NAZARETH, Israel (BP) – Yasmeen Mazzawi, an Arab Christian who attended Nazareth Baptist School as a teenager, observed an unexpected joy as Christmas returned to her hometown of Nazareth for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas War. She was looking forward to a public hymn sing in downtown Nazareth Dec. 11 after speaking with Baptist Press, as well as the public Christmas tree lighting Dec. 14. “It’s going to be a very big show in Nazareth. Every day we have events and … [Read more...]
2000 Christians call for religious freedom protections amid rising violence in India
NEW DELHI (BP) – Two thousand Christians gathered in India in November to urge the government to protect religious freedoms as violence and legalized discrimination increase in the world’s most populous country. Representatives of more than 200 Christian denominations including evangelicals advocated for religious freedoms at the day-long National Christian Convention Nov. 29, spotlighting a 500 percent increase in targeted attacks against Christians from 2014-2024, religious persecution … [Read more...]
State of the Church: Bible use resurges in U.S. with Millennial, Gen Z men in front
BOULDER, Colo. (BP) – Weekly Bible reading resurged 12 points this year in the U.S. after a 15-year low, with Millennial and Gen Z men leading the way, State of the Church researchers said in their November release. Millennials and Gen Z outpace the 12-point increase, with reading jumping 16 points among Millennials, half of whom now read Scripture weekly. Among Gen Z, the 49 percent who read Scripture at least weekly represents a 19-point climb, researchers said of the study from … [Read more...]
ERLC laments SCOTUS pass on revisiting 2015 same-sex marriage ruling
WASHINGTON (BP) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to revisit its 2015 ruling on same-sex marriage misses a chance to right the matter but doesn’t change God’s Word, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Interim President Gary Hollingsworth told Baptist Press. “At our annual meeting this summer, Southern Baptists passed a resolution encouraging lawmakers to address this issue, calling for the overturning of Obergefell and urging the passage of laws that ‘affirm marriage between one … [Read more...]
Creation’s beauty aids, challenges spreading Gospel in northwest Montana
WHITEFISH, Mont. (BP) – At the very moment pastor Curt Sparkman spread his arms preaching a sermon at Flathead Lake in northwest Montana, a bald eagle stretched its wings overhead, Sparkman told Baptist Press. Earlier, he and executive pastor Jason Palmer slammed their brakes to avoid hitting a black bear while driving a trailer the two hours from Missoula to Whitefish. En route to the lake to preach his first sermon, Sparkman said, he had driven less than two minutes from home before … [Read more...]
Nov. 2 Day of Prayer for Persecuted Church uplifts endangered Christians globally
RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – Southern Baptists have joined the global community, Nov. 2, in uplifting the estimated 380 million Christians who endure danger because of their faith. Recognized globally as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church on the Southern Baptist Convention calendar aligns Southern Baptists in a worldwide prayer call on behalf of Christians who suffer evils including criminalization of worship and evangelism, as … [Read more...]
‘We must bring peace,’ Baptist pastor declares as Sudan civil war intensifies
DARFUR, Sudan (BP) – Thousands of civilians are trapped and untold numbers dead after Sudanese Rapid Defense Forces (RDF) captured the capital city of El Fasher, North Darfur, Oct. 26 in an intensifying civil war. RDF has killed so many civilians in its capture of El Fasher that piles of bodies, blood-soaked ground and mounds of dirt dug for mass graves are believed to be present in satellite images, Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) said in a report covering the first … [Read more...]
USCIRF condemns Chinese religious persecution as jailed pastor’s U.S. family urges prayer
WASHINGTON (BP) — Chinese Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, among 22 pastors jailed this week in China on erroneous charges, lived in the U.S. with his wife Chunli Liu and their children before returning to China in 2007 to plant Zion Church. His wife, who has remained in the U.S. to raise their children, U.S. citizens, is appealing for prayer as the U.S. advocates for her husband’s release. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted Chunli’s comments Oct. 16 among … [Read more...]
State of the Bible: Nearly quarter of U.S. adults say Bible ‘just another book’
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (BP) — Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults think the Bible is “just another book of teachings written by people,” the American Bible Society (ABS) said in its latest release from the 2025 State of the Bible. More people are skeptical of the Bible’s teachings than those who think the Bible is “totally accurate in all the principles it presents,” ABS said Oct. 14 in releasing the study’s seventh chapter focused on trust. “A half-century ago, Americans generally trusted the … [Read more...]
U.S. urges release of jailed Chinese pastors
BEIJING (BP) – China falsely claimed Oct. 13 to protect religious freedoms after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged the country’s government to release several pastors arrested in house church raids. “The Chinese government governs religious affairs in accordance with law, protects the religious freedom of the citizens and the normal religious activities,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Monday at a regular briefing, MSN reported. “We firmly oppose the U.S. interfering in … [Read more...]
‘Tainted joy’ upon hostage/prisoner exchange, leading Israeli care group says
ISRAEL (BP) – Israeli families are relieved Hamas released 20 living hostages but grieve that bodies of remaining hostages are still held or missing, the leader of a top care group serving traumatized families told Baptist Press. Naomi Nussbaum, executive director of the One Family humanitarian outreach to Israeli survivors of terrorism, said families also fear future attacks from the nearly 2,000 terrorists and prisoners Israel released in the peace deal. “This is not pure joy,” … [Read more...]
Pastor continues to serve in Ukraine after losing church, second home in Russia’s war
KYIV, Ukraine (BP) – “I’m alive, I’m alive,” Pastor Mark Sergeev’s oldest son Christopher, 13, called from debris that seconds ago was the third floor of the Sergeev family home in Kyiv. Everyone was accounted for except Sergeev’s youngest and 8-year-old son Aaron. “I think I’m going to take my kids down to the first floor,” Sergeev’s wife Jane had said moments earlier. Their three sons sleep on the third floor, and the first floor was the closest the family had to a bomb … [Read more...]
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