PHILADELPHIA (BP)—Bible-engaged Christians are the most charitable people in the United States, and giving increases happiness among the generous, the American Bible Society said in releasing the last chapter of the 2024 State of the Bible.

“People who consistently read the Bible and live by its teachings are more likely to give to charity,” American Bible Society Chief Innovation Officer John Plake said in releasing the results.

“Our data shows that they also give far more—not only to their churches, but also to religious and non-religious charities. At a national level, we could say that scripture-engaged people form a massive engine of generosity and philanthropy.”

Evangelical households top the chart in the average amount donated, the percentage of people donating and the percentage given to their church or any religious charity, researchers said. Only 20 percent of evangelicals don’t give at all, and 40 percent give all of their contributions to their church.

But while evangelicals give more as a dollar amount, only the lowest income earners give at least 10 percent of their income to charity, researchers said.

“Nonprofits naturally look first to the top-line dollars donated, but God looks at the heart. And giving proportions may be a better window there,” researchers wrote. “Those blessed with great wealth often give from their surplus. It takes a deeper commitment to give sacrificially.

“Our survey shows that donors at the lowest income levels give the greatest percentage of their income to church or charity.”

Families earning under $20,000 a year give as much as 11 percent of their income to charity. But percentage giving largely decreases as income increases, dropping to 5.4 percent for families that earn just under $50,000, researchers said.

Giving rises as high as 8.5 percent of income for families earning between $50,000 and just under $100,000, but drops to the lowest proportion of 2.9 percent for those who earn between $100,000 and $150,000.

It is more blessed to give

In each income bracket, those who give are happier than those who don’t, based on the Life and Happiness Domain of the Human Flourishing Scale the American Bible Society introduced in this year’s State of the Bible.

On the 0-to-10 scale, with 10 indicating the highest level of happiness, givers scored nearly 7.2, while nongivers scored a full point less at 6.1.

“The lowest satisfaction score (5.2) comes among non-givers in the poorest households, those making less than $30,000 a year. But givers at that same income level have a satisfaction score of 6.5, rivaling non-givers making up to $100,000,” researchers wrote. “You might say the joy of giving is better than getting a $50,000 raise.”

The chapter was the final release of the 2024 State of the Bible, a comprehensive report which tracked such topics as faith in technology, human flourishing, love, Americans’ perceptions of church, Gen Z, nones and nominals, and loneliness.

State of the Bible is based on a nationally representative survey conducted for the American Bible Society by NORC at the University of Chicago, using the AmeriSpeak panel. Findings are based on 2,506 online interviews conducted in January 2024 with adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Faith leaders are reacting with concern to a report President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind a long-standing policy that discourages immigration officials from conducting raids at churches, schools and hospitals.

According to a report from NBC News Dec. 11, the incoming Trump administration plans to do away with a policy outlined in an internal 2011 U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement memo by then-ICE director John Morton. The policy discourages government agents from making arrests at or near “sensitive locations,” such as houses of worship.

The news comes amid Trump’s campaign pledge to enact the “largest deportation” in U.S. history, which he has said could begin soon after he assumes office. He suggested in an interview over the weekend U.S. citizens could be deported with undocumented family members.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request to confirm the president-elect’s intent to change the policy, but Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said news of the policy change was “sending a deep chill down the spine of the Latino evangelical church.”

In a separate interview, Salguero noted he recently completed a “know your rights” training with 82 Hispanic evangelical bishops, many of whom have immigrants—undocumented and otherwise—in their congregations. He called the proposed change “a fear-based policy” and voiced concern about whether it will respect religious liberty.

“How are they going to execute these raids in ways that respect religious liberty and in ways that do not strike fear into children who are worshipping in Sunday school? I have 30 kids in a Sunday school class—I don’t know who is documented and undocumented,” Salguero said.

Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and one of Trump’s evangelical advisers, maintained in an email the policy change is narrower in intent, and he is “convinced the incoming Trump administration will focus on criminal illegal immigrants.”

He insisted the policy “serves as a warning” to undocumented immigrants who engage in criminal activity, such as “sex, human and drug traffickers” or “rapist gang members.”

“I do not foresee in any way, the administration targeting or going into schools or churches, pursuing God-fearing law-abiding immigrants who have been here for 15 years or more, and whose children were born or raised here,” Rodriguez said.

Different situation now

But other faith leaders are not as sure, such as those who participate in the New Sanctuary Movement, a faith-based effort that began under President Barack Obama’s administration and expanded greatly during Trump’s first term.

Participants in the movement—which includes members of many faiths—allow undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation to take up residence in houses of worship, hoping to pressure immigration officials into dropping their deportation orders.

Some immigrants have lived in churches for years, until eventually leaving after deportation orders were rescinded or changed.

Umstead Park United Church of Christ in Raleigh was one of a half dozen North Carolina churches that sheltered undocumented immigrants during the first Trump administration. Doug Long—former pastor of Umstead, now retired—suggested he wasn’t entirely surprised by the proposed change, which activists feared would occur during Trump’s first term.

“If they are making that announcement, I think it brings some clarity because we assumed it was already going to happen,” Long said.

When former North Carolina-based sanctuary leaders met last month, he added, the activists concluded churches wanting to help undocumented immigrants would need to pursue new avenues.

“It’s a very different situation than it was five, six years ago,” Long said.

Commitment to ‘love the stranger’ remains

Still, church leaders said they did not expect to retreat from their commitment to protecting undocumented people, a position they said is grounded in the scriptural call to love the stranger.

“When Jesus told us to love our neighbors, he didn’t also tell us to make sure that they were documented,” said Isaac Villegas, a Mennonite—whose church, the Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, gave sanctuary to an undocumented immigrant during the first Trump administration.

 “He just said love and care for your neighbors. Full stop. Not, oh, check their documentation status while you’re at it.”

Longtime immigrant rights advocate Noel Andersen, a United Church of Christ minister and national field director at Church World Service, a group that helps resettle refugees, expressed outrage over reports of the policy change.

“The right for all people to find safety, refuge and rest in houses of worship is fundamental to our nation’s history of religious freedom and our longstanding values,” he said.

“No one should face fear of deportation when going to houses of worship, seeking medical care, social services, at public demonstrations or taking their kids to school.

“Regardless of what policy the Trump administration rescinds or puts forth, faith communities will continue to look to our sacred texts and centuries of tradition to live out our faith by welcoming immigrants and protecting the most vulnerable among us.”

Andersen added: “We must lead with compassion and love instead of cruelty or fear to keep families together and to ensure that all people are treated with their God given dignity.”

Other religious groups appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to the news.

Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement the group of prelates is “aware of the various proposals being discussed with regards to immigration, and are preparing to deal with a range of policies, and will engage appropriately when public policies are put forth by the office holders.”

Representatives for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination that declared itself a “sanctuary church body” at its 2019 Churchwide Assembly and whose members taped “9.5 theses” expressing their concern for immigrants to the door of an ICE building in Milwaukee, declined to comment.

The New Sanctuary Movement is an extension of an earlier effort that occurred in the 1980s, when churches along the U.S.-Mexico border opened their doors to an uptick in migrants, especially those fleeing El Salvador and Guatemala, whom the government largely denied requests for asylum.

In 1986, the FBI infiltrated the movement and indicted 16 activists before ultimately convicting nine. The movement is credited with pressuring President Ronald Reagan’s administration to do more to help Guatemalans and Salvadorans.

Religious activists associated with the movement also pushed San Francisco to pass a “city of refuge” ordinance in 1989 that ended local cooperation with federal immigration officials. The law change was the first example of a “sanctuary city,” a movement that expanded during Trump’s first term—and that he has repeatedly condemned.

As for reports of Trump ending the “sensitive locations” policy, Salguero said he especially was troubled the news came amid the Christian season of Advent. Jesus Christ, he said, was a “refugee fleeing violence.”

“During the highest of our holy days, now we have to talk to our families about this,” Salguero said.

Even so, he remained steadfast in his desire to aid immigrants.

“For us, this is not a political thing,” he said. “This is not a partisan thing. We have to do what Christ has called us to do.”

A man donated $10,000 to Texans on Mission after profiting off rare trading cards he found in a dumpster 25 years ago.

In 1999, Jack—whose identity is being limited to maintain his privacy—found a sheet of first-edition holographic Magic: The Gathering game cards, some of the first of these cards printed in the United States.

Twenty-four years after Jack made his find, he had the cards appraised, when all of his emergency funds were stolen from his van in spring 2023.

“All my life I’ve never had much, and I don’t care, because I’m happy,” Jack said.

But after the robbery, Jack said to God, “In all of your vast array of stuff, I’m sure you can find a little nugget for me, if you want to.”

A year later, Jack sold two of the cards and discovered the “little nugget” he spoke to God about.

In gratitude for his unexpected windfall, Jack felt led to donate some of his earnings to help others in need.

“I told God I’m going to try to be right with the money,” Jack said.

“You guys [Texans on Mission] are doing the right kind of stuff.”

A Texans on Mission Facebook post noted the organization was “more than grateful for Jack’s generosity.

“He has reminded us that when we let go and trust God, anything is possible. Even things like finding rare sheets of Magic: The Gathering cards worth way more than you’d expect!”

According to toy and game company Hasbro, Magic: The Gathering was created in 1993 and is played by more than 50 million players globally, with 13 million registered digital players.

Currently, the most valuable Magic: The Gathering card is called “The One Ring.” The card, printed in the elvish language created by J.R.R. Tolkien in Lord of the Rings, sold for $2.64 million.

With additional reporting by Calli Keener.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Twelve years ago, Randall Goodgame’s family was in the thick of homeschooling. His wife Amy struggled to help the kids memorize their weekly Scripture verses. Goodgame decided to help in a way that came naturally to him—writing songs.

It worked.

“It worked so well that … within a few weeks I realized, well, this seems important,” Goodgame said in a recent interview with Baptist Press.

Songwriter Randall Goodgame introduced his Scripture Hymnal in front of a live audience in October. “There’s something about music that allows us to experience something more than just the information,” he said.

What started as a project to help his kids soon turned into a new phase of his ministry as a music artist. Now, Goodgame’s Scripture songs fill a new hymnal—aptly titled Scripture Hymnal—which Goodgame hopes will help churchgoers internalize God’s word.

“Music helps people remember things,” Goodgame writes in the hymnal’s introduction. “And music memories conjure much more than just information. … In the time it takes to hear a melody, a whole world can flood our consciousness.”

Music involves more than just the intellect, he told BP, which makes it an effective teacher.

“God gave us these emotions, and we are spiritual people,” he said. “We are these eternal creatures trapped in these glorious gifts that we call bodies that were made in the image of the creator. And there’s something about music that allows us to experience something more than just the information.”

And even more than that, we are called to sing together.

“First and foremost, [singing is] an act of obedience,” Goodgame said. “The Lord only requires us to do things that are good for us. He sanctioned it. We know that means it’s good for us. … There’s something so powerful about proclaiming the truth of what’s real and what we depend on about this God that we serve and trust—proclaiming it together through song.”

A labor of love

The hymnal opens with “In the Beginning,” based on Genesis 1:1. Hymn No. 55, “Unless You Change,” is based on Matthew 18:3-5. “Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak”—hymn No. 95—is based on James 1:19.

There are 106 songs, all taken directly from Scripture, plus accompanying Scripture readings and indexes listing the songs by topic, musical style, Scripture passage and more.

Scripture Hymnal contains 106 songs, which all have corresponding studio recordings online.

The team of 12 writers who collaborated on the songs committed not to change the Scripture text in any way. They used mostly the NIV, ESV and CSB translations, choosing what they considered the most lyrical translation for a given passage.

Word-for-word rendering made the songwriting more challenging, but Goodgame had strategies for making the songs easy to learn and sing.

First, he simply immersed himself in the verses, reading them very slowly, praying and letting the passage’s theme and text dictate the feel and form of the song.

He took a cue from traditional hymns for the structure of the songs.

“Old hymns were built for unmusical people to sing together,” he said, adding that usually means one syllable per beat.

“I really made an effort to try to be aware of the syllables and where they fell on the beat,” he said. “And then once you’ve constrained yourself to that, then you have to find melodies that sound appealing within that restriction. Then it’s just kind of problem solving and listening and praying.”

Much of his inspiration for which passages to use for songs came from his own Bible study, but Goodgame also asked friends, including several pastors, “If there were one verse that your congregation would be able to sing to each other and to the Lord, what would that one verse be?”

Goodgame premiered the hymnal in a live concert Oct. 11 in Franklin, Tenn., where the capacity crowd was able to sing along with the songs pretty much right away. The lines from the hymnal appearing on the screens helped those who could read music, but even those who couldn’t were able to follow along quickly.

“The goal is you want people to feel like this is how a melody was supposed to be written for these words,” Goodgame said.

What he’s called to do

For more than a decade, Randall Goodgame has been writing songs using the Bible for lyrics.

Goodgame is no stranger to using music to instill important truths. Over the last 20 years, he’s built a kids’ and family music brand called Slugs & Bugs, releasing the first album along with singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson in 2006.

The albums are equal parts silly and serious, with songs like “God Made You” and “May the Lord Bless You and Keep You” appearing alongside ones like “Tractor Tractor” and “Chicken Wiggle.”

But the one thing they all have in common is quality music and production. It’s the kind of kids’ music that parents keep listening to on their way to work after they drop the kids off at school.

After Goodgame’s success in writing songs to help his kids memorize Scripture, he began focusing on using Scripture alone for his lyrics, and the Slugs & Bugs Sing the Bible series was born. Sing the Bible Volume 1 came out in 2014. There have been four others since then.

“It’s what the Lord called me to for well over a decade,” he said. “And I think if I hadn’t had all those five Sing the Bible albums under my belt, I wouldn’t have been prepared to have done what I just did with the Scripture Hymnal. … I’ve done it for long enough that I’ve just gotten better at it. Like you do when you do the same thing over and over.”

A priceless opportunity

The Scripture Hymnal is not for kids, though the songs are singable enough that kids can easily learn them. And for those who don’t read music or who prefer to learn them aurally, there is a studio recording of each song online.

A QR code in the front of the hymnal takes the user to the recordings. The recordings also are being compiled into albums, the second of which released Nov. 29. There will be nine albums in all.

“Even though it was written for congregational singing, I really do hope people also see the value of just personal devotion with it,” Goodgame said. “They don’t have to read music; they can just go to the song through the QR code and flip to the page of the song they want to sing and sing along with the music.”

Goodgame said a main inspiration for the hymnal project was learning how his Sing the Bible CDs helped people internalize the word of God.

“I always have heard for years and years from people, ‘The Lord will bring the song that I need to my mind right when I need it.’ I just hear it over and over again,” he said. “To carry around God’s word with you is just priceless.”

Ultimately, he hopes the Scripture Hymnal will help the church be the church.

Singing together is proclaiming God’s faithfulness “right next to people that you know are going through hard things,” he said. “You are going through something hard, and you’re affirming it, proclaiming it, choosing to believe or at least try to believe by singing what you know is true with a whole room of other people that are doing the same thing.”

And how much more so when the words believers are singing are taken straight from Scripture.

“Every time we engage with the word, we have an opportunity to meet Jesus,” Goodgame said. “And it’s in Jesus that we are redeemed, and we are sanctified, and that dim little spark brightens, and we become lights in the world, caring less about ourselves and more about other people.

“And his kingdom grows because of the outpouring of his love through us to other people. And his word is the beginning of all of that.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A group of faith leaders, activists, law enforcement officials and families of murder victims called on President Joe Biden to spare the lives of about 40 inmates currently on death row in federal prisons.

The campaign is prompted by concerns the Department of Justice will lift a moratorium imposed by the Biden administration in 2021 and begin to execute prisoners after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Thirteen federal prisoners were executed during the first Trump administration—more than four times as many as under all the presidents combined since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.

Among those asking Biden to commute the sentences of death row inmates is Sharon Risher, whose mother, Ethel Lance, was one of nine church members killed in the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Risher cited Trump’s promise to restart executions in urging Biden to act.

‘A moral imperative’

“It is vital that you deny him that opportunity by commuting every death sentence remaining on federal and military death rows,” wrote Risher, chair of Death Penalty Action, in a letter to Biden.

The letter, signed by more than 400 religious and anti-death penalty groups, also urges Biden to order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demolish the execution chamber at a federal prison in Indiana where many federal death row inmates are held and to bar federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in current cases.

“Ending the federal and military death penalty is not only an important step toward correcting myriad flaws in the criminal legal system in the United States, it is both good governance and a moral imperative,” the letter reads. “We will continue to work toward that goal.”

Risher and Lisa Brown, whose son Christopher Vialva was executed in 2020, also appeared at several events on Capital Hill Dec. 10, including a news conference with U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. Pressley noted the racial disparities among prisoners on death row in calling for Biden to act.

“State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and the death penalty is a cruel, racist and fundamentally flawed punishment that has no place in our society,” she said.

In a separate statement, Pressley cited her Christian faith and Biden’s, while making the case against the death penalty.

“As someone who grew up in a storefront church on the South Side of Chicago, I believe that we are one human family,” the statement read.

“As people of faith, we have a collective, righteous mandate to save lives, and one way that we can do that is by abolishing the death penalty—a cruel, inhumane, and racist punishment that has no place in any society. I hope that President Biden, as a man who is guided by his faith, will take action while he still can.”

Among federal inmates facing execution are the gunmen in high-profile mass shootings, such as the one at Mother Emanuel and at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, as well as the Boston Marathon bomber.

Some family members of Mother Emanuel victims made national headlines for forgiving the shooter, Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death in 2017.

However, not all families of victims agree with that decision, as reporter and author Jennifer Berry Hawes reported in her 2019 book, Grace Will Lead Us Home. Of the nine families affected by the Tree of Life shooting, seven supported the death penalty for Robert Bower, who was sentenced to death in 2023.

Seeking life sentences, not a pardon

Jamila Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA, said everyone on death row has been convicted of a terrible crime, and activists are not seeking to have death row prisoners pardoned. They are asking Biden to commute the sentences to life in prison, so prisoners still are being held accountable for their actions.

Hodge, a former prosecutor, said her Christian faith motivates her to oppose the death penalty. She believes in the possibility for redemption and in the worth of every person on death row, no matter what they have done.

“Everyone who’s on there did something heinous,” she said. “But that does not change the fact that they still have dignity and worth. And if you are acting in your faith, believe in the power of redemption.”

Faith Leaders of Color, a group made up mostly of Black pastors, and the Catholic Mobilizing Network also wrote letters to Biden asking him to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners, drawing on the same belief in human dignity.

“As Catholics, we understand that every person is made in the image of God and that our Heavenly Father does not shut the door on anyone,” the Catholic Mobilizing Network letter reads, echoing a message forwarded by Catholic leaders over the past week.

“President Biden has an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity by commuting all federal death sentences to terms of imprisonment and sparing the lives of the 40 men currently on federal death row,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in an action alert.

In addition, Pope Francis specifically called for the U.S. to commute the sentences of those on death row over the weekend, asking Catholic faithful to “pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed.” He added, “Think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”

In 2018, the pontiff changed the catechism of the Catholic Church to codify teaching that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

Biden, a Catholic, campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty but has not done so. His moratorium on executions did not stop the Department of Justice from continuing to prosecute capital punishment cases.

Appeal to ‘pro-life’ Christians

Joia Thornton, founder and national director of Faith Leaders of Color, cited the president’s faith as well as Biden’s long ties to Black churches in calling for him to commute death row sentences.

“Commuting the federal death row would be an incredible milestone for those who believe life has value, mercy is encompassing and grace covers a multitude of sin,” Thorton said in a statement.

Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians, a progressive evangelical group, said his opposition to the death penalty is tied to his beliefs about the sanctity of all lives. Being “pro-life,” he said, means more than opposing abortion. He shakes his head at fellow believers who want to end abortion but who support the death penalty.

“What’s haunting is that the death penalty has survived in America because of Christians, not in spite of us,” he said.

He also pointed to a story in the Gospel of John, where Jesus interrupts an attempted execution. A woman in that story was caught in adultery, and a crowd wanted to stone her to death. But Jesus, Claiborne said, stopped the execution by saying, “Let the ones without sin cast the first stone.”

Jesus also blessed the merciful and said God’s mercy is stronger than any crime people can commit, Claiborne said.

Before Trump’s first term, only three federal death row inmates, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, had been executed since 1988 and none from April 2003 to June 2020. Since 1927, the federal government has executed 50 death row prisoners in total.

Hodge said organizers had yet to hear from the White House but are hopeful Biden will act, especially given Trump’s promises to resume what organizers called an “execution spree.”

She also pointed to a proposal in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation document outlining its hopes for a second Trump term in the White House, which called on Trump to “do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row.”

“We know what will happen under a new administration,” Hodge said. “Forty lives are hanging in the balance.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the largest single-day act of clemency in recent history, the White House announced Dec. 12 Biden is commuting the sentences of about 1,500 individuals who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoning 39 convicted nonviolent offenders. The clemency did not affect federal death row, but Biden said he would continue to review clemency petitions and take further action in the weeks ahead.

MEXICO CITY (BP)—Ten Catholic priests and a seminarian were murdered during the six-year term of former Mexican President López Obrador that ended Sept. 30, the Catholic Multimedia Center said in its 2024 annual report.

Seven bishops and seven additional priests were attacked during the same period but survived, the center said, chronicling concurrent attacks on churches and holy sites that mark “an escalation of aggressions that demonstrate the progressive desacralization and absence of any respect towards the holy and sacred.”

Another priest has been killed since President Claudia Sheinbaum began her term in October—Marcelo Pérez Pérez of the San Cristóbal de las Casas Diocese.

“His assassination was not circumstantial, nor was it ‘collateral damage,’” the report noted. “And, in a cunning manner, it showed that his pastoral actions and activity in favor of human rights was inconvenient to those who cut short his existence.”

While persecution of Catholics in Mexico is not disputed, report authors Guillermo Gazanini Espinoza, head of multimedia center information, and multimedia center Director Sergio Omar Sotelo Aguilar, describe the persecution as especial to Catholics alone.

“Catholic priests in Mexico continue to be treated as second-class citizens, while other ministers of worship, whether from religious groups or ideological movements, enjoy freedom, without any sanction, to express their civic opinions,” the two wrote in the report’s prologue.

“This is an affront to freedom of conscience and the rights of democratic participation that are permitted by our Constitution.”

Non-Catholics also in danger

Reports by international religious liberty advocates agree Mexico is dangerous for Catholic priests, but also cite persecution of others, including Indigenous groups and any religious leaders who advocate for morality.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its 2023 report on Religious Freedom for Indigenous Communities in Latin America, noted persecution of Indigenous communities in Mexico.

Currently, about 150 Baptists are displaced from their indigenous villages in Hidalgo, Mexico, after leaders in the majority Catholic area reneged on an agreement that would have allowed them to return home. Baptist pastors and others have been severely beaten.

The U.S. State Department, in its 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom, cited the multimedia center’s statistic from an earlier report tallying 800 incidents of extortion and threats against priests in Mexico between October 2022 and October 2023.

The State Department also reported “incidents of violence against religious leaders did not appear to be based solely on religious identity,” referencing Mexico’s National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination.

“Some NGOs said cartels and other criminal groups continued to single out Catholic priests and other religious leaders because of their condemnation of criminal activities and because communities viewed them as moral authority figures,” the State Department reported.

Still, the Catholic Multimedia Center’s report shows widespread persecution of Catholics in Mexico, documenting almost 900 cases of Roman Catholic ministers and church workers being extorted or threatened, and 26 attacks on religious buildings during Obrador’s presidency.

Christian persecution watchdog group Christian Solidarity Worldwide, in announcing the report, called on the Mexican government to protect Catholic priests and other religious leaders from harm.

The Catholic Multimedia Center “has been documenting this trend for almost 35 years, and it is of deep concern that attacks on priests and religious leaders spiked and have remained steadily high over the past three presidential administrations, with no real sign of improvement,” CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said.

“We stand in solidarity with (the center) in calling for the international community, in collaboration with the Mexican government,” she said, “to effectively address the various factors, including impunity, corruption and the proliferation of violent organized criminal groups involved in the international trafficking of human beings, weapons and drugs, that have made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a Catholic priest.”

According to Mexico’s 2020 census, 78 percent of the population is Catholic, 10 percent is Protestant or evangelical Protestant, and 1.5 percent is aligned with other religious groups, including Judaism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Islam.

Just over 8 percent described themselves as nonreligious, and 2.5 percent said they practice an unspecified religion. The U.S. State Department estimated Mexico’s population was 130 million in 2023.

WACO—“How can we disciple our young people well on matters of biblical sexuality?” Gary Stidham, director of training for Texas Baptists’ Center for Collegiate Ministry, asked a Texas Baptist group.

Stidham raised the question during a breakout session held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting last month.

Stidham credited Sean McDowell, a professor at Talbot School of Theology, with observing that prior generations wanted to know about Christianity, “Is it true?” But Generation Z is asking, “Is it good?”

The shift from intellectual questions to moral questions among young people means churches must be sensitive in how they discuss matters of sexual identity, if they want to reach Gen Z.

Today’s critique of the church by those outside the faith isn’t so much that Christianity is illogical or unreasonable, but that it is unloving and uncaring toward people on the margins—particularly women, immigrants, people of color and those in the LGBTQ community, Stidham noted.

But if church leaders want to help students and young families love the gospel, the church and the word of God, “we have to tackle issues around sexual morality, because that’s where the culture has gotten so far off the rails in the last few decades,” Stidham said.

Stidham suggested to address this conversation, Christian leaders should talk about the subject of sexuality holistically, starting with Genesis; make affirming marriage a priority; celebrate chastity, singleness and celibacy; teach wise dating; and fight pornography aggressively.

Stidham served as a campus missionary with Baptist Student Ministries at the University of Texas in Arlington for 21 years. He now oversees 60 campus missionary interns for their first couple of years out of college serving with BSM. His doctoral work focused on LGBTQ issues.

He noted 12 years ago, after a time when the BSM at UT Arlington had “gotten really good at gathering large groups” but was not seeing very many college students come to Christ, “God led us to shepherd a really powerful evangelistic movement.”

As a result, the BSM began to see at least one student a week come to Christ, a trend, Stidham noted, “that continues to this day.”

One thing his team at UT Arlington began to realize was these new Christians’ “lives were messy,” and they came with “a lot of baggage to unpack, and a lot of that baggage had to do with gender and sexuality issues.”

While Stidham acknowledged issues about sexuality “have always been around,” the increased cultural focus on sexuality and gender identity means issues around sexuality are even more present and complex. In fact, sexual confusion and brokenness permeate Gen Z.

Increasing numbers

Gallup reported this year 19 percent of Gen Z (ages 12-27) identify as LGBTQ, compared to about 10 percent of Millennials, 5 percent of Gen X and 2 percent of Baby Boomers.

A recent Barna poll reflects an even higher percentage, with 39 percent identifying as LGBTQ and half of that number identifying as bisexual.

But more Gen Z identify as same-sex-attracted than who act upon that attraction, Stidham pointed out. Most of this generation who claim a bisexual identity only date the opposite sex. They “want that identity, so they say they’re bisexual, even though they don’t act upon it.”

What has led to the burgeoning numbers who identify as LGBTQ? First, Stidham noted, is the “straight-up reality that there are people who are same-sex attracted.”

From ancient times all the way up until now, in a “complicated mix of nature and nurture,” he said, there are people “who didn’t ask for it” or “wake up and decide one morning, ‘I’m going to like people like me (same sex).’”

Another factor is the epidemic of loneliness affecting this generation. Sexual identity has coalesced into a “movement of belonging for disaffected youth,” where they can find connections that eluded them outside of the LGBTQ community.

Another contributor is social pressure, especially for people who in years past would have been described as “tomboys” or “sensitive boys.” Now, there is pressure for such natural personality differences to be understood as signifiers of homosexuality or gender nonconformity, he explained.

Mental health and LGBTQ are related, Stidham noted, pointing out there is a “tremendous correlation” between anxiety and depression and LGBTQ identity. And neurodivergence—autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder—has an even higher correlation to LGBTQ identity than anxiety.

“Almost every one of the reasons means what these young adults don’t need is our scorn and a wagging finger. What they typically need is our arms welcoming them in.

“They need patience. They need help meeting Jesus, so that with discipleship they can unpack all the confusion,” he noted.

Trying to “own the liberals” isn’t the way to love LGBTQ people. Instead, loving the teenagers who struggle with confusing messages about sexuality is how to reach LGBTQ people, he said.

Powerful forces, talked about in Colossians 2:8, are working to indoctrinate Gen Z. In every generation, Satan wants to capture the minds of the people and move people away from God. Stidham sees the increase in LGBTQ identities as evidence of an ongoing spiritual battle with “elemental forces.”

Stidham pointed to “radical individual autonomy” that came out of the sexual revolution of the 1960s as being at the heart of why LGBTQ has become such a heated issue. So, he cautioned pastors against playing into a “nobody can tell me what to do mindset.”

Core identity realignment

For a good many people, sexuality has become the ultimate identity, seen as being at the very core of who they are.

“I’m not a man who happens to be same-sex attracted. I’m a gay man,” Stidham gave as an example to clarify this idea.

Because sexuality has assumed such a preeminent place in identities, in order to disciple young people, church leaders must learn how to speak thoughtfully and with nuance about these issues.

Christian students want to talk about these issues, Stidham noted. They want to know the truth concerning sexuality. In fact, “they’re more eager to hear than we are to share.”

These conversations should be approached by church leaders with genuine questions, seeking to understand what students are hearing and feeling about matters of sexuality and identity.

“We are ministers and missionaries, not political pundits,” Stidham noted. There is a culture war happening, “but don’t be a culture warrior,” Stidham urged. “The reason we talk about these issues is to help people come to Jesus.”

1 Corinthian 6:18-20 demonstrates sexual morality is profoundly important to our spirituality, he said.

When Christian leaders are discipling students on matters of sexuality, they should stress the flourishing that can come when identities are found not in sexuality, but in Christ.

ELDORET, Kenya—Thirty-six Kenyan teenage boys and young men came together in November for a leadership training camp. At the end, 13 of them accepted a challenge to lead future gatherings locally and start encouraging other boys and men.

Six Kenyan churches brought together the group in Eldoret, about 200 miles northwest of Nairobi. Five adult leaders of Texas Royal Ambassadors, a ministry of Texans on Mission, provided the training.

The camp grew out of an RA-led meeting earlier this year.

“Pastors went home intentionally looking for young men in their churches they believed were leaders and wanted to get them some training,” said Savion Lee, state RA coordinator.

Those attending the camp learned leadership skills through adventure recreation and team building challenges.

“The lessons highlighted unity and cooperation, responsibility and the importance of prayer in everything we do,” Lee said.

Steve Darilek, a long-time RA trainer from Bridgeport, likened the camp in Kenya to the annual RA Leadership Training Camp held in Texas.

“We use a lot of different things … to produce leaders and raise a passion” for leadership among youth, Darilek explained. “It looks like it’s just fun and games,” but there is a spiritual application.

“We hope they will take it back to their churches, to bring about change and open the eyes of their youth group,” he said.

The Kenya group included young men ages 14-23, Darilek said.

“They were very, very respectful,” he said. “I was impressed with their ability to stay focused,” even when language translation created challenges.

As the camp drew to a close, Lee said the pastors “put out the vision and asked who would be willing to help coordinate recurring meetings in their towns. Thirteen young men responded to that invitation.”

Since the regional meeting, the 13 already have held an initial meeting coordinated via the WhatsApp digital platform.

The Texas RA leaders and Kenyan pastors have the same hopes for what happens as a result of the camp.

“They wanted a group of young men to become leaders and to come back to their church and assist them in leading others to Christ … and to be leaders in their church,” Darilek said.

The pastors want the young men to know Christ, “speak Jesus,” give testimony of their faith and unify their group within their church, Darilek said.

The RA approach used in Kenya included the sharing of personal experiences.

“The Lord has done many things in all of our lives—the most important of which is our salvation,” Lee said. “Learning how to share your personal testimony can give courage to any young man, boy, man, whomever, to share about who God is and who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for them.”

The young men in Kenya “were interested in learning from us, especially about Scripture,” he said.

“I look forward to seeing how the encouragement they received through the camp will make an impact with their families and with their churches,” Lee said.

MINNEAPOLIS (BP)—Some Minnesota Christian parents are challenging a state law that blocks certain Christian colleges from a program that allows colleges to enroll high schoolers in tuition-free college credit courses.

Through Minnesota’s Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, 10th through 12th graders have been able to take college credit courses tuition-free at state colleges since 1985, according to attorneys at Becket Law.

But the state changed the program in 2023, blocking Crown College and the University of Northwestern at St. Paul from participation because the schools require on-campus students to sign statements of faith.

“We raise our children to put their faith at the center of everything they do,” parents Mark and Melinda Loe, plaintiffs in the suit, said in a Dec. 9 press release.

“Unfortunately, Minnesota is depriving kids like ours of the opportunity to get a head start on college at schools that embrace their faith. We hope the court will strike this law down and protect all religious students and the schools they want to attend.”

The Loes have 16-year-old and 13-year-old children. Dawn Erickson, also a plaintiff in the case, has a 16-year-old child.

Historically, Becket Law said, secular and religious schools qualified for participation in the Post Secondary Enrollment Options program, although courses that were “sectarian in nature” were excluded from course offerings.

Program requirements amended

But in 2023, Minnesota amended the program to stipulate, “An eligible institution must not require a faith statement from a secondary student seeking to enroll in a postsecondary course under this section during the application process or base any part of the admission decision on a student’s race, creed, ethnicity, disability, gender, or sexual orientation or religious beliefs or affiliations,” according to the text of the adopted bill available on the Minnesota Legislature’s website.

“The state of Minnesota has a fundamental right to protect its students from discrimination,” Assistant Attorney General Jeff Timmerman argued at a Dec. 9 hearing in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, CBS News reported

Becket Law first challenged the new rule in May 2023 in Loe v. Walz, securing a preliminary injunction the following month blocking the rule’s enforcement while the lawsuit is active. The case continues as Loe v. Jett.

“The legislative history confirms that amendment’s point was to single out these religious institutions,” Becket wrote in its original complaint, referencing Minnesota House sessions where the bill’s author, “explained that both the faith-statement provision and the antidiscrimination provision were included in the amendment to force schools to admit students without regard to their religious beliefs.”

Crown College, aligned with the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination, and the University of Northwestern at St. Paul, confirmed as a “Christian community,” are also plaintiffs in the case.

Crown College President Andrew Denton expressed appreciation for the decades the school has participated in the Post Secondary Enrollment Options program.

“Crown College is committed to providing all our students the tools they need to excel intellectually and spiritually through our biblically-integrated education,” Denton said in the Becket press release.

“We pray that the court will continue to allow every student in Minnesota to use PSEO funds at the school that best meets their needs and matches their values.”

University of Northwestern-St. Paul President Corbin Hoornbeek issued a similar plea.

“For over a century, Northwestern has existed to offer students a Christ-centered education that prepares them to serve in the home, church, community and the world,” Hoornbeek said. “Minnesota wants to single out our university because of this unique campus culture which integrates faith and learning. We pray the court will recognize that and continue to allow us to help on-campus PSEO students flourish in their faith and education.”

Becket bases its case on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, accusing Minnesota’s law of five violations including religious targeting, and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine of the First Amendment, saying the schools must give up their religious identity to participate.

Becket also accuses Minnesota of violating the schools’ freedom of speech and of discriminating against the schools based on the schools’ religion. Becket expects a ruling in the coming months.

NASHVILLE (BP)—The Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program stands at a crossroads as its 100th birthday approaches.

Messengers to the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s Summit felt that reality this fall. They voted reluctantly to decrease the SBC percentage of the Tennessee convention’s Cooperative Program allocation from 47.5 percent to 45 percent and retain 55 percent for Tennessee ministries.

“When we started moving toward 50/50 distribution of Cooperative Program giving, that was overwhelmingly approved by our messengers,” said Randy Davis, president of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

However, Cooperative Program giving “over the past decade has remained flat” in Tennessee, he noted.

“When you couple that with an inflation rate over the last decade of 24 percent, you can see the dilemma we’re in” to fund Tennessee ministries, Davis said.

Originally, the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board recommended allocating 40 percent of the 2025 Cooperative Program budget for SBC causes, 55 percent for Tennessee ministries and 5 percent directly to the International Mission Board.

The proposal was intended to funnel the same percentage of Cooperative Program dollars to the IMB that it would have received through a 50/50 split of receipts.

But Tennessee messengers amended the distribution to a straight 45/55 split, fearing a 5 percent gift directly to IMB would hurt other SBC entities by decreasing their allocations.

State conventions face funding dilemma

Tennessee isn’t the only state Baptist convention facing a funding dilemma. Multiple state and regional conventions this fall sought to cope with a stark reality. They cannot keep giving more to SBC causes when they are receiving less from churches.

“Giving to the Cooperative Program is impacted by many factors—including economic pressures on churches and conventions—as well as competing funding requests from many other Christian organizations,” said Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee.

“Southern Baptists still believe in cooperation, and a new generation must decide how to prioritize Cooperative Program giving to assure the long-term stability and fiscal health of our global efforts.”

The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ unified mechanism for funding missions and ministries in North America and around the world. A local church gives through the Cooperative Program by sending money to its state Baptist convention. The state convention, in turn, decides a percentage of Cooperative Program receipts to use for in-state ministries and a percentage to forward to the Executive Committee for distribution among SBC causes.

All appears well with the Cooperative Program when considering funds forwarded from state conventions to the SBC. Twenty years ago, state conventions forwarded $175.5 million to SBC ministries. Ten years ago, the figure climbed to $183.4 million. For 2022-23, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, it was $187.4 million.

No longer sustainable

But state conventions have been forwarding more money to the SBC even as they receive less from churches. Twenty years ago, churches gave a total of just over $501 million through the Cooperative Program.

It dropped to $482 million 10 years ago and $449 million last year. That means state conventions forwarded $12 million more to CP last year than they did two decades ago, even though they received $52 million less.

Southern Baptist leaders have wondered for years how long that trajectory can be sustained. For some state conventions, the answer is not any longer.

The California Southern Baptist Convention voted this fall to restructure its formula for distributing Cooperative Program funds. The convention adopted an in-state Cooperative Program budget of $3.85 million and a “CP gifts objective” of $5 million.

That means from the first $5 million given through the Cooperative Program next year, 2 percent will go to California Baptist University, 1 percent to the Baptist Foundation of California and $3.85 million will be used for budgeted California ministries. The rest will go to SBC causes. All Cooperative Program receipts over $5 million will go fully to SBC causes.

If California Cooperative Program receipts come in at $5 million, that would mean 20 percent forwarded to SBC causes. Cooperative Program receipts of $5.2 million would mean 25 percent to SBC causes, and $5.4 million in receipts would mean 30 percent to SBC causes. The California convention’s 2024 budget of $6 million allocated 35 percent to SBC causes.

As Cooperative Program receipts from churches decreased from $5.85 million in 2022 to a projected $5.1 million this year, “we have been doing budget cuts and cutting staff,” California Baptist convention executive director Pete Ramirez said.

“Our executive board had been discussing this new [Cooperative Program] formula for a couple of years. They finally said: ‘We don’t want you to continue to be cutting staff. We want you to be able to continue to do the ministry in California.’”

Leaders of SBC entities have been sympathetic about the California Baptists’ budget adjustment, Ramirez said, because everyone understands the real challenge of the Cooperative Program is inspiring churches to give more.

“We are at a crossroads where the Cooperative Program might not be what it was in the past,” Ramirez said. “The way this younger generation gives to missions is different than the previous generations. We’re going to have to figure out how do we do things different in our states to continue to do the great work we do as Southern Baptists.”

Six convention decreased CP percentage to SBC

California was one of six state and regional conventions this fall that decreased the percentage of Cooperative Program receipts allocated to SBC causes. Five state conventions increased their percentage to SBC causes, with the biggest jumps coming in at 1 percent in Indiana and the Baptist Resource Network of Pennsylvania-South Jersey. Twenty-seven conventions kept their SBC allocations the same.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baptist General Association of Virginia offer churches various giving plans for supporting out-of-state ministries, with the Cooperative Program among the options.

Ten years ago, the picture was different. In 2014, 23 state conventions increased their percentage of Cooperative Program receipts to SBC causes.

Nevada was among the states to reduce its SBC allocation this fall, going from 50 percent in 2024 to 25 percent in 2025. But Nevada Baptists have a plan to boost giving from local churches and money forwarded to SBC missions and ministries.

“We had a 10-year stint of being a 50/50 state and were proud of that,” said Damian Cirincione, executive director of the Nevada Baptist Convention. But when he assumed his current role three years ago, “we had already been operating in a deficit and pulling out of reserves.”

The 75/25 allocation adopted this year will both fund increased efforts to assist Nevada churches and facilitate the work of a task force to strengthen Cooperative Program giving.

About five years ago, transitions at the state convention and in local churches resulted in hundreds of thousands fewer dollars coming into Nevada’s Cooperative Program. Cirincione is optimistic giving can increase again.

“Though we’ve had to pivot slightly, we remain confident,” he said, noting Nevada Baptists continue to enjoy a warm relationship with all the SBC entities. “We are working with our churches to build out a strategy that will strengthen our giving in the coming days and our generosity in our contributions to CP as we engage and educate.”

For state convention leaders, the present state of Cooperative Program giving marks an opportunity rather than a discouragement. Over the past 20 years, undesignated giving to Southern Baptist churches has increased by nearly $3 billion, according to SBC Annuals. That’s a huge pool of potential money that could be given through CP.

“We must cast a vision for what’s needed and the difference 2 or 3 percent could make in Cooperative Program giving,” Davis said.

Iorg agrees. As he attended more than a dozen state convention annual meetings this fall, he witnessed an enthusiasm for Southern Baptist ministries that stands ready to be channeled into CP giving.

“My core message has been ‘Southern Baptists are a force for good,’” Iorg said. “And the response to that message has been very positive, including standing ovations in a few places, which was more about resonating with the message than applauding my presentation.”

AUSTIN (RNS)—For Gary Perez and Matilde Torres, like their ancestors before them, the river bend in Brackenridge Park in South Texas is more than the oak trees along the riverbank, the slow-moving water and the stars arrayed above at night. It is a sacred place, where the resident cormorants, they believe, take their prayers to the heavens.

That is why, when the city of San Antonio decided to remove 69 of 83 trees and prevent bird nesting in the river bend to allow the remodeling of a wall, Perez and Torres, ceremonial leaders of the Lipan-Apache Native American Church, sued to protect it on religious grounds.

Last week, the Texas Supreme Court heard their lawsuit challenging the city’s actions under a state constitutional amendment approved by Texas voters in 2021 to deal with restrictions on religious services imposed by local officials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Religious Services Amendment to the Texas Constitution says the state or a political subdivision of the state “may not enact, adopt or issue a statute, order, proclamation, decision, or rule that prohibits or limits religious services.”

John Greil, an attorney and professor at the University of Texas law school’s Law & Religion Clinic, represents Perez and Torres in Perez v. City of San Antonio. He noted Perez and Torres are the first claimants to bring a suit under the Religious Services Amendment, giving the court’s decision in the case significant weight as a precedent.

“If 20 years down the road, there’s some emergency and cities start putting in new orders that would affect religious services, this case will determine how that amendment gets applied in the future,” Greil told RNS.

Perez and Torres perform their ceremonies at a part of the park known as Lambert Beach, they explained, because of their people’s ancestral connection to the land.

They consider the waters, birds, trees and constellations above a “sacred ecology” and a tenet of the Native American Church. They believe that the San Antonio River bend is central to their creation story, which combines Indigenous and Christian traditions.

“Imagine removing the Old Testament and trying to surmise what happened within the New Testament,” Perez said. “By removing the trees and the birds, and destroying this spiritual ecology, there’s no reference back to the Old Testament. There is no hope.”

The two appellants’ brief asserts that for thousands of years, Indigenous peoples in Texas have worshipped at this river bend, a sacred site where hieroglyphics more than 4,000 years old have been discovered.

The brief argues worship cannot be done elsewhere, because the specific attributes to the place are crucial to their ceremonies. If the trees are obstructed, if the birds are removed, Perez and Torres’ ability to worship would be gone forever.

“The city of San Antonio has chosen a construction design that will remove all but 14 of the 83 trees at the bend … without any consideration of the plaintiffs’ religious exercise,” Greil said before the Texas Supreme Court on Dec. 4.

A spokesperson for the city of San Antonio said the city’s current plan includes “a reduction in the number of trees planned for removal from 105 trees to 77 trees for Phase I and II of the project. Forty trees will be relocated rather than removed altogether and approximately 270 trees will be planted on site.”

At the hearing, Texas Deputy Solicitor General William Cole argued that the amendment was “not a Swiss Army knife of religious liberty,” and “the amendment’s scope is designed to protect the right to gather.”

The Howard Payne University Model United Nations team recently took home three of the top five honors, including the top team at the Northwest Model United Nations Conference in Seattle, Wash. The HPU team won outstanding delegate in the beginner committee, outstanding delegate in the intermediate committee and the “Outstanding Delegation” award. Model U.N. is a simulation in which students from various schools participate as delegates of assigned countries. They then advocate for their country’s perspective on an issue. The goal is for students to experience how countries with different viewpoints would attempt to reach peaceful solutions to international issues. Sophomore Maddie Duncan, Guy D. Newman Honors Academy and psychology major, was named the Outstanding Delegate in the General Assembly, out of 50 students. Senior Hannah Parnell, Honors Academy and psychology major, was named Outstanding Delegate in the Economic and Social Committee, comprised of 36 students who all had competed in Model U.N. conference before. Senior Sadie Willie, Honors Academy and jurisprudence major, coach and head delegate of the team, helped prepare the team for the competition, half of whom never had competed before. Additional HPU team members include Andrew Mathis; Kellen McKee; Hannah Jordan; Michael Jones; and Madison Jenkins. There were 132 students from multiple countries and 10 other universities who participated in the conference, including the eight students from HPU.

East Texas Baptist University has been awarded a $2,208,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Strengthening Institutions Program. This Title III grant, titled Project G.P.A.—Grow! Perform! Achieve!, will be dispersed over the next five years to enhance ETBU’s academic support initiatives and student success programs. The Strengthening Institutions Program is designed to help eligible higher education institutions become self-sufficient and expand their capacity to serve low-income students. By providing funds to improve and strengthen academic quality, institutional management and fiscal stability, the program enables universities like ETBU to deliver a transformative education while addressing the unique challenges faced by their student populations. The funding will allow ETBU to implement initiatives to improve student retention and success, with a particular focus on first-year students, student-athletes and Pell Grant recipients. Plans include renovating the Jarrett Library to create a centralized academic supportspace, equipping students with a collaborative environment designed to foster learning and development. The university also will expand its academic support services by hiring additional peer tutors and academic coaches for student-athletes to improve academic performance and increase four-year graduation rates. One hundred percent of these initiatives will be funded by the grant.

Houston Christian University’s inaugural Narrative Arts Conference is scheduled Jan. 18, 2025, in HCU’s Morris Family Center for Law & Liberty. The conference will feature guest speakers who explore the craft of storytelling in fiction, film, video games and more. With acclaimed songwriter and novelist Andrew Peterson opening the conference and featured sessions with bestselling author Bret Lott, Emmy Award-winning actor Tony Hale, and groundbreaking game designer Chris Skaggs, the Narrative Arts Conference will help writers and artists explore how to develop narrative skills, navigate creative industries and pursue excellence in community. Anchored by a shared Christian foundation, the department of narrative arts and conference guests hope to inspire and encourage a new generation of storytellers. Bret Lott will also give a free public reading in Belin Chapel at 7 p.m. on the Friday evening before the conference begins. For further information, visit https://hc.edu/narrative2025 or call 281-649-3600.

Hardin-Simmons University’s Cowgirl basketball team won the 200th game of head coach Kendra Whitehead’s career on Wednesday night, defeating Pacific University 78-73 in overtime. The Cowgirls fell behind heading into the half 39-31 to the Pacific Boxers. HSU came back in the second half and pushed the game to overtime 65-65. The Cowgirls outscored Pacific 13-8 in overtime to win 78-73. Aiken Semones scored 14 points for HSU, including six points in overtime. Jacqueline Berry led the team in scoring with 20 points and had 11 rebounds. Transfer Caroline Croft had 11 points for HSU and led with four assists. MaeSyn Gay led the Cowgirls in rebounding with a career-high 19 rebounds. Whitehead won No. 200 in her ninth season as a head coach and seventh year back at HSU with an overall record of 200-52.

Wayland Baptist University hosted the Greater Plainview community for “Lighting Up Wayland,” Dec. 5, for an evening of holiday cheer. The celebration immediately followed Plainview’s lighted downtown Christmas parade. The university joined the parade with a float featuring Micah Rodriguez Vega, Miss Wayland 2025, and Wayland PresidentDonna Hedgepath. The float led those at the parade to the Wayland campus. “Lighting Up Wayland” festivities included Hedgepath reading the Christmas story from the Bible to children and the ceremonial lighting of historic Gates Hall. The university’s choirs and staff led Christmas carols. Additional highlights included a visit from Santa Claus, delicious treats and hot cocoa, and plenty of festive photo opportunities around the illuminated campus.

Fall commencement

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor held commencement services for the Fall 2024 semester at Crusader Stadium. This was the university’s 168th graduating class, and an estimated 411 students were awarded degrees, including 295 baccalaureate degrees, 79 master’s degrees, and 37 doctoral degrees. Student recognitions during the ceremony included the Provost Medal for highest overall GPA, which was awarded to nine students who each graduated with perfect 4.0 grade point averages: Caroline Allen of San Antonio; Selah Marie Bentz of Fallbrook, Calif.; Gerald Adam Brady of Temple; Andrew Huneycutt of Leander; Rachel Leslie of Temple; Robert Benjamin Mills of Longview; Elise Ott of Cedar Hill; Emma Noelle Vaught of League City and Presley Shane Wall of Decatur. Yanelle Licona of Taylor received the President’s Award, presented to the graduating senior who has provided meritorious service to the university. The Loyalty Cup, awarded to the student most representative of the university’s ideals, traditions and spirit, was given to two students—Victoria Hernandez of Robstown and Isabella Ross of Katy.

East Texas Baptist University celebrated 202 graduates at its commencement ceremonies, conferring degrees to 140 undergraduate and 62 graduate students. The December 2024 graduating class marked the largest fall class in ETBU history. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin from West Virginia delivered the commencement address during the morning ceremony, urging graduates to embrace their calling and approach life with a spirit of unity and collaboration. In the afternoon ceremony, Karen O’Dell Bullock was awarded an honorary doctorate and delivered the keynote address. Bullock has taught at the undergraduate, master’s degree and doctoral levels for more than 30 years. She held leadership roles at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dallas Baptist University and B.H. Carroll Theological Seminary, where she recently retired but continues teaching and mentoring doctoral students. Bullock serves as executive vice president of the Baptist Center for Global Concerns, addressing global inequities through leadership training, agricultural projects and medical clinics. She is a passionate advocate for Christian heritage, missions and justice, and also chairs the Baptist World Alliance Commission Council. Each semester, ETBU President J. Blair Blackburn presents an award to a graduate who represents a Christian leader, scholar and servant on campus and in the local community. Hannah Hobson, a Bachelor of Arts graduate in worship studies, was honored with the President’s Award for the Fall 2024 graduating class. A native of Shreveport, La., Hobson maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA throughout her time at ETBU and has been a cornerstone of ETBU’s Chapel Bands for the past three and a half years.

Hardin-Simmons University will host its December commencement ceremonies at the Abilene Convention Center at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Dec. 16. The College of Health Professions, Holland School of Sciences and Mathematics, and the Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing will be included in the morning ceremony. Kelley College of Business and Professional Studies, the College of Arts and Media, and the Cynthia Ann Parker College of Liberal Arts will be included in the afternoon ceremony. A livestream will be available on the day of commencement on the university’s YouTube page.

Sixty-one Wayland Baptist University students are scheduled to participate in commencement ceremonies at 2 p.m., Dec. 14, at Hutcherson Center on the university’s Plainview campus. Candidates for graduation include two students scheduled to receive doctoral degrees, 20 students set to receive master’s degrees, 38 students planning to receive bachelor’s degrees and one student set to be awarded an associate’s degree. Livestream coverage of the ceremony will be available here.