Palestinian terrorists say they fired more than 100 rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel this week.

The attacks started Tuesday evening and went into Wednesday morning, but Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system shot down many of the rockets.

According to Israel’s Channel 10, experts estimate more than 115 missiles and rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel. Others have estimated that number at around 130.

No one was killed in the attacks, but three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured from mortar fragments.

In response, the IDF struck 25 military targets in Gaza, the IDF said on its Twitter page.

“The IDF is prepared for a variety of scenarios and is determined to act against terror operatives,” the IDF said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahusaid that since Tuesday, the military has “hit dozens of terror targets, delivering the hardest blow in years.”

“Those responsible for the escalation, inspired by Iran, are Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations,” said Netanyahu. “I will not detail our plans because I do not want the enemy to know what is in store, but one thing must be made clear to them: When they try us, they pay. And if they continue to try us, they will pay even more.”

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks on Israel. The groups…

Members of a Baptist church in Red Bank, South Carolina, have caused a stir for recently voting to remove a statue of Jesus from the front of their building because it appears too “Catholic in nature.”

A WAFB report said members of the Red Bank Baptist Church voted 131 to 40 to remove the statue that was created by a former member and graced the front of their church for more than a decade, because it was causing confusion about their theology among members of the church community.

Jeff Wright, Red Bank’s senior pastor, and Mike Dennis, the church’s chairman of deacons, said in a letter dated May 10 that former member and artist Bert Baker, who hand carved the statue for the church in 2007, now has until May 31 to remove the statue.

“God has gifted you with a tremendous artistic ability and we are thankful that you shared it with our congregation and are using this talent to bring God glory,” the church officials wrote Baker in the letter.

“Recently, it has been brought to our attention that the art is causing confusion in the community. We have discovered that there are people that view the art as Catholic in nature. We…

Amid growing extreme Hindu nationalism in India, dozens of speakers have called for concerted action to uphold the country’s constitution and fundamental rights, at a conference to mark four years of government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“There is a grave threat to plurality,” Professor Ganesh Narayan Devy, a scholar on India’s religious and linguistic diversity, told the 25-27 May ‘Citizens’ Conclave’ on ‘Building an Inclusive India’ in New Delhi, attended by over 800 delegates from across the country.

“We are living at a time when you are questioned about the food you eat, about the god you worship and branded as anti-national for expressing a different view [contrary to Hindu nationalism],” said Devy.

“They [Hindu nationalists] demonise and attack us: 2017 saw a 20 per cent increase in the number of atrocities against Christians,” Tehmina Arora, a lawyer and director of rights group ADF India, told the conference.

On the status of Christian minorities, she added: “When you go to police, they hardly cooperate and often refuse to register complaints. There is a growing culture of impunity. We could file only 25 criminal cases, as against the 240+ incidents reported in the year.”

Instead, she said that anyone who is accused of converting Hindus “will be beaten up”. “You [can be] taken to a police station…

With its dwindling rates of attendance at religious services and rising numbers of churches shuttered or sold, Western Europe seems to be the region of the world where the outlook for faith is bleakest.

Roman Catholicism’s Pope Francis was the latest to lament this trend, saying only last week that Western society seemed like “a journey ending in a shipwreck, with the survivors trying to build a raft.”

A new survey by the Pew Research Center looks past the headlines that worry the established churches to ask what Western Europeans think about religion. The results, issued Tuesday (May 29), suggest a more nuanced picture.

Despite the region’s widespread secularization, 64 percent of the 24,599 adults Pew surveyed in 15 countries still identify as Christians, even if only 18 percent say they attend church at least once a month.

At 46 percent of the total sample, nonpracticing Christians make up the largest single group in the survey, almost double the 24 percent of religiously unaffiliated — atheists, agnostics and “nones” — that often dominate commentaries about the state of Christianity in its erstwhile stronghold.

These nonpracticing Christians have their own mix of religious and social views, sometimes leaning more toward their churchgoing neighbors and sometimes more toward the unaffiliated. These can have political effects as well, for example in the…

One of the oldest nonprofit organizations dedicated to distributing Bibles around the world will soon require all employees to adhere to orthodox Christian beliefs and heed a conservative code of sexual ethics.

Employees are resigning in protest of the new policy, which will effectively prohibit sexually active LGBT people and couples in cohabitating relationships from working for the American Bible Society. But the organization stands by it as a measure intended to bring “unity and clarity.”

In a statement issued in response to RNS questions, President and CEO Roy Peterson wrote: “We did this because we believe a staff made up of people with a deep and personal connection to the Bible will bring unity and clarity as we continue our third century of ministry.”

He added: “We understand there are differing views on these matters.” He also said: “This decision does not signal intent to advocate or champion any cause other than increased engagement with the Bible.”

The American Bible Society, founded 202 years ago to publish, distribute and translate the Bible, presented its “Affirmation of Biblical Community” to employees in December. It requires employees to “refrain from sexual contact outside the marriage covenant,” which it defined as man and wife.

The document also requires employees to be “involved in a local Christian…