MINNEAPOLIS -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has become the first North American denomination to declare itself a sanctuary church, committed to supporting and sheltering migrants entering the country.

The ELCA announced its decision last week at an annual assembly in Milwaukee, where leaders also participated in a march and prayer...Read more

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australian Cardinal George Pell, who is serving a six-year jail sentence for child sexual abuse, will learn his fate Aug. 21 when Melbourne's Court of Appeal hands down its decision on whether to overturn his conviction.

The former Vatican treasurer and one-time close adviser to Pope Francis was convicted in December for ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Pastor Roger Jimenez implored his congregation at Verity Baptist Church to separate themselves from the ways of a modern, wicked world.

Burn your Harry Potter books. Trash your rock 'n' roll CDs. Don't vaccinate your babies. Stay away from gay people.

"The United States of America is on a rainbow-colored boat, and we've ...Read more

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? -- Micah 6:8 KJV

The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock has had a busy couple of weeks.

After co-hosting and delivering the opening sermon at a conference on ending mass incarceration in the United States...Read more

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. -- Proverbs 4:7

We live in a world awash in information.

We know, for instance, that this year marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Va. But most of us might not know Massachusetts was the first ...Read more

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." -- 2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV

Days after President Donald Trump's Twitter tantrum a couple of weeks ago, instructing four Democratic ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- On a September day last year, between the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a group of worshippers gathered in a parking lot at the Woodland Hills Hebrew Discovery Center for a religious ritual called kapparot.

Behind tarps and makeshift structures used to shield the proceedings from view, live chickens were ...Read more

As a Mississippi native who grew up in the '50s and '60s, I've long had a heightened sense of race and racism, keenly aware that there were those who, because of my dark skin, saw me as other.

In my hometown of McComb, color lines were clearly drawn and bombings in the African American community were a near constant, so much so that in 1964 it ...Read more

BALTIMORE -- The Most Rev. Mark E. Brennan, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and a man known for his humble service and "great pastoral sensitivity," will become bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia, the Vatican announced Tuesday morning.

He succeeds former Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, who resigned ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The leader of La Luz del Mundo church remained impassive in a Los Angeles courtroom as a witness for prosecutors described a video that he alleged showed Naason Joaquin Garcia participating in a sexual threesome involving a minor.

State law enforcement officer and forensic examiner Steven Stover testified during a Superior Court ...Read more