Nicaragua Taxes Tithes After Closing 1,500 Churches and Nonprofits

A series of policies recently enacted by the Nicaraguan government will significantly impact the activities of churches and ministries operating in the country. Viewed by religious freedom specialists as an effort to increase the state’s control over religious institutions, the measures impose taxes on tithes and offerings while mandating that organizations create formal partnerships with Read more…

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South Africa’s Brain Drain Takes Wealthy Tithers from Churches

In the last two decades, over 400,000 South Africans have left their country to set up a new life abroad in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates. They are mostly highly educated and highly skilled young families looking to escape crime and economic decay at home. This exodus has prompted authorities Read more…

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God Calls Me to Give. But to Everyone?

A few years ago, a widow approached a church in Uganda to ask for help. After discussing her situation, the church council recommended they give her food. The pastor, however, encouraged the leaders to first find out about her family situation. After speaking with her relatives, the council discovered that her children were well off, Read more…

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‘Nightmares and Daydreams’ Fuses Jakarta’s Social Ills With the Supernatural

Indonesia is an enchanted culture full of folklore involving ghosts, demons, and djinns (shape-shifting spirits from Arabian and Muslim mythology). These stories usually involve a moral of some kind: Do not leave a house unattended, for this invites the dwelling of demons. Always respect the elderly, lest they return to haunt you. Settle squabbles within Read more…

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It’s a Theological World After All

It’s no secret that theological education is in a state of crisis today. In recent years, faculty layoffs and the downsizing of evangelical seminaries and Christian colleges in the make it hard to overstate the grimness of the prognosis. Yet as a theologian myself, I find this troubling trend to be a symptom of a Read more…

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