Brazil’s Lula issues letter to evangelicals to allay concern
Sao Paulo, BrazilAP Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva published an open letter to evangelicals on Wednesday aimed at countering claims he would persecute their faith and at winning votes among a large and growing part of the population. The letter, read at a gathering with evangelical leaders at a Sao Paulo hotel, […]
Lifestory: Dan Busby, longest-serving president of US evangelical financial watchdog, dies at 81
ADELLE M BANKS, of Religion News Service, reports on the life of Dan Busby, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, who died last week at the age of 81…
A divided nation: How a Brazilian dune system has become a religious flashpoint in election lead-up
DAVID BILLER, of Associated Press, reports on the fight over the Abaete dune system in Salvador…
Confederate memorials still divide Americans and religion is a big predictor – survey
United StatesRNS “The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” William Faulkner once famously quipped. The Mississippi writer had it right – at least when it comes to the Civil War, anyway. A war that split America as it was fought continues to do so in its memory. An 2020 image of the late […]
Lula challenges Bolsonaro’s grip on Brazil evangelical vote
Recife, BrazilReuters When Ariel Nery left the pews of her conservative evangelical megachurch for the floor cushions and hammocks of the progressive Igreja Mangue church four years ago, the backlash from her family often left her in tears on Sunday nights. For the same reason, the 25-year-old is avoiding a chat with her parents, stalwart […]
Essay: Religion is shaping Brazil’s presidential election – but its evangelicals aren’t the same as America’s
In an article first published on The Conversation, AMY ERICA SMITH, associate professor at Iowa State University, looks at the role evangelicals will play in the upcoming Brazilian election – and how that may differ from the relationship between evangelicals and politics in the US…
More than 75 per cent of Republican evangelicals want US declared a Christian nation – study
United StatesRNS When it comes to politics, there are few things Democrats and Republicans agree on. One exception: Making America officially a Christian nation would be unconstitutional. That’s true even for Americans who would like the country to be Christian. Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. PICTURE: Harold Mendoza/Unsplash/Creative Commons Seventy per cent of Americans agreed […]
Brazil’s National Council of Christian Churches combats intolerance during election campaign
Sao Paulo, Brazil The National Council of Christian Churches in Brazil has launched a campaign against the incentive to religious hatred and the systemic use of fake news by some evangelical leaders during the current electoral campaign in the South American country. Named I’m Evangelical and I believe in democracy, the council (known by the […]
US evangelical group gets racial history tour to spark work toward racial unity
Washington DC, USRNS For missionary Doug Gentile, it was seeing the “shackles for tiny children” used during American slavery. For seminary professor Darrell Bock, it was confronting the specificity of the list of “Black codes” that restricted the lives of Black people after slavery ended – mandates in many states, for instance, that they sign […]
US evangelicals: Bishop Robert Stearns wants to reinvent evangelicalism without leaving it behind
BENJAMIN SPRATT and JOSHUA STANTON, of Religion News Service, report that the pastor from western New York is one of a rising cohort of evangelical leaders who are looking beyond partisan politics and messaging based on fear…