In December, the Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah, an eight day feast in remembrance of the triumph of the Maccabees over the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes in the year 165 B.C. The story has a lesson for us. Antiochus promoted an ancient form of political correctness. He insisted that everyone give up their own religion and... Continue Reading

Peace Church, a congregation that has met for worship in the Lions Club Building on Hillandale Road since its organization eight years ago, is joining the ranks of Christian voices in the northern part of the county. This 50-member congregation has begun to worship in a new building located on an 8.3-acre site at 6114... Continue Reading

Last summer, my parents introduced me and my wife to a European board game called The Settlers of Catan. This award-winning game has become wildly popular, especially among college students. But Settlers is hard to play. The game is expensive. The rules are complicated. Each game requires more than an hour. To do well, you... Continue Reading

Thirteen embryonic stem-cell lines were approved for use by U.S.-funded researchers today, the first of hundreds of cell colonies that may become available under new polices promised by President Barack Obama. Stem cells taken from days-old human embryos can be kept alive indefinitely in solution, and have the ability to turn into about 200 cell... Continue Reading

Bowing to an outpouring of protests from residents, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors reversed a week-old rule Tuesday that had banned public displays, including Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, at the county courthouse. Supervisors voted 7 to 1 to allow community groups “equal access” to the courthouse grounds. The supervisor who voted to keep... Continue Reading

The Ohio Supreme Court has issued a controversial decision concerning church regional administrative headquarters. The 4-to-3 ruling in Church of God in Northern Ohio v. Levin means that while churches themselves are tax-exempt, a denomination’s administrative facility is not — because it is not used exclusively for worship or for charitable purposes. The court also... Continue Reading

Until recently, Europeans, including Western Christians, had generally assumed that “the entire world is just as tolerant and indifferent to religion” as they are, an official of the Moscow Patriarchate points out, but for Muslims, Jews, and Eastern Christians, “religion occupies a place of first importance. But the Swiss vote to ban new minarets shows……that... Continue Reading

Rod Dreher is concerned about certain trends in law enforcement. He quotes Reul Marc Gerecht saying: “For the FBI, religion remains a much too sensitive subject, much more so than the threatening ideologies of yesteryear. Imagine if Maj. Hasan had been an officer during the Cold War, regularly expressing his sympathy for the Soviet Union... Continue Reading

A ramshackle Detroit church whose small but dedicated congregation provides services to homeless, hungry and addicted people, got a major shot of hope as crews began rebuilding its roof — thanks to about $70,000 in donations from around the world. “I’m astounded,” the Rev. Henry Covington, pastor of Pilgrim Church and its I Am My... Continue Reading

According to a Kentucky Baptist Convention official, 2,587,995 Kentuckians “are lost without Christ.” Ross Bauscher, Evangelism Growth Team Leader for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, announced those figures at the convention’s annual meeting earlier in November. The context was a talk he gave promoting a major evangelistic campaign planned by the state’s largest denomination for early... Continue Reading