3+ week, 4+ day ago (661+ words) A woman's laptop was open to an article about audience reactions to a recent Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington. This was apparently incriminating evidence for Chinese authorities. The woman surveilled was known to police to be a Falun Gong practitioner, because she was first detained for practicing Falun Gong in 1999, according to court documents, and had subsequently been detained several times for refusing to give up her faith. Prosecutors argued that because the woman had previously been sentenced to five years' imprisonment for her faith and yet was still practicing Falun Gong, she was a "recidivist" warranting a higher sentence. An Epoch Times review of court documents of prisoners of conscience arrested by the Chinese communist regime found that among the supposedly illegal material in the dissidents' possession were CDs, images, and…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago (161+ words) In this installment of "Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages," we visit a 4th-century Jerusalem church that survived centuries of conflict. Church of the Holy Sepulchre: The Holiest Christian Site Nestled in the narrow streets of the Old City of Jerusalem is the monumentally important Church of the Holy Sepulchre'the most sacred Christian complex. The church is believed to be on the specific site within Golgotha, also known as Calvary, where Jesus Christ"s Crucifixion and Resurrection occurred. The original ecclesiastical construction, ordered by Emperor Constantine, was consecrated in 335. In the nearly 1,700 years since, much of its architecture has sustained damage from conquest, pillaging, earthquake, and fire, necessitating repeated reconstruction. Today, one can see architecture that showcases elements of Roman-Byzantine, medieval Romanesque, 19th-century, and modern-day influences. One Panel, Two Paintings: Madrid"s Memling Masterpiece The Panorama That Brought Versailles…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (56+ words) This medieval German nun wrote music and plays, recorded her visions, and broadened the European understanding of Christianity. Hildegard of Bingen: The Music of the Living Light Illness, Visions, and the Living Light 5 Aphorisms From Pascal's "Pens'es' Sophie Scholl and The White Rose Petrarch: Befriending the Ancients Hypatia and the Price of Intellectual Freedom...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (219+ words) The rituals and meaning behind a squire's transformation into a knight were far more spiritual than most know. The Ceremonies and Significance of a Knight's Dubbing In the silence of night's lost hours, before an altar and an icon, with candlelight flickering over cold stones, a man kneels. On the altar lie his weapons; their placement symbolize that they belong to God and must be used to defend justice, truth, and honor. The squire pours out his heart to God all through the dark night, begging for the strength he will need to fulfill his calling as a knight. When the red stripes of dawn finally cut the sky, the squire knows that the moment of his transition to knighthood isn't far off. The elaborate ceremonies surrounding the creation of a knight in medieval European society reflected the high ideals…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (281+ words) We are living in the most materially abundant moment in all of human history, yet most of us move through life unaware of it. We turn on a faucet and clean water appears. We flip a switch and light fills a room. With the tap of a finger, we can access the sum total of human knowledge, entertainment, and communication. We not only expect these things, we consider them normal. But none of this is normal. It is extraordinary. Civilization did not happen by accident. It was built piece by piece by millions of people, many with blistered hands, injured bodies, and some who never made it home again. Even those with very little financially still live with more comfort and security than kings and queens throughout most of history. The average American has food preservation better than royal cellars,…...

4+ day, 19+ hour ago (36+ words) Let's Give Thanks for the Pilgrims' Legacy of Freedom Why Family Dinners Are Important Another Year, Another Depressing Report on the State of American Education Gen Z Rediscovers Faith How Remote Work Changed Working Moms...

6+ day, 9+ hour ago (212+ words) Despite intense suffering and hardship in their new home, the Pilgrims gathered together in gratitude. More Than Just Names: The Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving The first Thanksgiving calls to mind a slideshow of images: the "Mayflower," Plymouth Rock, men in funny black hats, Indians, and turkey. Except for wild turkey, which may have been absent from the menu for that feast, these generalities ring true, but they cause us to forget that those men, women, and children we call Pilgrims were flesh-and-blood human beings. Think of what they had done and endured. With many of them seeking escape from England's harsh religious codes of the time, 102 passengers boarded a small English ship in Southampton on Sept. 26, 1620, sailed the rough Atlantic seas for 66 days, missed their intended destination by several hundred miles, and selected the place they deemed suitable for…...

1+ week, 58+ min ago (726+ words) Chen Yan died on Nov. 8, according to the Minghui report. She was 45. This marks the latest death in an ongoing and systemic religious persecution of Falun Gong that the Chinese regime has carried out since 1999. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice centered on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. Introduced to the public in China in the early 1990s, it gained widespread popularity, reaching between 70 million and 100 million practitioners by the end of the decade, according to official estimates. Chen's parents told Minghui how they learned of her death. Three days after Chen was admitted to Liaoning Province Women's Prison, they were called in to see her body'eyes open, black viscous liquid oozing from her open mouth, hair matted, according to the report. Prison guards refused the couple an autopsy report, asked them to sign…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago (90+ words) A Story of Radical Faith, Forgiveness, and the Grace That Heals a Community This is a story that has to be told. It is a story of radical faith, of community, of tragedy, and of living in the Lord's grace. The Hardest Part of Any Business Isn't the Work'It's Us The Call to Bring Home the Meat: Why Men Still Need to Hunt The Thousand Little Lies We Tell'and Their Cost to the Soul Ungrounded: What Happens When Money Loses Its Roots in the Earth...

3+ week, 6+ day ago (60+ words) Standing Knee Deep in a River (Dying of Thirst)" is the Gentle Giant" of country music"s everyday spiritual reminder. Don Williams: The Importance of Counting Our Blessings Carter Scratch": The Transformative Guitar Technique From Tokyo to Tennessee: Japan"s Love of Country Music For Boston": College Football"s Famous Fight Song The Chambermaid": Rediscovering the Huguenots" Spiritual Life...