Church attendance still shy of pre-pandemic levels although most have reopened

Democrats will maintain control of the U.S. Senate as Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is projected to defeat her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt, in a tightly contested midterm race in The Silver State. With Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris being the tiebreaking vote, Democrats will again have a narrow majority with at least 50 seats in the upper chamber for the second half of President Joe Biden’s first term in office with the potential to expand the majority with Georgia's runoff election next month.

A petition signed by over 32,000 people was delivered to the White House Friday, calling on the United States government to reinstate Nigeria to its list of countries where religious freedom conditions are most concerning after the Biden administration removed Nigeria from the list last year.

Anniversaries of memorable events that occurred this week — Nov. 13 through Nov. 19 — in Christian history include the birth of Saint Augustine of Hippo and the death of a prominent medieval church figure.

Peter Demos writes that by definition, a "fake Christian" is not a Christian at all and that people can either believe Jesus is the son of God or not, but cannot fake the condition of their hearts.

Wallace B. Henley writes that it's strange for a politician who depends on the conservative Christian vote to ridicule an opponent as "sanctimonious." He believes now is not the time to assault the character and personhood of someone who may be needed later to help them "win the war."

The film, "1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture," directed by self-identified "lesbian Christian" Sharon "Rocky" Roggio claims that a "mistranslation" of the Bible is to blame for Christians believing that homosexuality is a sin. The claim has drawn responses from a New Testament studies professor and a Christian who walked away from the LGBT lifestyle.

Oklahoma megachurch Pastor Michael Todd advised Christians not to let "costumes of contamination" poison their words, attitudes, deeds or stop God's calling in their lives.