(RNS) — It’s been a year since beloved progressive Christian author and speaker Rachel Held Evans died unexpectedly — and in that year, a common refrain sounded again and again online among her many readers and friends.

“I wish Rachel was here,” they would say, when her closest friends and collaborators release books she had encouraged.

“I wonder what Rachel would say about this,” they would mourn, as theological and political divides deepen and a pandemic sweeps the globe.

Matthew Vines has had those moments, too.

“Let me count the ways,” Vines said.

The author of “God and the Gay Christian” said he finds himself spending less time on Twitter now that Evans is no longer there.

Evans had a way of shaping the conversation online, he said. She provided a “grounding center in conversations and discourse” for all kinds of people — those on similar journeys from conservative evangelical Christianity to progressive Christianity, those who were beginning to doubt or ask hard questions about their faith, those who had walked away from church years ago or who were made to feel unwelcome there and never looked back.

“She was threading a lot of needles that are very difficult to thread, and in so doing, she was a bridge and a bridge who was able to reach a very broad spectrum of people,” Vines said.

He misses that.

But, he said, Evans put so much of herself…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — After nearly 50 days of a strict lockdown in their homes, Italians flocked to parks and strolled the streets on Monday (May 4), the first day of “Phase Two,” when the Italian government loosened some of the restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Over the weekend, the Italian Catholic bishops, after a prolonged and sometimes strained debate with local authorities, also secured a deal with the government with the hopes that by the end of May, Italian Catholics will also be able to attend Mass.

“It feels like a dream,” a woman told Religion News Service on Monday, her voice muffled by a protective mask as she enjoyed a walk around the grounds of the Villa Pamphili in Rome.

After nearly three months of staying indoors, the cohesion that marked the worst of the pandemic had begun to wear off. As the “curve” of rising coronavirus cases flattened, fewer and fewer Romans joined to sing from their balconies in the evenings with neighbors, and more and more of them attempted to leave their homes, testing the boundaries of the ever-changing decrees and regulations.

Catholics, many of whom were disappointed to have been denied in-person services since before Easter, have also begun to raise questions about religious freedom as the government refused to allow them to attend Mass in the first wave of openings.

In Italy, which still has…

In a video released by ChinaAid, Chinese government officials appeared to raid a church service in the Fujian province of China.

The video showed officers dragging a man away from the other church attendees while the church members tried to help the man, CBN News reports.

“In a video taken at the scene, officers and attendees of Xingguang Church shout as they engage in a physical altercation,” ChinaAid said in a statement. “As they block the entrance, officials drag a Christian to the door, with other congregants fighting along with him.”

It’s unclear why the officials apprehended the man, and ChinaAid says it is expecting more information.

This is the latest persecution and violence against Christians in the country. In April, a Protestant pastor was arrested in China and charged with “subversion.” Police raided Zhao Huaiguo’s home and arrested him.

Zhao’s wife says she thinks police detained her husband because “he had posted or forwarded something from overseas to do with the coronavirus epidemic.”

Zhao’s church, the Bethel Church in Cili, is not affiliated with the state-mandated denomination, the Three-Self Patriotic Association.

A 2020 report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom says China is one of the worse places for religious freedom.

The USCIRF report, released on April 28, said that “the state of religious freedom in China has continued to…

President Trump said Sunday he believes a vaccine will be available by January, a timeline that is months ahead of what some experts have said is possible.  

“We are very confident that we’re going to have a vaccine at the end of the year,” Trump said during a Fox News virtual town hall.

Trump’s comments came several days after Bloomberg reported the Trump administration had launched a project known as “Operation Warp Speed” to expedite the normally slow vaccine research and production process. 

The goal, according to Bloomberg, is to have 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine by January. To accomplish that, the government will shoulder much of the financial risk of drug companies and pay for the research and production of multiple vaccines, knowing that several might fail. 

The manufacturing of the vaccine candidates would begin before it’s known if they work. The result could be millions of unusable doses but — hopefully — at least one successful candidate.  

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Today Show he believes it’s possible to have hundreds of millions of doses ready by January.

“I’m obviously part of the team that’s involved in that,” Fauci said. “… I think that is doable if things fall in the right place.” 

Fauci emphasized the importance of getting “a vaccine that is safe, and…

A biological woman who identifies as a transgender man and gave birth to a child lost an appeal Wednesday to be listed as the father on the birth certificate.

Freddy McConnell was born female and had a mastectomy as an adult but became pregnant via sperm donation. The baby was born in 2018. 

McConnell wanted to be listed as the child’s father on the birth certificate but was told by the registrar that British law would not permit it. 

McConnell then filed suit. A lower court ruled against McConnell last year. This week, the Court of Appeal also ruled against the transgender man.

“In our view, it is not possible simply to say that Parliament has ‘de-coupled’ the concept of ‘mother’ from gender,” the three-judge panel unanimously ruled.

The word “mother,” the court said, has special significance in British law. The justices pointed to the Children Act of 1989, which it said benefits the child by requiring a mother to be listed. 

“[The Act] provides that a mother has automatic parental responsibility for a child from the moment of birth,” the justices ruled. “No-one else has that automatic parental responsibility, including the father. … The fact of giving birth to a child has that effect as a matter of operation of law. It can readily be understood why this could be important in practice. 

“From the moment of birth someone must have parental responsibility…

(RNS) — President Trump’s job approval ratings among some faith groups jumped in March as the number of coronavirus infections began to spread across the country.

But that “Trump bump” has all but disappeared.

A new poll released Thursday (April 30) from PRRI shows Trump’s approval has fallen on average by 6 percentage points and is now more in keeping with 2019 levels among most demographic groups.

Among white evangelicals, Trump’s favorability ratings fell to 66% from a high of 77% in March. White Catholic approval ratings of the president dropped to 48% from 60%. Perhaps the largest drop was among white mainline Protestants. Only 44% approved of the president in April, down from 62% in March. (Among nonwhite Protestants, Trump’s favorability ratings did not change.)

Overall, 43% of Americans hold mostly or very favorable views of Trump (about the same as in February shortly after he was acquitted of impeachment charges).

In mid-March, it was 49%.

“The jump we saw in March was unusually high, particularly for white evangelicals,” said Natalie Jackson, research director at PRRI. “It was one of the highest favorability records we saw for Trump among that group. What we’re seeing in April is a return to where they had been previously.”

Jackson attributed the March bump to a “rally around the flag” effect, as more Americans saw Trump on TV daily responding to the virus as…

JOS, Nigeria, May 4, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 13 Christians and kidnapped 13 others in attacks on April 23-25 in north-central Nigeria, sources said.

The attacks on five villages in the counties of Kajuru and Chikun in Kaduna state displaced more than 1,000 people from their homes. The sources said those killed were members of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Catholic, Baptist, United Church of Christ in Nations (HEKAN) or Assemblies of God churches.

The herdsmen invaded Kikwari and Kujeni communities in Kajuru County on April 25 at about 3 p.m., said Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), in a press statement.

“The armed herdsmen stormed Kikwari Village, Kajuru LGA, and shot three persons and carted away livestock and foodstuff in large quantities as residents fled for dear lives,” Binniyat said.

He identified those killed as Ado Maisamari, a 56-year-old father of eight children; Titus Amos, 27, survived by his wife and three children; and Habila Amos, 25, survived by his wife and child.

“All the villagers numbering over 1,000 are now taking refuge with relations in nearby towns under tough conditions in this grim period of coronavirus lockdown,” Binniyat said.

The herdsmen attacked Kujeni village on April 23, killing three Christians and kidnapping 12 others, he said. The armed herdsmen…