Religious leaders, lawmakers push for $1 billion to secure houses of worship

Barbara Sprunt, NPR

There's an effort on Capitol Hill to increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which awards funding to houses of worship to harden their defenses. In 2024, roughly a third of those who applied actually received funding.

The Most Interesting Part of Trump’s Prayer Rally

Stephanie McCrummen, The Atlantic

It wasn’t the speakers onstage.

Christian nationalists pray for a return to America’s “Christian roots”

CK Smith, Salon

Christian Nationalists gather to pray for a return to America's "Christian roots" to kick off the 250th celebration

National Mall prayer event sparks concern about Trump administration eroding the wall between church and state

Aleena Fayaz, CNN, CNN

An all-day prayer event on the National Mall on Sunday — backed by the White House through a mix of taxpayer funds and private donations — is the most recent...

Rededicate 250: Thou Shalt Not Separate Church And State

Julia Conley, Crooksandliars.com

An all-day prayer event scheduled for Sunday on the National Mall is set to feature evangelical Protestant leaders as well as top White House and Republican Party officials as speakers, and is being promoted as a celebration of “thanksgiving” as well as an op…

Trump-backed faith event features conservative Christians as critics decry blurring of church-state lines

Yahoo Entertainment

How White Christian Nationalists are trying to Hijack America’s 250th Birthday

Daniel Martin Varisco, Juancole.com

The proposed national prayer vigil is a politically glorified evangelistic service by ultra-conservative Christian Nationalists.

A year of Trump is backfiring on the religious right

Christian Paz, Vox

This weekend, an array of Christian religious leaders and government officials are scheduled to gather at the National Mall. They’ll convene to pray, yes, but this rally — organized as part of the White House-backed Freedom 250 celebrations tied to this comin…

Rebel HQ asks MAGA how their one-religion fantasy squares with Trump's Jewish family

Jason Weisberger, Boing Boing

As usual, MAGAs will paint themselves into corners trying to rationalize things that simply can not be. The insistence that the United States is a "Christian nation" runs into a wall when it meets Trump's converted-to-Judaism sweat shop running daug…

Rejecting church and state separation on wish list for president's religious liberty commission...

Peter Smith, Associated Press

President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission is preparing to make recommendations after more than a year of hearings. Commissioners have spoken about their wish lists for what they want to see in the report. They reflect the perspectives of the commi…

For Christians in Israel and Jerusalem, intolerance is becoming normal

Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English

Despite official framing, for Christians there is little new in last week's assault on a French nun in East Jerusalem.

Young men’s religious revival is a myth

Amanda Marcotte, Salon

New polling suggests the recent “converts” care more about gender than Jesus

“Vibes Are Bad”: Trump Admin’s Religious Intensity Unsettles Employees

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, The New Republic

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution explicitly protects freedom of religion, preventing the government from prohibiting the free exercise of one’s own beliefs, and forbidding the government from establishing an official religion or from favoring one …

Government Workers Say They're Getting Inundated With Religion

Vittoria Elliott, Wired

“This has never happened before,” one government employee tells WIRED. “I have never gotten a message like this from anyone.”

WATCH: Growing trend of Gen Z men being drawn to Catholicism

ABC News, Abcnews.com

Young Catholic convert William Bogdan discusses what drew him to the Catholic faith and why he thinks more younger men are joining the church.

Trump and Hegseth invoke God and religion in Iran war press conference

Al Jazeera English

Trump believes God backs US in Iran war, Hegseth compares airman's rescue to Jesus' resurrection

U.S. Military Archbishop Calls Hegseth's 'Jesus' Comments Problematic

John Amato, Crooksandliars.com

Archbishop Timothy Broglio told CBS's Face The Nation that SecDef Pete Hegseth invoking the name of the lord was "problematic" because war is not something Jesus would sponsor. Host Ed O'Keefe interviewed the Archdiocese for the Military Service and elicited …

Why America’s Catholic Bishops Started Sounding Liberal

Francis X. Rocca, The Atlantic

Trump’s second term has transformed the priorities of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy.

Only Muslim Woman on Trump's MAGA Religious Committee Resigns in Protest of Iran War

Danielle Han, Jezebel

Sameerah Munshi also said her decision was in protest of a fellow committee member being fired after arguing that being anti-Zionist is not the same as being antisemitic.

The Republican Who Wants to Banish His Own Constituents

Russell Berman, The Atlantic

Representative Andy Ogles wrote on Monday that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.” He represents thousands of them in Congress.

How the GOP Plans to Use Talarico’s Christianity Against Him

Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine

The GOP plans to use James Talarico’s Christianity against him in the Texas Senate race. Republicans are already turning the Democrat’s progressive theology into an attack line.

The MAGA Religious Right Are Pure Evil

John Amato, Crooksandliars.com

The biggest group of Trump supporters in 2015 was the Christian right, anti-abortion, homophobic, and Islamophobic pastors and evangelicals. They rallied around Donald because he had promised to overturn Roe V Wade. His racist immigration policies were music…

Louisiana’s 10 Commandments Law Marks a Critical Step Toward Christian Nationalism

Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Rolling Stone

Experts on the Christian right talk about the rise of the movement in the U.S., and how a state law could further erode the separation of church and state

Christian leaders denounce Trump actions, warn of 'crisis of faith'

Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY, USA Today

Their statement says Christians have a moral obligation to condemn the demonization of immigrants and attacks on civil rights and diversity.