Current Events

A recent Gallup Poll (released on December 24th) chronicles the continuing decline of religious influence in America. In 1952, 75% of Americans said religion was very important in their lives. Today, only 51% report this to be true. In addition, most Americans now believe religion is losing its influence on America. …

Many Christian leaders are concerned about the impact visual media is having on Christianity in America. Their concern centers largely around the moral messaging in contemporary movies, television series, and commercials – most of which runs contrary to the teaching of the New Testament authors. But that’s not the biggest …

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll measures the degree to which Americans think it’s important for political candidates to have strong religious beliefs. While the data is nuanced, the poll found that “just 25 percent of Americans say it’s very or extremely important that a candidate has strong …

A recent study from Lifeway Research reveals that “most Americans want more religious meaning to the Christmas season.” 65% of those surveyed said, “Christmas should be more about Jesus.” While that might sound like good news for Christians, the number of Americans who want to “keep Christ in Christmas” – …

(Updated on January 12th, 2019) Much has been written about both the Biblical illiteracy of teenage believers and the flight of young people from the Church. Many have observed this trend, and I too have witnessed it anecdotally as a youth pastor (and shamefully, I contributed to the trend for some …

A new, 2018 Pew Research Center Report polled a growing group in America: “religious nones.” This group describes themselves as “nothing in particular” when asked if they identify with a specific religious group. The vast majority are ex-Christians, and most are under the age of thirty-five. Pew asked a representative …

A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal has created a controversy of sorts among cosmologists and astrophysicists. New observations suggest that the rate at which the universe is expanding may be different depending on how far back we look at distant stars and galaxies. Two contradictory sets of data …

The older I get, the more aware I am of my own mortality. While I still think of myself as the same person I was twenty-five years ago, my mirror seems to tell another story. I’ve discovered that my unchanging sense of “self” (despite what I see in the mirror) …

Fewer people celebrated Father’s Day than ever before, a fact that may have less to do with the nature of the holiday than it does with the nature of American families. A recent U.S. census found that the percentage of children living in single parent households increased from 12% in …

Recently, science journalists reported on the discovery of a “nearby alien planet” that might be “capable of supporting life.” Ross 128b lies approximately 11 light-years from earth and, according to a new study, “is likely a rocky and temperate world” that “could potentially have liquid water on its surface.” Ross …