January 5, 2023 By Bob Smietana (RNS) — At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every congregation in the United States shut down, at least for a while. For some Americans, that was the push they needed to never come back to church. A new report, which looked at in-person worship attendance patterns before the

December 12, 2022 By Bob Smietana (RNS) — When Andre Audette first arrived at Notre Dame for grad school, he got a brochure about living in South Bend, Indiana. That brochure included a section on churches and advice on which Catholic parish to attend if you were conservative and which to attend if you were

November 14, 2022 By Bob Smietana (RNS) — When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many Americans lost the habit of churchgoing after almost every church in the country closed down their in-person services and shifted online. But did some of them give up on God? Sociologists like Michael Hout want to know. Hout, a professor of sociology at

May 26, 2021 By Heather Greene (RNS) — In 2017, witches around the United States, and a few around the world, turned their magic to political activism, performing a spell to “bind” then-President Donald Trump “and all who abet him.” While the former president had this politicizing effect on many pagans, the spell was not

April 22, 2021 By Bob Smietana (RNS) — In the 1984 film “Mass Appeal,” Father Tim Farley, played by Jack Lemmon, gives a young, aspiring priest a lesson in church finances. Give a good sermon, and church coffers will fill up. But a bad sermon comes with a cost. ”It is no accident that the collection comes

Kat Armstrong, left, with her Sunday school teacher, Beth Moore. Photo courtesy of Kat Armstrong March 29, 2021 By Bob Smietana (RNS) — Kat Armstrong didn’t know much about the Bible when she first became a Christian as a teenager. Knowing she was eager to learn, a pastor at First Baptist Church in Houston suggested

A look at megachurches over the past five years finds that most have grown larger and more diverse and become less likely to call themselves evangelical.

A new study from the Lake Institute on faith and giving found that congregations’ giving was holding up during the pandemic, but barely half had met in person.

‘The evangelical pastors that we interviewed, ultimately chose racial reconciliation as their primary frame,’ a scholar said of study of multiracial church leaders.

A national study finds prayer, worship and a strong spiritual life have a significant association with a
satisfying sex life. That ageless staple of male comics – that women lose interest in sex after the
wedding ceremony – also doesn’t seem to apply to married couples of strong faith.