Here's what's happening on the church and culture front today...

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Dec 20, 2024

Fathers tend to focus on episodic tasks like finances and home repairs but overestimate their overall contributions compared to mothers. Researchers encourage families to address the mental load imbalance through open discussions and shared responsibilities, especially during the holiday season. (Neuroscience News)

Dec 20, 2024

'Dirty Dancing,' 'Wrath of Khan' added to the National Film Registry

Dec 20, 2024

It's a most wonderful time of the year for classic film buffs and preservationists. The National Film Registry, which is part of the Library of Congress, announced on Tuesday the latest movies it plans to archive for posterity. (Ulaby, NPR)

Dec 20, 2024

Hail Satan: religious freedom fighters plan to open school

Dec 20, 2024

“The theocrats have marched forward and introduced more legislation and have continuously and relentlessly tried to plug religion into schools,” said Greaves, who uses a pseudonym. “We see those same opportunities there opening for us.” (McDonald-Gibson, The Times)

Dec 20, 2024

Dec 19, 2024

Nuclear bunker sales increase, despite warnings they won't provide protection

Dec 19, 2024

Global security leaders are warning nuclear threats are growing as weapons spending surged to $91.4 billion last year. At the same time, private bunker sales are on the rise globally, from small metal boxes to crawl inside of to extravagant underground mansions. (AP/NPR)

Dec 19, 2024

News Archive:

Featured

Moms Carry 71% of the Mental Load

The overwhelming reaction to the documentary has been revulsion, not only among conservatives—the commentator Ben Shapiro said that Phillips had “made herself into a sex robot” whose soul was stained—but also among feminists. (Lewis, The Atlantic)

A report by Pew Research Center on international religious freedom named Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq as the countries where both government restrictions and social hostility most limit the ability of religious minorities to practice their faith. (André, Religion News Service)

A new overnight tour in South America pitches “a journey through history” that will offer a chance to reflect and discover local culture. But the history in question is macabre: the mass death of more than 900 people at the remote Jonestown settlement in Guyana nearly 50 years ago. (Sampson, The Washington Post)

A religious schism has turned deadly in Nigeria, with a church member fatally shot and two young children killed as homes were set ablaze, according to United Methodist News Service. The news service said the reported violence on Sunday stemmed from a schism in the worldwide United Methodist Church over its decision to repeal LGBTQ bans. (AP/NPR)

“When it comes to animated content for a younger audience,” Disney said in a statement, “we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.” (Sperling, The New York Times)

In a record year for app installs and daily use, YouVersion is seeing more people seek God through His Word and in prayer. Reflecting this trend, the YouVersion Verse of the Year is: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 (YouVersion)

As the war in Gaza rages, Syria’s government transforms, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank seethes, Armenian residents of the Old City of Jerusalem fight a different battle — one that is quieter, they say, but no less existential. (Frankel, AP News)

About 20 years ago, America set a record for newborns bearing names such as Patience and Chastity — more even than in the 1780s, which official records show to be the original heyday of such names. And now they’re all aging into public consciousness. (Fowers & Van Dam, The Washington Post)

Across the United States, technology centered on cellphones — in the form of text messages, videos and social media — has increasingly fueled and sometimes intensified campus brawls, disrupting schools and derailing learning. (Singer, The New York Times)

The feeling that the jobs can’t be done without stimulants comes as Wall Street is under fire for pushing junior bankers to take on dangerous workloads. (Saeedy, The Wall Street Journal)

2024 was the year of Mormon women

The modern Mormon woman is more palatable, defined less by her garments (or, more crudely, “magic underwear”) than her big-barrel curls and Stanley tumblers; dirty soda and “clean girl” makeup. (Branigin, The Washington Post)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether charities run by religious groups have to pay unemployment taxes that cover their employees. Most, but not all, states generally exempt religious groups from having to pay into the state's unemployment tax system. (Totenberg, NPR)

Five years after the business was spurned from the UK following an LGBT backlash, bosses of the evangelical chicken chain are trying again. However, this time they have come prepared, flanked by an army of PR experts prepared to defend the company’s historical ties to Christian groups opposed to gay marriage. (Barr, The Telegraph)

“We will bring God back to schools and prayer back in schools in Oklahoma,” Ryan Walters told an audience at a Family Research Council meeting in September last year. (Gayle, The New York Times)

[A] growing number of public allegations from around the world have prompted a broad investigation by the FBI and placed an uncomfortable spotlight on the long-quiet Christian sect. Survivors say the group’s leaders protected child-abusing ministers by pressuring victims to forgive, ignoring legal reporting requirements and by transferring abusers to new locations to live with unsuspecting families. (Boone, AP News)

The ban on giving puberty blockers to under-18s questioning their gender identify is to be made permanent, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced. Streeting told MPs he was making the temporary ban introduced in May indefinite across the UK, following a consultation and advice from the Commission on Human Medicines - calling the way the drugs had been used a "scandal". (Triggle, BBC)