AUBURN, Ala. (RNS) — Chad Gibbs has been on a pigskin pilgrimage throughout the South, searching for spiritual truth in Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge, Gainesville and Fayetteville. He grew up a fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide and switched allegiance to…

JERUSALEM (RNS) — A huge sycamore tree that some believe was climbed by Zacchaeus the tax collector to get a better view of Jesus is the centerpiece of a new tourism campaign by the Palestinian government. The tree is located…

Luvenia Marie Kienker, executive director of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod’s Lutheran Housing Support Corporation, died Oct. 8 at the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis after a 10-year battle with the disease.  She was 51. A memorial service was held Oct. 11…

(RNS) — A new six-part PBS series explores how deeply religion has influenced and informed American public life — from Catholic missionaries’ first encounter with Native Americans to the political marriage between the GOP and religious conservatives. “God in America,”…

(RNS) — “Silent Night” and other religious songs will remain off the program at holiday concerts in one New Jersey school district — and possibly others across the country — after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal…

(RNS) — Disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada, long known as an evangelical icon and a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic who paints with a brush between her teeth, has faced a range of challenges since a diving accident left her paralyzed in 1967.…

(RNS) — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed two federal lawsuits in the Carolinas, alleging religious discrimination over a teenager’s nose ring and prisoners’ lack of books other than the Bible. In South Carolina, the Berkeley County Detention…

As the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole passed along the Eastern Seaboard in early October, heavy amounts of rainfall caused flooding throughout the states served by the Synod’s Southeastern District. For the third time in less than a year, Crossway…

In a September mailing from LCMS Ministerial Growth and Support, Synod congregations received a poster and a suggested bulletin insert to help them observe “Clergy Appreciation Month” and “Clergy Appreciation Sunday” in October. Clergy appreciation observances have gained momentum throughout…

Two LCMS-related Hispanic ministries — Lutheran Hispanic Missionary Institute and Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care, both of El Paso, Texas — are sponsoring weeklong, intensive Spanish-language training courses in 2011. “Conversations in Spanish” will be held Jan. 16-22 and Aug.…

The 30th Annual Fall Festival at the historic Saxon Lutheran Memorial in Frohna, Mo., is set for Oct. 9, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Frohna is located in Perry County, Mo., a little more than an hour’s drive south…

By Linda C. Hoops About 80 percent of the youth who took part in the Lutheran Youth Fellowship Youth Poll at this summer’s National LCMS Youth Gathering have either an “excellent or good relationship with their parents,” according to the…

The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau (ALPB) would like to hear from those interested in buying a series of nine commemorative medallions it plans to offer “to begin a countdown of the years to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Who can best answer questions about religion in America? Based on a new survey released Sept. 28 by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, it’s your atheist or agnostic neighbor, followed by the Jew or…

(RNS) – PBS’ “American Experience” and “Frontline” explore the role of religion in American life across more than 400 years in the six-hour series “God in America,” which will air over three consecutive nights starting Oct. 11. The journey interweaves…