PHOENIX (RNS)—On a stage framed by glinting red-white-and-blue lights, Michael Knowles, a podcaster for the political outlet The Daily Wire, recalled Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the New Testament’s signal call for mercy and hope.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God,” Knowles read on Dec. 18 at opening night of AmericaFest, the annual conference of Turning Point USA, the conservative youth activist organization co-founded by Charlie Kirk.

Knowles was one of several speakers at the Phoenix Convention Center in the following days to paint Kirk as a spiritual unifier who connected disparate parts of the American right and reached out to progressives.

If Kirk had that power, this year’s AmFest has brought home how badly U.S. conservatism needs that kind of uniting presence.

Christian conservative cohesion tested

The movement’s cohesion has been tested in recent months by Tucker Carlson’s controversial interview with antisemitic internet influencer Nick Fuentes and by disputes over American support for Israel.

It’s also been shaken by ongoing revelations tying Trump world figures to sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein and by roiling conspiracy theories, such as former Trump adviser Candace Owens’ suggestion Turning Point USA is complicit in its own co-founder’s murder.

Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, acknowledged these rifts in her opening speech to the conference, saying: “We’ve seen fractures. We’ve seen bridges being burned that shouldn’t be burnt.”

Her warning went largely unheeded at AmFest, judging by speeches made from the stage, where Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro, Carlson, former White House strategist Steve Bannon and journalist Megyn Kelly all used their speaking slots to swipe at each other.

Young conservatives remain optimistic

On the floor, however, the college and high school students who make up the rank and file of Turning Point USA remained optimistic.

Roughly one-third of the 31,000 who came to Phoenix for AmFest were students. Many said their campus chapters, which go on door-knocking campaigns ahead of elections and man tables to promote conservative values, are gaining traction in the wake of Kirk’s death.

Two Generation Z attendees, one from California and another from Louisiana, said they joined Turning Point USA chapters in response to Kirk’s assassination. In her speech, Erika Kirk told the audience more than 140,000 students have applied to get involved with Turning Point USA since Sept. 10, when Kirk died, bringing its student membership to more than a million.

The organization is getting help from states such as Florida and Texas, which are working to make it easier to establish Turning Point USA Club America high school chapters.

Sixteen-year-old Sage Tousey, president of the Hamilton Southeastern Club America in Fishers, Ind., told Religion News Service her chapter swelled from 20 students to nearly 50 since Kirk was shot. She said it has become more religious in outlook as it focuses on service projects such as placing wreaths on soldiers’ graves.

Tousey, a nondenominational Christian, suggested religion is a more cohesive force than politics.

“We will always say Christ first, politics second,” she said.

‘It’s a big of a homecoming’

On Thursday’s warm, sunny morning in Phoenix, conservative politics and faith seemed to live side by side, with pro-Immigration and Customs Enforcement T-shirts being sold beside ones reading “Jesus Won.”

And while Kirk’s death hung over the meeting, the young conservatives, their blue lanyards bright against the brown and gray streetscape of downtown Phoenix, were volubly excited for the sold-out event.

“It’s a bit of a homecoming,” said Jackson Heaberlin, 18, who serves as the outreach chair of the Clemson College Republicans at Clemson University in South Carolina.

“You have all these months of very upsetting news, story after story of a left-wing radical violence, and then now you’re insulated in an environment of conservatives who are young and passionate.”

Even the disagreements among the headliners were taken as a sign of health. Attendees contrasted the sniping from the podium with cancel culture, which they see as standard procedure on the left.

“In the conservative movement, we will not always agree on things, but we know that we can always come together under religion,” Tousey said.

AmFest saturated with religion

Though Turning Point USA does have an arm that organizes pastors, Turning Point USA Faith, the core organization isn’t explicitly Christian. It describes its purpose as organizing students for limited government and free markets.

Still, AmFest was saturated with religion. Attendees raptly listened to British comedian Russell Brand, who was baptized in 2024 and faces rape charges in Britain, urge the audience to build a Christian nation.

Ben Shapiro, who is Jewish, said the idea God imbued humans with “creative capacity and the power to choose” is the “essence of conservatism.”

Kirk himself seemed to deepen his faith over his decade and more in the spotlight, and observers were watching the rhetoric at AmFest to see how much the organization will burnish its Christian brand moving forward.

“They want to promote this kind of above-politics thing with Charlie’s legacy,” said Matthew Boedy, a professor at the University of North Georgia who has studied Turning Point USA.

‘Erika Kirk spirit’ vs. ‘Trumpian attitude’

Boedy pointed to a “clear divide” between the Christian ethic shown by Erika Kirk, who emotionally forgave the killer at Kirk’s Sept. 21 memorial service in nearby Glendale, Ariz., and Trump’s stating flatly on the same day: “I don’t forgive my enemies.”

In an interview last week, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat asked Andrew Kolvet, who has taken over as host of “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast, whether conservative politics could use more “of the Erika Kirk spirit” than “Trumpian attitude.”

Kolvet advocated for “a more conciliatory tone at times than our president,” while saying he appreciates Trump’s unapologetic approach.

At AmFest, Lucas Miles, senior director of Turning Point USA Faith, described Erika Kirk as a “well-discipled” Christian, and Trump as a newer believer.

“I think we’re just seeing a spectrum of … maturing in Christ and being conformed in the image of Christ,” he said.

Debate over immigration

The divide echoed a related debate among conservative Christians about guarding against empathy for immigrants—a theme that has puzzled even some prominent evangelical Christians as counter to Jesus’ teaching.

“The toxic empathy is getting so exhausting,” said Katie Turnbull, 25, who attended AmFest with her husband. “You hear huge pastors with huge churches preach to their congregations that love is love, and that we get to define love as opening the floodgates of our borders and bringing in the Third World.”

Some of those who addressed the conference, on the other hand, argued for making room for difference in U.S. society.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican candidate for president now running for Ohio governor, pushed back on the anti-immigrant sentiment that was in the air at the conference. A Hindu and the child of immigrants from India, Ramaswamy told the audience normalizing hatred toward any ethnic group has “no place in the future of the conservative movement.”

These kinds of sentiments were a minority view, however. While at times critical of Trump’s tone, most attendees viewed the president’s aggressive anti-immigrant policy as above reproach.

Concerns about rise of Islam

Several younger attendees hoped for broader restrictions even on legal immigration and combined concerns about immigration with broader fears about the rise of Islam, which they view as vehemently anti-Christian.

Gwyn Andrews, 22, who founded a Turning Point USA chapter at the University of West Georgia, expressed concern about the “Islamic faith issue that has been infiltrating our cities, our colleges.”

“A big issue for me personally is to make sure that people truly understand the Islamic faith and how that directly ties to socialism, as we’ve seen in New York City with Mamdani,” Andrews said, referring to New York’s Muslim mayor-elect.

For American society to thrive, Muslim immigrants need to assimilate, she said—an idea that cropped up consistently at AmFest.

“The goal is for them to understand that when you assimilate here, you can’t go to Dearborn, Mich., and turn the entire place into a Third World country and then try to implement Shariah law,” she said.

Anti-Muslim sentiment is nothing new to Turning Point USA. Kirk long argued Islam is not compatible with the West and to be American requires you to “worship God, not Allah.”

Assimilation framed as a faith issue

In a recent episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Jewish conservative political commentator Josh Hammer argued that to be considered an American, one ought to “publicly assimilate into the Protestant-majority inherited culture.”

But in Phoenix, Miles framed assimilation as a faith question, saying God instructed his followers to welcome foreigners passing through, but stressed that those who stayed, like the biblical figure Ruth, chose to assimilate.

Those wanting to “keep their own identity and maybe usurp and take advantage,” he said, “the Hebrews were warned … to keep them at bay.”

AmFest’s insistence on Christian dominance over national policy, said Christina Littlefield, associate professor of communication and religion at Pepperdine University, veers into Christian nationalism, the idea the government should privilege a particular vision of Christianity at the cost of democratic pluralism.

Portraying Kirk, who often argued America should be a Christian nation, as a martyr is “radicalizing” for many conservatives, said Littlefield, co-author of Christian America and the Kingdom of God with Richard T. Hughes, a dynamic she called dangerous.

“Someone killed him because they did not like his political beliefs, which I condemn, but he did not die as a martyr for the faith.”

Leveraging Charlie Kirk’s death

While Turning Point USA is openly mourning Kirk’s death, it’s also leveraging his story to rally Christian pastors and recruit voters.

Miles told RNS Turning Point USA Faith’s network jumped from 4,200 member churches prior to Kirk’s death, to 9,500, and is now planning a “Make Heaven Crowded Tour,” hosting faith events at churches in more than 25 cities.

A new, free curriculum, First Truths, examining the fundamentals of the Christian faith already is available. Next year, the group will release another curriculum critiquing Islam.

At AmFest, Miles and other speakers appealed to faith to end the infighting seen on the stage, imbuing the organization’s political power with spiritual stakes.

“If we don’t unify as the body of Christ, then we are in a position where we are vulcanized, we’re fractured,” Miles told attendees at a breakout session.

Christian unity, he said, is needed to hold the line “when it comes to Marxism, when it comes to Islam, when it comes to progressivism, when it comes to abortion.”

Texas Baptist pastors and ministry leaders learned more about a four-phase plan for partnership between Texas and Ukrainian Baptist churches during a Dec. 18 Zoom call. The partnership launched Nov. 18 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Texas Baptists and the Ukrainian Baptist Union.

The Healing Path Initiative is designed to connect congregations in Texas with churches across Ukraine through relationships, prayer, shared mission and eventual expansion.

Brent Gentzel, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Kaufman, said 42 churches “committed and are on board for the launch” of the partnership.

The partnership begins with a strong emphasis on relationships and encouragement. Texas pastors are paired directly with Ukrainian pastors, many of whom have been leading congregations through years of conflict, displacement and uncertainty.

Churches in Texas and Ukraine also are forming prayer teams, committing to daily prayer at synchronized times—7:07 a.m. in Texas and 3:07 p.m. in Ukraine.

In between the prayers, Matthew 7:7 and John 15:7 are to be considered for reading and reflection.

Later phases include plans for in-person gatherings, joint spiritual growth campaigns centered on the Great Commandment and Great Commission, and monthly financial support for community-based projects identified by Ukrainian churches.

Funds will be distributed through established denominational channels to ensure transparency and accountability.

Organizers also emphasized cultural similarities between Texans and Ukrainians, encouraging participants to focus on authentic relationships while being mindful of security and language differences.

Igor Bandura, vice president for international affairs with the Baptist Union of Ukraine, said Ukrainian pastors are eager to begin building relationships immediately. He noted while the realities of war remain serious, churches continue worshipping, serving and caring for their communities.

To learn more about the Texas-Ukrainian church partnership, visit https://www.healingpathmovement.com.

Wayland Baptist University has selected Ronald Angelo Johnson, associate professor of history and Ralph & Bessie Mae Lynn Endowed Chair of History at Baylor University, as the featured speaker for the 2026 Willson Lectures scheduled Feb. 10–12 at the university’s Plainview campus. The 2026 Willson Lectures mark the 75th anniversary of two pivotal moments in Wayland’s history. In 1951, Wayland became the first four-year liberal arts college in the former Confederacy to voluntarily integrate its student body. That same year, James M. and Mavis Willson established the endowment that would become the university’s most enduring lecture series. In addition to the scheduled lectures, Johnson will speak in select Wayland classes and participate in community-related events.

Houston Christian University art faculty and Master of Fine Arts students collaborated with The Heights Church in Houston to create the Jeanette D. and Howard D. Moon Gallery. The gallery’s grand opening and dedication, as well as the opening of its first exhibition, “A New Moon Rises,” took place at The Heights Church on Dec. 4. The Moon Gallery offers an opportunity for HCU faculty and students to share their creative work with a broader community audience as an extension of the ministry of a local church with which HCU partners closely. The gallery will serve as a space for visual arts, performing arts, fellowship and community events. To learn more about the Moon Gallery and the HCU artists who contributed, please visit themoongallery.org.

(RNS)—A group of NFL players sent a letter to Capitol Hill on Dec. 19, urging U.S. leaders to take steps to curb violence against religious groups in Nigeria, including Christians.

“As current and former NFL players who care deeply about justice—here in America and around the world—we are grieved and outraged by the mounting violence, and we write to urge you to act now to confront religious persecution in Nigeria and ensure that those responsible are held to account,” the players stated in the letter.

About 60 current and former players signed the letter, addressed to President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Among the signers were star players like quarterback C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans, Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers and Treveyon Henderson of the New England Patriots, a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year.

Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy also signed, as did Kirk Cousins of the Atlanta Falcons, Jameis Winston of the New York Giants, and three-time Super Bowl champion Devin McCourty.

Prompted by reports of religious violence

Benjamin Watson, an author and podcaster who played 15 years in the NFL, helped organize the letter in his role as editor-in-chief of Sports Spectrum, a faith and sports media company.

Watson said the letter was prompted in part by recent news of religious violence in Nigeria, including the November kidnapping of more than 200 children from a Catholic boarding school. That attack is part of a large pattern of violence against religious groups in Nigeria.

Since 2009, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the U.S. Department of State to designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” because of the ongoing violence.

“Perpetrators of the violence have attacked religious sites, including churches and mosques, kidnapped or killed religious leaders, and—in some cases—used violence or threats of violence against religious communities while demanding so-called taxes, invoking Shari’a law as justification,” according to a commission report from July.

According to the report, government-enforced blasphemy laws and attacks by bandits, Muslim insurgents and gangs have created “significant restrictions on freedom of religion or belief.”

“This violence severely restricts religious practice and observance by Christians, Muslims, and traditional religious communities across many Nigerian states in the Middle Belt and in the northeast,” according to the report.

Recommendations for U.S. action

Watson said players want to see U.S. leaders do more to address the violence against religious groups, including imposing sanctions and sending more humanitarian aid to victims of violence.

The letter, which notes that a number of NFL players come from Nigerian families, includes a list of seven recommendations for U.S. government actions. The list was compiled with the help of NGOs and aid groups working in Nigeria, as well as nonprofits that assist persecuted Christians.

“We came together with the idea to lend our voice in urging the president and Congress to keep pressing them to deliver sanctions, to provide humanitarian aid,” Watson said. “We want to show that we’re amongst the people who care and want to stand up with our brothers and sisters who are suffering in Nigeria.”

The letter is a first for Sports Spectrum, a 40-year-old publication focused on sports and faith. While players involved with the publication have spoken out in the past on issues like racial reconciliation, the need for clean water and other concerns, the group never issued a letter to U.S. political leaders.

Watson said he hopes the message will reach not only politicians, but also the fans who read the publication. He said the violence in Nigeria should concern everyone.

‘This was a moment where we had an opportunity to speak about justice and about kindness and about caring for our neighbors in a way that, right now, has been in the news,” he said.

‘We want to do all we can do’

Steve Stenstrom, a former NFL quarterback and president of Sports Spectrum, said that the kidnapping of school children in Nigeria hit home.

“We want to do all we can do, as if it were our own families and our own kids who were at those schools and in those churches and in those villages,” he said.

There’s been pushback from some fans in recent years against athletes, especially in the NFL, for taking public stands on social issues. Most notably, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick claimed NFL owners colluded to ban him from the league after Trump criticized him for kneeling during the national anthem. Kaepernick eventually reached a settlement with the league.

Stenstrom acknowledged that these are polarizing times but said some issues transcend politics.

“This isn’t a left or right issue,” he said. “It’s a life-or-death issue for people on the ground.”

In their letter, the players said they felt a moral responsibility to speak up.

“We ask you, as leaders of this nation, to use the full weight of your offices to defend the fundamental right to live and worship freely and to send a clear message that the United States will not stand by while Nigerians are targeted, terrorized, and killed because of their faith,” they wrote. “The lives at stake cannot wait.”

Doris Ann Tinker of Richardson, who served as executive associate to three Baptist General Convention of Texas executive directors, died Dec. 12. She was 92.

“Like a diamond, Doris Tinker’s life—fixed solidly in her deep faith in Christ, devotion to family and relation to friends—sparkled due to the many facets of her personality and character,” said William M. Pinson Jr., with whom she worked four and a half decades.

She was born May 24, 1933, in Jonesboro, Ark., to Jimmy and Lorena Rees. She expressed her deep faith in Christ through a lifetime of Christian service, while also caring for her family.

“Although she spent much of her life working outside the home, family was always the focus of her life,” Pinson said. “She often quoted her father, a Baptist deacon chair, about matters of Scripture and church.

“She cared for her mother with deep devotion. In her mother’s latter years, she visited her every day in her nursing home on the way to and from work.”

Nearly three decades at the Baptist Building

Doris Tinker worked more than a decade as the pastor’s secretary at First Baptist Church in Richardson. She served about three decades at the Baptist Building, working as executive associate to two BGCT executive directors during their entire time in that position—James Landes and Pinson. She also served Executive Director Charles Wade during a transitional time.

“Any person visiting the office was greeted by her with the same smile and words of welcome,” Pinson said.

In her role as executive associate, Tinker organized “a constant stream” of meetings, “keeping in mind the needs of each person,” Pinson recalled.

“Her abilities kept things running smoothly. She planned, organized, and guided conferences and meetings large and small with attention to the finest detail. She worked with the staff of the Baptist Building, hotels, conference centers, and various settings to make sure all worked well.

“At the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, with thousands of messengers and guests, she would walk through the facility before the convention sessions began to make sure everything was in order. And she did all of this with firmness but tact and courtesy.”

In retirement, she served another 25 years as director of communication and organization in the Texas Baptist Heritage Center as part of the executive director emeritus office.

‘Preferred to work in the background’

At the center, she helped work on 27 articles on Baptist beliefs and distinctive practices that were published in the Baptist Standard. She subsequently designed 19 leaflets based on those articles and Baptist Beliefs and Heritage, the book in which they were compiled along with other material.

She turned down the Texas Baptist Elder Statesman Award—now known as Texas Baptists’ Legacy Award “because it would bring too much attention to her,” Pinson recalled.

“She did not like the focus on her and preferred to work in the background without notice,” he said.

She was preceded in death by her brother, Buddy Rees, and her husband of nearly 65 years, B.W. Tinker.

She is survived by her son Greg Tinker and his wife Jennifer; granddaughter Stephanie Beazley and her husband Aaron Beazley; grandson Skyler Tinker and his wife Brittany; and three great-grandchildren: Jude Beazley, Esme Tinker and Callan Tinker.

A private graveside service is scheduled in December. A memorial service is planned in January 2026 at a date still to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation can be made to HighGround Advisors for the Doris Tinker Endowment Fund (Fund 30119141), which benefits the First Baptist Church of Richardson youth ministry and Texans on Mission.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The first and sixth paragraphs were edited after the article originally was published to acknowledge that Doris Tinker served during a transitional period with BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade.

Armed assailants attacked two churches in Nigeria’s Kogi State in recent weeks and abducted worshippers, a United Kingdom-based human rights organization focused on international religious freedom reported.

Attackers opened fire as they entered Aiyetoro Kiri in the Kabba-Banu Local Government Area on Dec. 14, disrupting worship at First Evangelical Church Winning All. They subsequently abducted at least 13 worshippers, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported.

The Dec. 14 abductions marked the second attack on a church in Kogi State within two weeks. On Nov. 30, militia disrupted services at the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Ejiba, abducting the pastor, his wife, a visiting preacher and several church members.

Speaking on Channels Television’s “Morning Brief” program, Kingsley Fanwo, the commissioner for information and communication in Kogi State, said local hunters engaged in a fierce gunfight with the assailants in the Dec. 14 attack.

“Our local hunters, who serve as the first line of defense, resisted them strongly,” Fanwo said. “In the exchange of fire, four bandits were neutralized, while several others escaped with gunshot wounds.”

Fanwo reported the Kogi State governor mobilized a joint security task force including local hunters and the police, as well as the Nigerian Army’s 12th Brigade, the Department of State Services, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps.

The joint task force is searching the Ejiba forest, seeking to locate the abducted individuals, he added.

Daily Trust reported Nigeria’s House of Representatives called on Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector general of police, to deploy security personnel to identified “hotspots” along high-risk routes—particularly on the highway between the federal capital of Abuja and the Koji State capital of Lokoja—during the Christmas season to ensure the safety of travelers.

‘Increased attacks as Christmas approaches’

Scot Bower, chief executive officer of CSW, lamented the Nigerian government’s failure to “provide swift intervention and protection to its citizens”—particularly the nation’s Christian population.

“While CSW welcomes and echoes the call of the National Assembly for the deployment of security to vulnerable roads, we urge the Nigerian authorities to go further still by ensuring the safety of churches in areas experiencing increased attacks as Christmas approaches,” Bower said.

“Government at both the state and federal level must work together to ensure Christians and their communities are protected, particularly in longstanding hotspots such as Benue, Plateau, Taraba and southern Kaduna, and in emerging ones, such as Kogi and Kwara States.”

On Nov. 26, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared a national security emergency in light of a surge in violence and abductions. Tinubu ordered the police to recruit 20,000 officers, in addition to 30,000 he had authorized earlier, and to use National Youth Service Corps camps as training depots.

‘Stop the denial and blame game’

However, while Nigerian government officials acknowledge the problem of violence, they continue to deny Christians are targeted.

In an October interview with the Baptist Standard, Mohammed Idris Malagi, minister of information and national orientation for Nigeria, insisted: “It is sad that this has been characterized as a religious conflict. We don’t believe that it is. It never has been a religious conflict. It actually is an extremist conflict.”

Joseph John Hayab, a Baptist pastor and chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the northern states and Federal Capital territory, called that denial “a contributing factor to the lack of good success in the fight against terrorists.”

Hayab pointed to “overwhelming evidence” of the killing and persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s government should simply stop the denial and blame game and face this evil with all their might,” Hayab wrote in an email to the Baptist Standard. “The sponsors of the terrorists are not spirits and can be arrested if the government is serious.”

In late October, President Donald Trump declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern—a designation reserved for nations that engage in or tolerate systemic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.

(RNS)—As more people move away from regular attendance in religious institutions, they are moving toward individual spiritual exploration and “secular supernaturalism,” the latest findings from the Baylor Religion Survey reveal.

That brand of supernatural belief doesn’t involve God or gods, but it could involve anything from internet rituals to palm reading—activities researchers are categorizing as “magic.”

 “In general, we conceptualize secularity and religiosity as separate spheres. Now, in reality, of course, that’s not true,” said Baylor sociology professor Paul Froese.

Froese gave a presentation on “Who Believes in Magic? The Relationship between Magical Beliefs, Traditional Religion, and Science” at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association in Minneapolis.

Who believes in what?

The Baylor findings from the survey of 1,812 American adults in early 2025 show significant differences between the religiously interested and the religiously indifferent, especially around more traditional beliefs.

For example, 80 percent of respondents who were interested in religion believe in angels and in heaven, compared with 55 percent and 53 percent of those not interested in religion.

Almost 7 in 10 (69 percent) of those interested in religion believe in hell, compared with 43 percent of the religiously uninterested.

But similar percentages of both groups believe in ghosts (53 percent of religion-interested and 50 percent of religiously indifferent) and the possibility of talking to the dead (48 percent of religion-interested and 46 percent of religiously indifferent).

Jen Buzzelli, 57, a former Catholic who describes herself as “nonreligious and agnostic,” said in an interview that the Baylor findings resonate with her.

“There must be a section of overlap where we share beliefs in our different camps,” she said, adding that she has “a little bit of an open heart” to the inexplicable.

Buzzelli believes in evil and divine healing, and the ability to communicate with the dead, but not in heaven, angels, demons, Satan or hell—all part of the inquiry in the Baylor study, whose survey was written by the university’s scholars and administered by Gallup.

Interest sparked by loss of loved one

The film and television executive in Brooklyn, N.Y., describes herself as being fascinated by the 1988 bestseller Many Lives, Many Masters, a book by a psychiatrist about past-life therapy, which she read as she grieved her father’s sudden death almost two decades ago.

“It gave me hope to think that his spirit was still alive out there somewhere, and that maybe we will meet again,” said Buzzelli, who also recalled lights flickering or exploding shortly after the time of his death.

“Even though that book wasn’t about heaven or hell or the afterlife, it just showed there’s a whole ’nother realm out there that we don’t know about.”

Lila Wilson, also 57, was baptized Catholic but grew up in an agnostic household and attends an Episcopal church service when she visits her mother. Never a Bible reader, Wilson said she gained her understanding of Christianity by reading The Chronicles of Narnia as a child.

“My understanding of anything beyond the Earth is sort of amorphous,” said the data analyst from Texas. “So, to think we’re putting these structures on that—that seems a little bit off to me.”

Like Buzzelli, Wilson said she began a journey after the loss of a close relative—in her case, her mother-in-law.

“I just was like, where did she go? And I was looking for any way to figure it out,” said Wilson, who met with psychic mediums and has read about and watched documentaries on near-death experiences.

‘Energy that we don’t understand yet’

Now, she wonders if learning about ghosts and near-death experiences may be a different avenue to achieve what one might through attending church.

“I believe in energy that we don’t understand yet,” Wilson said, noting other people may label that as belief in the paranormal. “That’s my belief system.”

About two-thirds of surveyed Americans (64 percent) would be disinclined to buy a house where there had been a murder. That discomfort held whether respondents were interested in religion (64 percent) or not (62 percent), the Baylor Religion Survey demonstrated.

Both Buzzelli and Wilson said they’d have some discomfort buying a house where someone had been murdered.

Increase in magical thinking

In a November interview, Froese, director of the Baylor Religion Survey, said popular characters from the past, such as the 1960s depiction of Mr. Spock on the original “Star Trek” series, may have given the impression secularity is purely rational and has nothing to do with the supernatural.

“Most people have some sense of some supernatural stuff going on. Superstitions are very routine,” he said. “It’s a continuum. You’re either kind of closer to this secular ideal, or you’re closer … to a religious ideal.”

Froese said the findings may reflect a greater interest in the pursuit of secular, seemingly magical thinking as some move away from traditional religious beliefs around the supernatural. What once may have been labeled “paranormal” by some could become normalized.

“As we see a decline in church membership, we see a decline in trust of church organizations; then we’re seeing a rise of magic,” he said.

“And I think part of that has to do with the internet and just, essentially, it’s a much more individualistic, transactional kind of thing. And so, I think that the future is maybe we’re going to have more magic belief and less traditional religious belief.”

KADUNA, Nigeria (BP)—Nigerian church leaders insist Christians in their country are persecuted for their faith, rejecting a growing narrative that violence in their country is not religion-based.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Nov. 26 declaration of a national security emergency in response to growing violence there is only “window-dressing,” speakers said, and does not indicate the government will work to end Christian persecution.

In a Dec. 16 global briefing hosted by leading religious freedom advocate Open Doors International, journalist and researcher Stephen Kefas of Kaduna, Abuja House of Representatives member Terwase Orbunde, and human rights attorney, journalist and professor Jabez Musa verified atrocities committed against fellow Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and in the nation’s north.

Refuting the Nigerian government narrative

When U.S. President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for committing or failing to stop egregious religious freedom violations, government officials insisted Christians are no more persecuted in Nigeria than Muslims.

The speakers at the global briefing refuted the narrative, confirming violence through research and personal stories of persecution. They discredited reports that violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt is driven by a centuries-old land-rights dispute between Christians and Fulani herdsmen.

“I can say with all sense of responsibility that, indeed, Christians have been persecuted in Nigeria, and there are so many documented evidences that point to that fact that they have been persecuted in the country,” said Kefas, founder of the Middlebelt Times and a senior analyst for the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa.

“No matter how objective you want to be, no matter how conservative you want to be, you cannot put away that fact.”

Christian communities overrun by terrorists

Kefas, a journalist and former political prisoner who has reported on violence in the Middle Belt for more than 15 years, said Christian communities have been overrun by Islamist terrorists who have destroyed churches, abducted and killed Christians and left communities impoverished by demanding ransoms, destroying property and confiscating belongings.

While other religions exist in the Middle Belt, Kefas said, “only Christians are being targeted” there. What’s more, in the Muslim-majority north, where 12 states are governed by Sharia Law, the few Christians in the region suffer more casualties than moderate Muslims.

“How do you explain that?” Kefas asked. “What I’ve documented in the last 15 years as a journalist on the ground, I can tell you that indeed, there is an ongoing persecution against Christians in Nigeria.”

Violence intensified in Nigeria’s north with the emergence of Boko Haram in 2009, a terrorist group with ties to the Islamic State that has spurred the formation of other factions focused on violence against Christians.

“The group’s brutal tactics, including bombings, kidnappings, abductions, rape and forced marriages and killings, intensified, which have since disproportionately affected Christians and other vulnerable groups,” Musa said.

“Literally, Boko Haram prohibits and hates anything Western, particularly education, and Christianity is viewed by them as a Western culture which must be crushed.”

Musa described as conservative his estimate of Boko Haram killing more than 50,000 Christians in the northeast in the past 15 years, with hundreds of thousands of others displaced and forced to flee the region.

Heavily armed militant groups target Christians

Of the 4,476 Christians killed worldwide for their faith in 2024, the majority of them, 3,100, were killed in Nigeria, Open Doors reported in its 2025 World Watch List.

Militant Fulani, the Islamic State-West Africa Province, Lakawara and the newly emerging Mahmuda are active terrorist groups targeting Christians nationwide, advocates have said, with Genocide Watch reporting at least 62,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria between 2000 and 2020 because of their faith.

Today, militant Fulani are several times more deadly than Boko Haram and are armed with AK-47s and machine guns, Musa said. An ORFA report Kefas authored supports Musa’s claim.

Nigerians in the Middle Belt are offended by the narrative that violence in the mostly Christian region is driven by an age-old land dispute between Christians and Fulani, leaders said.

Attacks coincide with Christian holy days

They pointed out Christians and Fulani lived amicably there before terrorist attacks began. And those killed are Christians, indicating Christians are not attacking Muslims, but only vice versa.

“Land is the least of the things,” Orbunde said. “That may be what they ultimately want, to take the land, but first is to destroy the people. And because they are Christians, we cannot separate that fact.”

Terrorists attack churches and plan their attacks to coincide with holy days, the leaders said, pointing out Middle Belt attacks at Christmas for several years, and deadly attacks at Easter in 2025 in the Middle Belt and north.

Kefas cited research and interviews he has conducted in at least 70 majority-Christian villages where Fulani lived peaceably alongside Christians for decades before terrorism spread.

“It’s the same thing we see all over the world. It happened in Australia a few days ago, when a particular people were having something they wanted to celebrate, and then you have terrorists come and kill them,” Kefas said, referencing the Dec. 14 slaughter of Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach. “So, I think it’s the same thing.”

JERUSALEM (RNS)—In 2023 and 2024, Israeli tour guide David Ha’ivri didn’t offer his popular English-language Hanukkah or Christmas tours.

Tourism had plummeted after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and the start of the Hamas-Israel war, when nearly every international airline canceled flights to Israel.

But in the past few months, and especially after the shaky October ceasefire, tourism to Israel and the Bethlehem region of the West Bank has picked up, along with Israel’s national mood.

‘We are an optimistic people’

In fact, Ha’ivri once again is offering Hanukkah tours for overseas visitors and English-speaking locals. The eight-day Festival of Lights began Dec. 14 at sundown and runs through Dec. 22.

“The airlines are reestablishing their service, and I think that’s a good barometer that people are prepared and eager to visit Israel,” said Ha’ivri, whose Christmas tours remain paused until more pilgrims return.

“The mood here has changed. A lot of Israelis who were army reservists are mostly back at home with their families. We feel we’re getting back to a more normal atmosphere.

“We are an optimistic people. We know bad things can happen, but we want to believe that there are good things ahead of us.”

‘Light up the night’

After two years of war and heartbreak, the ceasefire—despite violations—has given some hope that the war will end in the foreseeable future.

While residents recognize hostilities could escalate, the atmosphere in Jerusalem and Bethlehem is palpably more festive for the holidays this year, with a full schedule of public holiday bazaars, concerts and events.

Many of the activities, once canceled out of respect for grieving families or because no one had the heart to celebrate, have returned.

That’s especially true for social events timed for Hanukkah, which coincides with Jewish schools’ winter break in Israel.

“For two long years we kept saying, ‘We will dance again.’ Now—finally—we get to come together, light up the night, and move as one,” reads an invitation for a public dance party scheduled for the fifth night of Hanukkah.

Celebrating Christmas publicly again

And, for the first time since the start of the war, many Christian communities in Israel and the West Bank are celebrating Christmas publicly.

In 2023, Holy Land church leaders asked their congregations “to set aside unnecessary celebrations.” They spoke against putting up Christmas decorations and hosting concerts, markets and the outdoor lighting of Christmas trees out of solidarity with suffering Palestinians in Gaza.

A year later, the church leaders reversed their decision, but last year’s celebrations were mostly indoors and revolved around family and prayer.

This year, though, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, encouraged locals and other Catholics around the world to openly celebrate Christ’s birth in the Holy Land. Christian businesses have been especially hard hit by the dearth of pilgrims because they rely heavily on tourism for their livelihoods.

Hope present though pilgrims are few

At the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, a Catholic guesthouse and meeting place across the street from the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, a tall decorated Christmas tree graces the entrance. A large Nativity scene and another shimmering tree await visitors in the festively decorated lobby.

Asked whether Christmas feels different this year, Yousef Barakat, the center’s director, said, “Yes and no.”

“For two years we didn’t make any decorations, just prayers in the churches,” he said. “But the patriarch told us we must create Christmas joy for the children. They deserve to be happy.”

At the same time, Barakat said, “there are almost no pilgrims” this year. Although hotel occupancy is “very low” in both Jewish-majority West Jerusalem and Arab-majority East Jerusalem, he said “we are more dependent on pilgrims from outside the country” than West Jerusalem hotels that cater to both Jewish and non-Jewish tourists.

Before the Hamas attack, Notre Dame employed 180 people. Today that number is 75.

“Still, the ceasefire is giving us hope,” Barakat said. “We are hosting a charity bazaar and a concert by a Christian band. You can feel the difference between now and two years ago.”

Lighting a candle of hope

Nabil Razzouk, a Coptic Christian tour guide who lives in Jerusalem, has not led a tour group since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

“I had hoped some groups would come this Christmas, but I waited until the end of November, and when no bookings came, I flew to Vienna, where I’m being hosted by relatives,” Razzouk said in a phone call from Austria. “My earliest booking is with a pastor who is bringing a group from America this spring.”

Just inside the entrance to the Christian Quarter on the third Sunday of Advent, laborers and vendors were racing to complete the preparations for the return of the Christmas market. The thud of hammers mixed with the sounds of Western Christmas songs.

“We hope the war is finally finished and that we’ll have a marvelous Christmas this year,” said Daoud Kassabry, director of the Collège des Frères Catholic school in the Christian Quarter, as he prepared for the public Christmas tree lighting at his school as sundown approached.

“Today, we are lighting the third candle of the Advent season,” he said. “It is the candle of joy and hope.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—Federal Judge William Campbell has canceled the jury trial between David and Mary Sills and the Southern Baptist Convention set for Feb. 10, 2026, calling for it to be rescheduled.

Campbell’s order came late Dec. 15, citing eight pending motions for summary judgment in the case.

“On or before January 15, 2026, the parties shall file a joint notice with agreed proposed trial dates in second half of 2026,” the order said.

Sills filed suit in November 2022, alleging “defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and wantonness concerning untrue claims of sexual abuse.”

Sills carried on a long-term sexual relationship with a former student, Jennifer Lyell. Lyell, a former Lifeway executive, alleged the relationship was abusive. Sills claims it was consensual.

Sills named in Guidepost Solutions report

Guidepost Solutions named Sills in a May 2022 report, based on its investigation of alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the SBC Executive Committee.

Lyell, 47, died in June, days after she suffered a stroke at her home in Tennessee.

In September, attorneys for Sills indicated they no longer would seek damages against Lyell’s estate.

Guidepost Solutions also is named as a defendant in the suit, along with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, its president Al Mohler, former SBC presidents Ed Litton and Bart Barber and former SBC Executive Committee representatives Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade.

Howard Payne University student Alexandria Martinez has been awarded a scholarship by the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas and the Council of Independent Colleges and United Parcel Service. Martinez is a senior nursing major from Lubbock. She is a member of Delta Chi Rho, a Christian sorority on campus.

B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary at East Texas Baptist University announced the establishment of its first endowed scholarship, made possible through an estate gift from longtime Texas Baptist pastor, educator and friend of the seminary, Jimmie Nelson. The Jimmie Nelson Endowed Scholarship will support students enrolled in Carroll’s Ph.D. program, continuing Nelson’s lifelong investment in ministerial education. Nelson, remembered widely for his decades of pastoral leadership, teaching ministry and dedication to theological preparation, served Texas Baptist churches more than 60 years. He pastored congregations across the state, taught future ministers, and devoted his life to strengthening the church through faithful preaching and mentoring.

Houston Christian University celebrated 325 graduates in three commencement ceremonies on Dec. 13. At the ceremonies, 181 bachelor’s, 132 master’s and 12 doctoral degrees were awarded, bringing HCU’s total degrees granted to 27,899 in its 65-year history. In addition to prayers, special music and Scripture readings led by graduates, HCU President Robert Sloan delivered a commencement sermon from Luke 2:4–14. He commissioned the graduates to remember the sense of joy and relief they experience in the celebration of their commencement and in their celebration of Christmas to prepare them for a life of joyful faithfulness in anticipating Christ’s return.

(RNS)—Americans who had a positive religious experience as kids are most likely to keep the same faith as adults. Those who had negative experiences are most likely to change faiths or give up on religion.

And while a majority (56 percent) of Americans still identify with their childhood faith, a third (35 percent) have switched—including 20 percent who now say they have no religion.

Those are among the findings of a new report from Pew Research Center, based on data from Pew’s 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study and a survey of 8,937 American adults conducted between May 5 and May 11.

Researchers asked Americans what religion they’d been raised in as well as their current religion, then asked those who switched or left their childhood faith about why things changed. They also asked Americans who are religious why they remain part of that faith.

Nine percent indicated they weren’t raised in a religion and don’t have one today either.

For this study, released Dec. 15, changing from one brand of Protestantism to another did not count as switching faiths.

Childhood experiences matter

The study found 86 percent of Americans were raised in a religion, but those who stayed tended to have a different experience from those who left.

“Our data shows that the nature of their religious experiences as children—that is, whether they were mostly positive or negative—plays a significant role in whether they stay in their childhood religion as adults,” the study’s authors wrote.

Eighty-four percent of those who had a positive experience as children stayed in the same faith when they became adults, while 69 percent of those who had a negative experience now have no religion, according to the report.

Americans who grew up in what Pew called “highly religious” homes were more likely to keep their childhood faith (82 percent) than those raised in homes with “low levels of religiosity” (47 percent).

Those most likely to keep their childhood faith were Hindus (82 percent), followed by Muslims (77 percent), Jews (76 percent), those with no religion (73 percent), Protestants (70 percent), Catholics (57 percent), Latter-day Saints (54 percent) and Buddhists (45 percent).

Most who change religion do it early

Most switching between faiths comes before people turn 30 years old, according to the report. Of those who switched religion, 85 percent did so before age 30, including 46 percent who switched as teenagers or children.

About half of Americans (53 percent) who no longer claim a religion, known as nones, after growing up religious did so by age 18. Of those who switched religions, about 3 in 10 did so as teenagers.

Americans who stick with their childhood faith do so because it works for them, according to the report.

Many cited their faith’s beliefs (64 percent) as the top reason they retained their faith, along with having their spiritual needs met (61 percent) or finding meaning in life (51 percent) through faith.

Only about a third (32 percent) said the faith’s social or political teachings are important reasons to keep their faith.

Those who find spiritual fulfillment tend to stay

Protestants (70 percent) and Catholics (53 percent) were more likely to indicate their faith’s teachings were an important reason to stay, compared to Jews (45 percent).

Protestants (65 percent) and Catholics (54 percent) were also most likely to say their faith fulfills their spiritual needs.

Jews were more likely to cite a sense of community (57 percent) or their faith’s traditions (60 percent) as why they stay with their religion.

Few Americans say they stay in their childhood faith out of a sense of religious obligation, including 33 percent of Jews, 30 percent of Catholics and 24 percent of Protestants.

What prompts the nones to leave?

Many of those who left their childhood faith and now have no religion say they don’t need religion and don’t believe, the survey suggests.

Among the most important factors were they stopped believing their faith’s teachings (51 percent), religion was no longer important to them (44 percent), and they gradually drifted away (42 percent).

Scandals involving religious leaders (34 percent), unhappiness about social and political teachings (38 percent) or the way the religion treats women (29 percent) were also factors.

Researchers also asked those who have no religion about why they are not affiliated with a faith.

Among the most important reasons were they feel they can be moral without a religion (78 percent), they question religious teaching (64 percent), and they don’t need religion to be spiritual (54 percent). About half said they don’t trust religious organizations (50 percent) or religious leaders (49 percent).

About 30 percent of Americans say they have no religion—a figure that has remained constant since 2020.

The report found about 3 percent of Americans who were raised without any religion now identify with a faith—largely for the same reasons as religious Americans. They embrace their new faith’s beliefs (61 percent), say the faith meets their spiritual needs (60 percent) and say the faith gives their life meaning (55 percent).

Parents polled about practices

As part of the study, researchers also looked at the religious practices of children in the United States from the viewpoint of their parents. Just under half of parents with kids under 18 said their children say prayers at night (46 percent), say grace at meals (43 percent), read religious stories (43 percent), or attend services at least monthly (43 percent).

Protestant parents (61 percent) were most likely to say their children attend services monthly. They are also most likely (35 percent) to say their children are being raised in a highly religious household.

Nones are least likely to say their children attend services monthly (7 percent) or are being raised in a highly religious household (1 percent).

Mothers (39 percent) are about twice as likely as fathers (17 percent) to say they play the primary role in teaching their kids about religion, according to the study.