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CP Daily distills the most essential Christian news of the day, recapping compelling headlines and important stories. The show, which runs weekday mornings, offers news and analysis from across denominational lines, exploring the award-winning faith, cultural and political content published each day by The Christian Post. Tune in to "CP Daily" on your favorite podcast platforms.
A new analysis from Lifeway Research finds that adults made up the majority of baptisms in Southern Baptist Convention churches last year. Of the more than 263,000 people baptized in 2025, 33% were adults aged 30 and older, 20% were young adults, 25% were youth, and 22% were children — a notable shift from decades past, when minors accounted for roughly two-thirds of annual SBC baptisms. Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said, "The sharp declines in the number of children and youth being baptized in Southern Baptist congregations coincide with declines in those populations in America." The denomination's Annual Church Profile showed membership fell about 3% to 12.33 million, while worship attendance rose to 4.5 million and baptisms climbed nearly 5% — a fifth straight year of growth.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/adults-accounted-for-more-than-half-of-sbc-baptisms-last-year.html
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American missionary pilot Kevin Rideout is free after more than nine months in captivity in West Africa. President Donald Trump and the evangelical mission organization SIM International both confirmed the release Friday. Writing on Truth Social, Trump said, "Kevin Rideout, a wonderful Christian Missionary, is back in United States Custody," adding that he was "kidnapped by Jihadi terrorists in West Africa — The epicenter of Islamist terrorism," and telling him, "The United States of America looks forward to welcoming you HOME." Rideout, 48, was abducted outside his home in Niamey, Niger, on October 21st, 2025. SIM says he's in good health and will soon be reunited with his wife, Krista, and their children. His release follows that of former Marine Robert Gilman, freed by Russia earlier this week.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/trump-mission-org-confirm-release-of-kidnapped-missionary.html
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The Israel Defense Forces have sealed off Taybeh, the only all-Christian village in the West Bank, declaring it a "closed military zone" — a move that bars Israelis and foreigners from entering. The IDF says the order was issued to "protect residents in the area" after "several violent attacks by Israelis in the region." Over the past year, residents say settlers have vandalized the village, tried to burn down the church, torched cars and set fire to olive groves. Israeli authorities have condemned the incidents, but no arrests have been made. Critics warn such closures can keep journalists and international observers out while leaving settlers in place. Father Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Church, told Vatican News the situation has "deteriorated dramatically," adding, "We feel forgotten, and we feel entirely alone... international presence and pressure are vital right now." He's appealed directly to Pope Leo XIV.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-village-in-west-bank-closed-off-by-idf-to-protect-it.html
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Bestselling author Eric Metaxas is warning that the United States has drifted far from the biblical convictions that shaped its founding and that the country is now, in his words, "living on fumes." In an interview tied to America's 250th anniversary, part of a series examining faith, freedom and the nation's future, Metaxas argues that Americans have largely forgotten the scriptural ideas and moral commitments that inspired the Revolution and the nation's founding documents. He believes that loss carries serious consequences for the country's future, contending that liberty cannot be sustained apart from the religious framework that produced it. Metaxas, known for his biographies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and William Wilberforce, has long urged Christians to engage the culture, cautioning that a nation coasting on inherited moral capital eventually runs out of fuel.
https://www.christianpost.com/video/eric-metaxas-the-us-is-living-on-fumes-after-abandoning-bible.html
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Authorities in two states are investigating the decades-old deaths of a retired Seventh-day Adventist pastor's wives, both now reclassified as homicides. Police in Gresham, Oregon, have named 86-year-old John Thomas Bridges, now living in Sheldon, Missouri, as a suspect in the July 2nd, 1993 death of his 45-year-old wife, Astrid Bridges, a case originally ruled accidental. Detectives traveled to Missouri, conducting interviews and serving a search warrant. Meanwhile, Louisville Metro Police's Cold Case Unit is investigating the 1972 death of his first wife, Joyce "Mable" Bridges, whose body was exhumed in 2015 and her death ruled a homicide. Bridges has not been arrested or charged. "We're not going to rush to judgement," said Detective Adam Wright. Lead Detective Tyson Conroy added, "I am confident we will be able to get justice for Astrid."
https://www.christianpost.com/news/authorities-probe-decades-old-deaths-of-pastors-wives.html
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Federal prosecutors have dismantled what they call one of the largest marriage fraud schemes in U.S. history, charging eleven people with arranging more than a thousand sham marriages over roughly a decade. The Justice Department says the multimillion-dollar ring, based mainly in New York City but stretching from Connecticut to Florida and overseas to China and Vanuatu, helped foreign nationals — primarily Chinese citizens — obtain legal status. Foreign nationals allegedly paid up to one hundred thousand dollars, while participating U.S. citizens received up to thirty thousand, and recruiters about five thousand per person. Couples reportedly met only after obtaining marriage licenses, then staged weddings, opened joint accounts and were coached for immigration interviews. Attorney General Todd Blanche said such schemes are "a deliberate affront to the United States and our laws." Each defendant faces up to fifteen years.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/decades-long-marriage-fraud-ring-dismantled-11-charged-report.html
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Mel Gibson is offering new details about his long-awaited follow-up to 2004's "The Passion of the Christ." Speaking at Fan Expo Boston, Gibson said "The Resurrection of the Christ" has wrapped principal photography after 134 days of filming across Italy, including Rome, Matera, Bari and Brindisi, and is now in post-production. Both parts were shot simultaneously. "I'm editing and doing visual effects. It's pretty crazy. I don't think it's anything anyone would expect," Gibson said. Unlike the original, which used Aramaic and Latin, both films will be in English because, as Gibson put it, "the theological download you have to go through is so complex." The story will also be non-linear. Lionsgate has set releases for May 6, 2027, and May 25, 2028. Gibson called it "a mission I've carried for over twenty years."
https://www.christianpost.com/news/mel-gibson-reveals-passion-of-the-christ-sequels-are-in-english.html