Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a devout Baptist known for his charitable work and long-standing role as a Sunday school teacher, has passed away at the age of 100. He died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday afternoon.
A well known Swahili proverbs observes, "when elephants fight, the grass suffers". It is a direct analogy to the human condition when our leaders enter into geopolitical conflict and the ordinary people suffer the most. It can seem overwhelming but here are some basic things followers of Jesus can do to help minimize the damage.
The political positioning of new regimes is matching an ideology that has been forming for some time—Dark Enlightenment. We are watching a new world order emerge that will cause great suffering. As the performance of Bach's St Matthew's Passion unfolded, it resonated deeply with the times we find ourselves in.
Among many other things, Easter is an opportunity to reflect on Jesus' relationship to political power. Modern readers of the Gospels and Epistles too easily miss the political significance of Jesus' death and resurrection. Far from leaning into and leveraging political and imperial power, Jesus and his followers are called to righteously and justly subvert it for God's glory alone.
We are being tempted afresh to give our allegiance to men who wield great power and wealth in the hope that we will benefit from their rule over us. This is a temptation as old as humanity. The true follower of Christ should give no allegiance to anyone but Jesus.
Following the National Assembly's passage of the impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk-yeol on December 14, religious leaders have called on the Korean Church to pray for the stability of South Korea. The impeachment vote came after the president briefly imposed martial law, a move that was widely condemned.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has seemingly given his support to the month of December being officially noted as “Christian Heritage Month,” pending approval by members of parliament. On Wednesday (Dec. 11) Liberal MP Jean Yip (Scarborough-Agincourt) hosted the prime minister at a “Christmas on the Hill” celebration at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
In an age when worship music trends come and go, modern hymnwriter Keith Getty is making a different appeal to artists and congregations alike: prioritize depth and scriptural soundness over popularity.
A provincial government in Pakistan is set to launch a scheme for religious minorities on Dec. 20 under which a tri-monthly stipend will be given to poor families. However, Christian leaders have urged the government to instead focus on creating jobs for their marginalized community members to enable them to earn a respectable livelihood.
The U.K. Health Secretary has made existing emergency measures banning puberty-suppressing hormones (blockers) “indefinite” for children aged under 18, following the official advice of medical experts. A press release from the Department of Health and Social Care published yesterday (Dec. 11) confirmed that both the sale and supply of the puberty blockers via private prescriptions to treat gender dysphoria and/or gender incongruence for youngsters not already taking them is no longer allowed.
The U.K. Parliament’s recent approval of assisted dying has apparently been mirrored to a certain extent in Ireland where a final report (March 2024) by the Oireachtas [National Parliament] Joint Committee on Assisted Dying recommended “that the government introduces legislation allowing for assisted dying, in certain restricted circumstances.”
The Sahel continued as the region where most terrorist violence occurred in 2024, with Burkina Faso again the country with the most killings while Niger shot from 10th to fifth worst in the world, according to the 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI).
