Here’s a story that deserves considerably more attention than another poll showing Christianity declining. Christian Post
Biltmore Church baptized 458 people at an outdoor baptism gathering in Fletcher, North Carolina, setting a record in the congregation’s 137-year history.
The September 13 gathering included families being baptized together and people traveling from outside North Carolina. Church leaders say participants were individually contacted beforehand to confirm that baptism represented a personal decision to follow Christ, and follow-up discipleship is underway.
We’ve spent years hearing that faith is waning and young folks are more and more disillusioned with churchianity. Partly true, church attendance has been declining, and nihilism/atheism is unfortunately still a popular worldview for a lot of people.
But then one day 458 people walk into a lake to be baptized.
So What?
And while that doesn’t prove a national revival is underway it does remind us that Christianity isn’t fundamentally measured by denominations, polling percentages or political influence.
It starts the same way it did 2,000 years ago: with God’s spirit moving and individual people turning away from emptiness and seeking real meaning and light.
Cindy Clemishire has asked the Supreme Court of Texas to revive most of her defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church, disgraced founder Robert Morris and former church elders.
An appeals court dismissed most of her claims under the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine, which limits civil courts from interfering with church doctrine, governance and internal affairs. Clemishire’s lawyers argue the court stretched that protection too far because the dispute concerns public statements about abuse—not theology. Morris pleaded guilty in 2025 to five counts involving sexual abuse of Clemishire when she was a child.
Religious liberty is essential, but religious immunity isn’t.
Government shouldn’t decide whether your church believes in predestination, speaking in tongues, the Trinity or Saturday worship.
However, allegations involving sexual abuse, concealment or publicly defaming a victim aren’t theological doctrines.
So What?
Jesus didn’t tell churches to protect institutions, and He had some extraordinarily severe words about harming “little ones.”
Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
The Texas Supreme Court now has a chance to clarify where the line between church doctrine and criminal behaviour belongs, and it should be a no-brainer.
A new national political debate is emerging around candidates such as Texas Democrat James Talarico, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon and Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed, who are explicitly incorporating faith into their campaigns. Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell accused progressive candidates today of “virtue-signaling” to Christian voters rather than authentically representing biblical Christianity. See story here.
For decades, Republicans have enjoyed something close to ownership of America’s public Christian vocabulary. That may be changing, and that would be a good thing.
Let Republicans quote Jesus. Let Democrats quote Jesus.
Phillipians 1:15-18
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Listen to them all then open the Bible and check them all.
Jesus isn’t Republican or Democrat, and Scripture shouldn’t be retrofitted to whichever political platform we already support.
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The commission specifically highlights imprisoned Christians along with Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and others targeted by Beijing’s religious controls.
A Washington briefing yesterday brought together representatives of several persecuted religious communities to discuss Chinese Communist Party repression and concerns that intimidation extends into the United States.
So What?
Christians should absolutely demand freedom for imprisoned Christians in China.
But will we also demand freedom for the Muslim, Buddhist or Falun Gong prisoner? We should, because religious liberty isn’t Christianity asking government for preferential treatment.
A major Associated Press report published Monday examines the escalating dispute at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Pastor Sarah Lucas of Foundations for Nations publicly condemned traditional Arapaho practices—including the Sundance and sacred pipe ceremonies—as “idol worship.” The sermon triggered protests, and Northern Arapaho leaders have told the church to leave.
There’s a legal complication: the church sits inside reservation boundaries but on privately owned land, making the tribe’s authority to remove it uncertain. Attendance at the church has reportedly fallen by roughly half, and tribal leaders have adopted new rules requiring religious organizations to obtain approval before operating on tribal lands.
Can Christians respect another person’s religious freedom while simultaneously telling them their religion is false? Biblically, yes.
Paul didn’t arrive in pagan Athens and announce that every religion was equally true. He saw a city filled with idols—and then reasoned with the people about the God they didn’t know.
So What?
Christians shouldn’t mock Native Americans or pretend the brutal history of forced religious assimilation never happened.
But neither should a Christian pastor be required to say something she believes is worship of another god is compatible with Christianity. Respecting someone’s right to believe something is not the same as agreeing that what they believe is true.
That’s religious liberty.
But let’s be clear about the basic tenet of our faith as declared by Jesus Christ, and let’s not hesitate to speak the truth boldly:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” — John 14:6 (KJV)
Never forget. Because the people who invoke the name of their god as they slaughter thousands of innocent men, women, and children never forget.
Because the spiritual darkness that animates their hatred and inspires the evil acts they commit never rests.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
But it appears that too many in our country have indeed forgotten over the past 25 years. Hopefully not enough to open the door to a shocking reminder.
An American bishop says churches shouldn’t become nightclubs to attract young people
American Catholic Bishop Robert Barron has publicly criticized London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for entering a multiyear partnership with nightclub company Fabric to stage musical events inside the cathedral. New York Post
Barron argues the attempt to attract younger people by making sacred spaces more like secular entertainment venues misunderstands what spiritually curious young people actually want. The controversy follows similar debates over silent discos and other events staged inside historic churches.
Churches have spent decades adding coffee bars, concert lighting, giant screens, skinny jeans and worship music that sounds like Coldplay circa 2008. All of those ‘features’ are part of the reason I personally have no interest in modern churchianity.
So What?
I think young people who are seeking spiritual meaning want something other than the cultural experiences they can find for a dime a dozen anywhere and everywhere. They want something deeper and they’re looking in other places for it, like in ancient liturgy, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Bible study and traditional Christian practices.
The answer isn’t found in making Christianity look more like the culture.
A new national political debate is emerging around candidates such as Texas Democrat James Talarico, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon and Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed, who are explicitly incorporating faith into their campaigns. Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell accused progressive candidates today of “virtue-signaling” to Christian voters rather than authentically representing biblical Christianity. See story here.
For decades, Republicans have enjoyed something close to ownership of America’s public Christian vocabulary. That may be changing, and that would be a good thing.
Let Republicans quote Jesus. Let Democrats quote Jesus.
Phillipians 1:15-18
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Listen to them all then open the Bible and check them all.
Jesus isn’t Republican or Democrat, and Scripture shouldn’t be retrofitted to whichever political platform we already support.
While much of America argues about politics and whatever outrage is trending today, Christians in Haiti are burying their dead.
On August 23, about 150 heavily armed gang members attacked Kenscoff, in the mountains above Port-au-Prince. According to the Associated Press and the United Nations, 47 people were killed and more than 50 kidnapped. Thirty-four people were killed inside or around a church where residents had sought refuge. This week, mourners returned to that same church to bury members of their families. (AP News)
Christian outlets report that the attack centered on the Ark of the New Testament evangelical church, where displaced families had taken shelter, and that many of those killed were Christians. At least five of the dead were children. (CBN)
We should be careful with the word persecution. Haiti’s gangs murder, kidnap and terrorize people indiscriminately, and current reporting does not conclusively establish that every victim was killed because he or she was Christian.
But it isn’t debatable that people seeking safety inside a Christian church were slaughtered there.
Meanwhile, followers of Jesus elsewhere in the world can argue about worship styles, denominations, doctrines, and whether the coffee in the lobby is any good.
But let’s all try to remeber this exortation from Hebrews, because it resonates and reminds us that our comfortable Christianity here in America isn’t neccesarily the norm.
“Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them.” — Hebrews 13:3 (KJV)
Our brothers and sisters aren’t merely the people sitting beside us Sunday morning. The Body of Christ crosses borders, languages and oceans.
So What?
So today, pray for Haiti. Pray for the kidnapped. Pray for grieving families. Pray for Christians trying to remain faithful in a country where simply gathering together can put them in mortal danger.
And remember them, because much of the world won’t.
America’s largest United Methodist church sends its pastor into politics
Adam Hamilton, founder and senior pastor of the 25,000-member Church of the Resurrection, is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in deeply Republican Kansas. AP reports today that Hamilton intends to continue preaching 12–18 times a year if elected, following the unusual model of Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.
His theology is already campaign ammunition: opponents are highlighting a 2022 sermon in which Hamilton suggested salvation may be possible for non-Christians. Hmmm, interesting, that.
So, can someone simultaneously be a shepherd of Christ’s church and a partisan politician? Yeah, I think so. After all politics and religion have a lot in common, right?
And when opponents challenge a pastor’s theology during an election, Christians shouldn’t automatically dismiss that as dirty politics. If a man publicly teaches what Jesus said about salvation, we’re allowed to open the Bible and check.
Political affiliation doesn’t determine theological truth…except when it does.
