ibrahim, Syriac . . . . Continue Reading »

Yesterday, media was buzzing with news that Canadian music icon Rita MacNeil had passed away after complications following surgery. She was, as The Canadian Press put it , “a singer-songwriter from small-town Canada whose powerful voice explored genres from country, to folk, to gospel.” . . . . Continue Reading »

After weeks of growing frustration, pro-lifers took to Twitter en masse Friday to express disbelief and outrage over media silence on the multiple-murder trial of American abortion provider Kermit Gosnell. And the media, at least some of it, seems to be listening. The outrage was almost certainly . . . . Continue Reading »