News

Focus on the Family has announced 110 job cuts in its latest round of layoffs, which the Colorado ministry attributes to the departure of founder James Dobson and the reduced financial support from donors.

In U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's reasoning, religion amounts to a "private moral view," which should not infringe upon the constitutional rights of others. While some legal scholars say Walker's decision to overturn California's Proposition 8 lands on firm legal ground, some religious leaders accuse the judge of trying to scrub faith from the public square.

Jimmy Carter says he doubts that he would have been elected president in 1976 without the encouragement of pastor Jimmy Allen of San Antonio, Texas.

As many as 1,000 people who had registered for the five-day Baptist World Congress in Honolulu were un­able to attend because their visas were denied by U.S. officials, said leaders of the sponsoring Baptist World Alliance in an opening day news conference July 28.

The U.S. Student Christian Movement, which officially ended more than 40 years ago, will be revived at an October 8-11 meeting at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

As the sour economy and aging buildings wreak havoc on church budgets, United Methodists are trying to get ahead of the problem and assess the health of their congregations in a bid to reverse declining fortunes.

Bishop Mark S. Hanson, the out­going president of the Lutheran World Fed­eration, appealed to delegates at the LWF gathering in Ger­many to hold together and avoid splits in the face of differences over issues of sexuality.

And a side order of peace: Conflict Kitchen is a takeout restaurant in Pittsburgh that sells food from countries with which the U.S. is in conflict. Every four months a different country—and menu—is highlighted, along with the culture and politics of the country and the reasons for the conflict. It is now serving Iranian food, with assistance from Pittsburgh’s Iranian community (kubidehkitchen.com).