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2 weeks ago | 
juicyecumenism.com | Mark Tooley |Methodist Voices |James Diddams
There are currently five major streams of Protestant political outlook and activism. The first, in terms of age, is the old Religious Left. It’s comprised chiefly of clergy from what’s left of Mainline Protestantism. It has little political influence but sometimes gets attention because it can stage rallies with berobed clergy in clerical collars. And it still has historic institutional affiliations.
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2 weeks ago | 
juicyecumenism.com | Methodist Voices |Riley Case |Mark Tooley |James Diddams
In cleaning out some of my files recently I came across a very fat folder labeled “CUIC.” Churches Uniting in Christ is an ecumenical effort to merge, covenant, or express unity between denominations. Not much from the past 20 years was in the folder but there was plenty before that. It was intriguing enough that I believe reflection on ecumenism is worth a series of articles. We are, after all, in a time in which institutions (including church denominations) are rapidly changing.
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3 weeks ago | 
providencemag.com | Mike Cote |James Diddams
Donald Trump has proffered many unorthodox ideas in his second term, not least of which was the notion of an arms control summit with Russia and China to massively reduce defense budgets and nuclear stockpiles. In an Oval Office press availability, he said “I want one of the first meetings I have [to be] with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia.
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3 weeks ago | 
providencemag.com | Nadya Williams |James Diddams
Is Christianity an exclusively Western faith? In his most famous novel Silence, published in 1966 and adapted by Martin Scorsese in 2016, Japanese Catholic writer Shūsaku Endō (1932-1996) follows the stories of seventeenth century Jesuit missionaries in Japan amid brutal persecution. At the end, the missionaries seem to fall into despair, failing to convert others and even losing faith themselves.
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4 weeks ago | 
providencemag.com | Jack Miller |Pete Peterson |James Diddams
Polarization is the inescapable theme of the moment. Yet, the reality is that the US has always struggled through division, with even the Founding Era being a far more fractious time than our own. And yet, time and time again, Americans have united around the principles of government founded on the consent of the people and the natural rights of all as articulated in the Hebrew Bible.
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1 month ago | 
providencemag.com | Jeffery Tyler Syck |James Diddams
The last decade has seen the political establishment – whether the neoliberal left or the Reaganite right – in a state of total bewilderment. Since the ascendency of the populist right in the form of Donald Trump and the populist left, epitomized by Bernie Sanders and his supporters, center-left and right politicians cannot get a handle on what they are missing.
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1 month ago | 
providencemag.com | Antonio Graceffo |James Diddams
Attacks against Christians worldwide saw a troubling rise in 2024, with the Christmas season in particular marred by incidents in Germany, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, and Syria. The 2025 World Watch List (WWL) by Open Doors highlights the increasing persecution of Christians worldwide, particularly in conflict-ridden regions. Globally, over 380 million Christians face high levels of persecution or discrimination.
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1 month ago | 
providencemag.com | Michael Lucchese |James Diddams
Recent surveys indicate the decades-long ebb in religious observance has finally bottomed out. Last month, Pew Research released data indicating that the declining share of self-identified Christians in America has stabilized around 62 percent. Other surveys have found that young men especially are taking up more spews, with many seeking out the more traditional practices of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communions. Why are Americans suddenly returning to tradition?
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1 month ago | 
providencemag.com | Steven Tucker |James Diddams
Casting has just been announced for The Wizard of the Kremlin, an upcoming Hollywood movie about Russian geopolitics leading up to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The biggest star involved is Jude Law, who is slated to smear his face with greasepaint and his hands with blood as President Vladimir Putin. Law has a great challenge ahead of him. Being the Russian President is a tough part to play for any actor – apart from Mr. Putin himself, if the film’s main message is to be believed.
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1 month ago | 
providencemag.com | J. Brian Charles |James Diddams
Following Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in March of 1938 (the Anschluss), on September 30 of that year a fragile peace was negotiated in Munich. Great Britain and France were willing to cede the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia – an area populated primarily by ethnic Germans bordering Germany – to Germany in exchange for Hitler’s promise of peace.
