Religion | Religious News - www.mreligion.com

The cost of Twelve Days of Christmas: $34,363.49

If you’ve been stuck at the mall listening to a song about ten Lords a-Leaping and eight Maids a-Milking you can blame the Jesuits. Rumor has it they invented the Twelve Days of Christmas song as a catechism in code for persecuted Catholics in 16th-century England. The claim is that each of the items has a coded meaning (Old and New Testaments are the two turtle doves; three hens are the Wise Men; the Evangelists are the four calling birds;...

Leo XIII and Kuyper on the social question

This year marks the 125th anniversary of two key documents in the development of modern Christian social thought: the papal encyclicalRerum Novarumby Pope Leo XIII and the speech “The Social Question and the Christian Religion” by Abraham Kuyper. To mark this anniversary and mend these works to readers today, Acton Institute has recently releasedMakers of Modern Christian Social Thought: Leo XIII and Abraham Kuyper on the Social Question. This volume consists of the texts of these two key sources, along...

Samuel Gregg: Trade agreements are not free trade

Free trade and trade agreements are not the same thing.In fact, they are often times in direct contradiction with each other.Acton Director of Research Samuel Gregg recently wrote an article about this at The Stream.Gregg explains how all trade agreements are ‘managed trade,’ not free trade.He explains how free traders should approach the issue of economic nationalism and the best ways to work toward freer trade.Concerning the issue of trade agreements and managed trade, Gregg says this: There’s no-one-size-fits-all form...

Subsidies or tax breaks, both are cronyism

Last week, President-elect Donald Trump along with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is the current governor of Indiana, struck a deal with United Technologies, the pany of Carrier, in order to save over 1,000 jobs from being sent from Indiana to Mexico. This deal will supposedly give Carrier over $7 million in tax break incentives and it has everyone across the political spectrum reacting in different ways. People on the far-left such as the self-described democratic-socialist senator from Vermont, Bernie...

What standard should we use to judge school choice?

The United States spends a lot of money each year on public schooling. As a percentage of GDP, government expenditures on public education (five percent) exceed the amount we spend on defense (four percent) or welfare (two percent). But how do we know if we are getting our “money’s worth” on public school? Too often, the primary criterion of effectiveness is standardized testing. A school is rated almost exclusively on on how well its students perform on standard testing (usually...

An ecumenical Methodist: Thomas Oden (1931–2016)

Thomas Oden, considered by many to be one of the premier Methodist theologians in America, died yesterday at the age of 85. Oden was the author of numerous theological works, including the three-volume systematic theology The Word of Life, Life in the Spirit, and The Living God. He also served as thedirector of the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and was the general editor for both the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the...

Free to create: Why two Christian filmmakers are challenging the government

Carl and Angel Larsen are Minnesota filmmakers who founded their pany, Telescope Media Group, with a very specific purpose: “to glorify God through top-quality media production.” Christian belief and a passion for “God’s story” has always been at the center of their business. Now, due to a state law and statements from government officials, their religious beliefs expose them to a range of new threats as it relates to filming weddings. Under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the Larsens may...

RELIGION & LIBERTY

Freedom in the Light

　　Freedom in the Light 　　Weekly Overview: 　　Honesty is more than the words we say. It’s a posture of the heart. We weren’t made to try and be something we’re not. God never asks us to keep up appearances. He longs for us to have the courage to be vulnerable. He longs for us to be so founded in his unconditional...

Jul 19, 2026

Nationalists Seek to Make Nepal Hindu Again

　　More than 15 years after Nepal officially became a secular democracy, the former Hindu monarchy may have a religious extremism problem, incited and aggravated by its closest neighbor. 　　In an alarming development, Indian Hindutva ideology and politics have begun to spread throughout the country, as local experts and journalists report. This proliferation has resulted in a recent spate of attacks...

Jul 19, 2026

More Pastors Are Leaving Ministry Over Church Conflict

　　Conflict had become the norm at Trinity Church in Redlands, California. 　　The lead pastor left in 2022 amid a wave of disgruntled attendees. Following his departure, some church members remained upset at the congregations elders. In all, there had been at least a dozen situations that came up over a 14-year period. 　　When Doug Baker arrived as interim pastor, he...

Jul 19, 2026

A Few Questions for God?

　　Weekend, April 13, 2024 　　A Few Questions for God? 　　I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.” (Revelation 21:3 NLT) 　　It makes me smile when I hear people say that when they get to...

Jul 19, 2026

Slouching Towards Tax Day

　　Steve Lawrence, who died last month, had a hit with Eydie Gormé in 1960 with the most delightful song, “This Could Be the Start of Something,” which was the theme of Steve Allen’s Tonight show. The song was about competent young adults living large in the great 1950s prosperity. 　　You’re up in an aeroplane or dining at Sardi’s 　　Or lying...

Jul 19, 2026

Cancellation, Counter

　　In Book I of his Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli dedicates chapters 7 and 8 to the theme of accusations, calumnies, and their impact on free republics. As with much of his writing, he praises the Roman Republic for how it dealt with these matters and condemns contemporary Florence. Specifically, he considers that accusations are an important venting mechanism to be...

Jul 19, 2026

A Gentle God

　　He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Isaiah 40:11 (NLT) 　　If there is one thing that has crushed but healed me, destroyed but restored me, burdened yet freed me, it's motherhood. I remember when we...

Jul 19, 2026

A Prayer for Patients in Hospitals and Their Families

　　A Prayer for Patients In Hospitals And Their Families 　　By Chris Eyte 　　Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him...

Jul 19, 2026

Overlooking the Past

　　In land acknowledgments, there is to be found a fatuous mix of nerve and naiveté. The former comes to light in the public pronouncement that some present-day site was once the ancestral homeland of another people and that those currently occupying it and making the pronouncement have absolutely no intention of giving it back. Imagine finding a lost dog, keeping...

Jul 19, 2026

Died: Beverly LaHaye, Pastor’s Wife Who Led Religious Right

　　Beverly LaHaye, a timid pastors wife who became a fierce champion for conservative Christian politics and a force mobilizing hundreds of thousands of religious women, died on Sunday in a retirement home in El Cajon, California. She was 94. 　　President Ronald Reagan once praised LaHaye as one of the powerhouses of the conservative movement and said she was changing the...

Jul 19, 2026