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Among Southern Baptists, as well: More adults are converting, and getting baptized

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Among Southern Baptists, as well: More adults are converting, and getting baptized

Back in the Southern Baptist Convention's boom years, from the 1960s to 2010, the experts charting baptism statistics divided "children" into three groups -- starting with those under age 6.

Behind the scenes, there were discussions about when children reached the "age of accountability" and could make mature professions of faith in Jesus Christ, leading to "believer's baptism" by full immersion in water. As with many other doctrinal issues, this was settled by local-church leaders. The same was true when adults asked to be rebaptized, for various reasons.

"At the end of the day, when someone says they've decided to give their life to Christ, the local church is going to let them symbolize that by being baptized," noted Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. "That's what Baptists do. That's who we are."

Obviously, Baptists pay close attention to baptism statistics, along with trends with church attendance and membership. In a new report, Lifeway dug into Southern Baptist Convention Annual Church Profile numbers for 2025 and reported that baptisms rose for the fifth consecutive year.

Baptist leaders quickly noted another current trend -- adults 30 and older represented 33% of all baptisms. That was higher than the baptism of those 12-17 (25%), children before age 12 (22%) and young adults between 18-29 (20%). In the past, it was common for the baptism of minors to be two-thirds of the total, noted McConnell, reached by telephone.

The "seismic development" in these numbers is the consistently rising number of conversions among Americans over age 18, noted the Rev. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Looking at today's Las Vegas through Southern Baptist missionary eyes

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Looking at today's Las Vegas through Southern Baptist missionary eyes

Say the word "Vegas" and most travelers think about the 30-plus casinos and resorts along the 4.2-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard known as "The Strip."

The Southern Baptist "City Missionary" for Las Vegas thinks about a different set of numbers -- the 30 churches the denomination's Send Network has planted in this desert valley in the past decade. There are nearly 100 SBC churches in greater Las Vegas and 177 in Nevada.

"It's hard to narrow Las Vegas down into some kind of majority culture that fits the stereotypes. … This place is multiethnic, multicultural and we have people who are dealing with all kinds of issues and sins," said the Rev. Heiden Ratner, 37, who leads the WALK Church, a 10-year-old congregation with about 1,100 worshippers.

"Las Vegas is pretty much pre-Christian, and what I mean by that is that there has never been a revival that has swept through this city. When I was growing up here, there wasn't a single Sunday morning that I woke up and thought, 'Maybe I should go to church.' Never.”

Obviously, the Strip has not vanished, and its "Sin City" label remains relevant. The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported $8.82 billion in Gross Gaming Revenue (what operators keep after payouts) for the Strip in 2025. But the world has changed. Researchers struggle to describe online gambling today -- from $100 billion global GGR in 2025 to a Gaming Compliance International estimate of $5.9 trillion in unregulated activity.

For decades, Ratner noted, Las Vegas couldn't land big-league football, baseball, basketball and hockey because of gambling. Now the city has teams in three of the four sports, and the National Basketball Association may be next. The city hosted its first Super Bowl in 2024 and the game returns in 2029.

"That kind of credibility is leading all kinds of people and corporations to take a second look at this city," he said.

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Dolly Parton: Was she a "none of the above" believer or a follower of Jesus?

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Dolly Parton: Was she a "none of the above" believer or a follower of Jesus?

When Robert Lee Parton died in 2000, the illiterate former sharecropper asked his large musical family to sing "If We Never Meet Again (This Side of Heaven)," his favorite country-gospel song.

"If we never meet again this side of heaven / As we struggle through this world and its strife / There's another meeting place somewhere in heaven / By the river of life," they sang.

Recalling that family salute to the eternal ties that bind led his daughter Dolly Parton to ask that Albert E Brumley's hymn be sung, once again, at her private August 28 funeral.

Celebrating the country music legend is an honor "mixed with absolute pride and great sadness," stressed Bryan Seaver, the son of Parton's sister Cassie Parton, in the family's announcement of her death.

"But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly," said Seaver, who served as Parton's security director and also spoke in her funeral. "Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus. Surely met by Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens."

Like her nearly 59-year marriage to construction worker Carl Dean, Parton's faith was something she never hid, but the details were mysterious enough to cause chatter.

"Very few artists -- outside of strictly gospel -- are able to clearly articulate the relationship between their music and their faith," said Steve Beard, a contributor to "Spiritual Journeys," a book about the spiritual lives of musical icons. But one thing is certain, he said, via email: "Dolly was raised to believe in and preach a God of love. She would be quick to point that out and leave the fine and important details of theology to eternity."

Parton grew up in mountain churches, with a grandfather who was a fire-and-brimstone Pentecostal preacher and also with ties to Robert F. Thomas, a Methodist missionary doctor who delivered many babies -- including Parton, the fourth of 12 children in the family's one-bedroom cabin.

In her 1994 autobiography, Parton said she never lost her faith, but it certainly evolved: "One day as I prayed in earnest, I broke through some sort of spirit wall and found God. … Not as a chastising, bombastic bully but as a friend I could talk to on a one-to-one basis."

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Looking for the seven deadly sins in Christopher Nolan's version of "The Odyssey"

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Looking for the seven deadly sins in Christopher Nolan's version of "The Odyssey"

After watching Christopher Nolan's take on "The Odyssey," Father Dwight Longenecker remembered a comment Steven Spielberg made in a movie commentary while discussing how viewers react to symbolism in cinema.

The legendary director, a progressive Jew, was responding to comments that prominent crosses in "Saving Private Ryan" cemetery scenes suggested that the hero was a Christ figure who suffered to save a lost soul. Spielberg replied: "I'm always fascinated, to learn about the things people see in my pictures that I never knew about."

Now, faithful movie lovers are debating whether Nolan's Catholic background soaked into his version of Homer's pagan epic. For example, how did an arrogant, brilliant, pagan Greek warrior develop a strong sense of guilt about his mistakes?

"Nolan is coming from a Catholic background and 2,000 years of Western Christian tradition," said Longenecker, a former journalist and screenwriter who leads Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina. A former Anglican priest, he converted to Catholicism with his wife and four children.

"He cannot help but bring, quote, 'Christian sensibilities' into his understanding of the story, even though he may not have done it explicitly," he explained, via Zoom. Guilt is a human emotion, "part of what C.S. Lewis called the 'Tao,' a universal sense of morality, the universal sense of right and wrong."

Nolan addressed this issue with political philosopher Zhuge Yiyang, during an interview originally posted on China's Bilibili video platform. Another question: How did the doctrine of "atonement" for sin get into this movie? Nolan said his film stressed what he called "Zeus' Law," the ideal of "mutual respect -- that I treat you the way I want to be treated."

Nolan added: "I think in a way we may be bringing our more modern sensibility to that. Insofar as [atonement is] there, it's not a deliberate attempt to Christianize it, but it's an outgrowth … of burrowing in on this philosophical idea of what happens when you break Zeus' Law."

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Catholic bishop, in public letter, urges Pope Leo XIV to offer doctrinal clarity -- now

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Catholic bishop, in public letter, urges Pope Leo XIV to offer doctrinal clarity -- now

Cardinals, archbishops and bishops have many ways to communicate with Vatican officials and even the pope himself, outside of occasional personal meetings.

In the digital age, one blunt way to reach Pope Leo XIV is to write a candid letter and post it online. That's what Bishop Robert Mutsaerts of the Netherlands, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch, did recently.

"Holy Father," he began, with "reverence for the office entrusted to you as successor of Saint Peter, and in communion with the Church which Christ built upon the apostles, I address you with this open letter. I don't do so lightly."

What followed was one bishop's heart cry for the pope to speak candidly about why believers should cling to ancient truths, even while struggling with the riptides of modern life.

Peter, the first pope, "received from Christ not only the commission to unite the brothers, but also to strengthen them in the faith," wrote Mutsaerts. "Ultimately, the world gains little from a Church that merely repeats what the world itself already thinks."

After years of "synodality" meetings built on dialogue with modern Catholics and church critics, the bishop offered hard questions: "Not: how many reports were written? Not: how many people participated? But: has faith become stronger? Has Christ been proclaimed more clearly? Has Catholic identity deepened? Have more people come to convert? Is Sunday Mass better attended? Are there more priestly vocations? …Has greater reverence for the Eucharist emerged? Has the moral teaching of the Church become clearer? Has missionary courage increased?"

The auxiliary bishop's superior, Bishop Gerard Johannes Nicolaus de Korte, quickly distanced himself from these words, while debates continued online.

The context for the Mutsaerts letter is larger than headline grabbing debates about the use of the Latin Mass, bleak attendance trends in Western nations, Catholic politicians clashing with church teachings and same-sex union blessings in many European Catholic churches.

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Once upon a time, most churches had "choirs" and there were even "choir directors"

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Once upon a time, most churches had "choirs" and there were even "choir directors"

For most of the 20th century, the typical American church had a room containing rows of chairs, shelves stacked with music and cabinets full of robes and contrasting stoles for sopranos, altos, tenors and basses of various sizes.

This was a "choir room" and these singers were led by a "choir director."

Times have changed. These days, most up-to-date churches have "praise bands," with a few skilled vocalists, guitarists, drummers and keyboardists with stacks of synthesizers. And most church members have smartphone calendars with zero room left for a choir.

"It's often about time, now more than ever, especially for 20- and 30-somethings. A lot of them have children, but people had children in the '60s," said Mark Cabaniss, president and CEO of the Jubilate Music Group, near Nashville. "That was a different era and a different world. It's hard to even get kids into children's choirs, today. … They're too busy playing soccer or T-ball or whatever."

Cabaniss has directed choirs for 40 years, while composing and arranging music for ensembles of all kinds. He joined a choir at age 6 and began directing church choirs in college.

"You have to be very sensitive to people's time," he stressed, reached by Zoom. "The days of two-hour rehearsals are over. Even a 90-minute one is a tough stretch. … It's all about time, time, time, if you're trying to recruit people into the choir."

While the COVID years were a disaster, the trends -- shrinking choirs, with mic'd up praise bands on stage -- had been clear for several decades.

In 1998, the National Congregations Study said the number of U.S. churches with choirs was already down to 50%, noted Will Whittaker, writing for Baptist News Global. He is the author of the book "Cultivating Intergenerational Worship."

Churches with choirs fell to 40% by 2019 -- before the pandemic.

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Was British politico Ann Widdecombe murdered because of her Catholic beliefs?

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Was British politico Ann Widdecombe murdered because of her Catholic beliefs?

In her student days, Ann Widdecombe's first Oxford Union presentation was an attack on censorship, even if practicing free speech turned out to be risky or painful.

A half century later, the former Conservative MP and outspoken Catholic returned to the legendary debate club to address the same subject, at one point explaining why she once agreed to share a speaker's platform with an Irish Republican Army activist.

"So, you wanted to blow me up," Widdecombe said in 2019, referring to the 1984 Grand Hotel bombing in Brighton, England, that killed five people and injured 31. The target was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the assembled Conservative Party conference.

Widdecombe said the IRA supporter responded: "Well, I didn't want to do it myself."

Enemies of free speech are "snowflakes and totalitarians," said Widdecombe, in the brash style that made her one of England's most loved, and hated, public figures. "Nobody has the right to live their lives being protected from offense, or from insult, or from hurt feelings. It is an occupational hazard … and if you really cannot take it, become a hermit."

Widdecombe, 78, was found dead on July 9 after what police first called a burglary that led to murder. The case is now being investigated as terrorism. The accused attacker drove nearly 300 miles to her isolated Devon home, where he struck her in the head 21 times with a hammer during an encounter that appears to have lasted two minutes.

A key question: Was she killed because of her beliefs?

"She was the most prominent British Catholic politician whose faith actually informed her politics," noted philosopher Joseph Shaw, of the Catholic Answers organization.

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Anglican Church of Canada offers new liturgies to bless Medically Assisted Dying

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Anglican Church of Canada offers new liturgies to bless Medically Assisted Dying

Gathered near the patient, the priest helps the worshipers prepare for Holy Communion, using a new liturgy prepared by the Anglican Church of Canada.

The text offers this introduction: "We gather today in a space that may be foreign to us. There are sounds, lights, and activity outside of this room that can distract and take us away from this space. But God meets us here, in this time and place, a thin-space that is sacred. We gather as friends and family [and health care professionals] with our hopes, our dreams, and our differences.

"While some of us may not always agree with the choices of others, we are united in our common love and compassion for [name]. May we know the presence of God as we pray together. … May God's purpose steady us."

The Divine Liturgy text openly discusses tensions that loom over this rite, since it is drawn from "Pastoral Liturgies at the Time of Death in Contexts of Medically Assisted Dying," approved in June by the denomination's Council of General Synod.

The document's preamble tells clergy: "Medical Assistance in Dying evokes strong and opposing views amongst some persons and communities, including amongst health care providers and amongst Anglican Christians. Some Christians, including clergy, find that MAiD violates their understanding of the ethical values to which Christians are called. …

"The Anglican Church of Canada is not of one voice on the topic, but leaders generally are in agreement that the Church has a duty of pastoral care to all. … Regardless of how people arrive at the decisions they do regarding their end-of-life plans, all persons should be able to call upon the pastoral ministry of the church at the time of their dying."

The Medical Assistance in Dying option was legalized in 2016 and many Canadians -- over age 18, eligible for public health care, with a grievous condition and mentally competent to grant consent -- have allowed medical professionals to end their lives. At the end of 2024, Health Canada officials reported 76,475 approved MAiD procedures.

The Anglican Church of Canada is a poignant church to develop these liturgies, since it has already lost 75% of its membership since the 1960s.

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Pope Leo XIV, screens culture, fathers and symbolism in "Toy Story 5"

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Pope Leo XIV, screens culture, fathers and symbolism in "Toy Story 5"

Vatican watchers rarely scan papal speeches looking for links to Hollywood.

But, at the Vatican Summer Youth Camp, Pope Leo XIV offered an unusually timely update on faith in a digital age.

"The family that is together, it is not enough that we are all there. Each, they look at his phone," the pope said. Even if believers "have the Bible and some prayers in the phone, God doesn't want to look at the phone: God wants to look at our hearts, our life. And therefore, be free from these things that in themselves can be fun, a help, a nice thing."

After all, he added: "We are not all plugged into a cable. We are human beings."

That June 22 talk came three days after "Toy Story 5" reached theaters, with Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear and cowgirl Jesse urging their young owner, Bonnie, to escape the grip of her digital Lilypad tablet.

The pope's words were "remarkably Toy Story-coded," wrote Alyssa Murphy, of the National Catholic Register. In Pixar's parable, Bonnie's parents took a stand and deleted the social-media app that mean girls were using to mock her affection for old-fashioned toys.

That's the good news, noted Murphy. The bad news? "Currently sitting on store shelves nationwide is a physical 'Lilypad' device … marketed to preschoolers between the ages of 3 and 5. … As a beginner device, the item description reads: 'Stay connected with Jessie, Buzz, Woody and the Tech Trio by texting them.'"

Meanwhile the Australian Psychological Society has published a survey of international research showing that most children, by age two, have access to digital devices, including some babies as young as six months old. By age four, 75% of children have their own digital devices. In the end, the more time children gaze at screens, the less they play, talk, sleep and, thus, develop their minds and bodies.