WASHINGTON (RNS) In an open letter sent to President Obama on Tuesday (March 30), 29 human rights groups and faith leaders pressed the president to fill the vacant position of ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. “The absence of senior level leadership in your administration on this critical issue is of grave and urgent concern,” said…

(RNS) Minnesota megachurch pastor John Piper, a prolific author whose staunch Calvinist views have made him a popular leader in Christian Reformed circles, is taking an eight-month leave of absence to address unspecified “sins” that have “taken a toll” on his marriage. “I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins,” said Piper,…

MIAMI – Lawyers representing an alleged victim of sex abuse claim the Vatican instructed church officials in Florida to shelter a priest from Cuba who was later accused of pedophilia. Attorney Jessica Arbour, who represents an alleged victim of the Rev. Ernesto Garcia-Rubio, released a 1968 letter from the Vatican to the Archdiocese of Miami,…

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (RNS) When militia expert Jack Kay first ran across a MySpace page for the Michigan-based Hutaree militia six months ago, he thought it was just another group wrapping itself in God and country. But on Monday (March 29), following weekend raids by federal authorities in three states, Kay said the group went…

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