Yonat Shimron

RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS) — Friday morning (Aug. 9) by 9 a.m., about 100 mostly homeless men lined up outside Oak City Cares, a multi-service nonprofit on the downtown’s edge. Anne Bazemore was there by the door to offer them a hot cup of coffee.

(RNS) — Soon after the national right to an abortion was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago, a legal strategy emerged for challenging new state abortion bans. It argued that near-total bans infringe on religious freedom by imposing a Christian understanding on people of other faiths.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (RNS) — United Methodists meeting for their top legislative assembly Wednesday (May 1) overwhelmingly overturned a measure that barred gay clergy from ordination in the nation’s second-largest Protestant body.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (RNS) — The top legislative body of the United Methodist Church passed a series of measures Thursday (April 25) to restructure the worldwide denomination to give each region greater leeway in tailoring church life to its own customs and traditions.

(RNS) — After hundreds of students at the University of California, Berkeley, staged a walkout last week to protest Israel’s military strikes in Gaza, Daniel Solomon, a graduate teaching assistant at the school, made a snap decision: Instead of the usual location near Sproul Hall, within earshot of pro-Palestinian groups’ chants, he moved his class’s meeting place to Berkeley’s chapter of Hillel, the national Jewish campus organization.

(RNS) — For American religion in recent years, the story has often been one of decline.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) — In the twilight of his 99 years, the Rev. Billy Graham met with Duke Divinity School historian Grant Wacker, who was writing a biography of the famous evangelist.

(RNS) — The Department of Homeland Security has announced the appointment of a new, 25-member faith-based advisory council to assist Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in finding ways to protect houses of worship.

NASHVILLE, N.C. (RNS) — Twenty-four men wearing black caps and gowns strode across the stage of the Nash Correctional gym last week to collect a Bachelor of Arts diploma in pastoral ministry.

(RNS) — Derwin Gray and his wife, Vicki, founded Transformation Church in Lancaster County, South Carolina, 10 years ago, with the goal of gathering a congregation that reflected the racial demographics of the public schools in the area just across the border from Charlotte, North Carolina.