Joel Osteen, bestselling motivational author and evangelical pastor of America's fastest-growing megachurch, was among a small group that included Mormon Sen. Mike Lee, to meet privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome, this week.

Osteen said he was honored to meet with Pope Francis, who leads the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

"I like the fact that this pope is trying to make the church larger, not smaller. He's not pushing people out but making the church more inclusive. That resonated with me," Osteen told the Houston Chronicle. more >>

A Christian publishing house has recently unveiled a new translation of the Holy Bible labeling itself "most modern King James translation in 30 years."

Known as the Modern English Version, this English translation of the Bible was produced by Charisma House and officially launched last Friday.

Tessie DeVore, executive vice president of Charisma House, said in a statement last week that the translation strove to be as literal as possible. more >>

[UPDATE] 5/23/14 3:11 p.m. This story has been updated to include a response by TGC Executive Director Ben Peays.

Tullian Tchividjian says D. A. Carson and Tim Keller's claims about how his departure from The Gospel Coalition transpired are misleading and a "flat-out lie."

Tchividjian, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Florida, told The Christian Post on Thursday that the statement published by founders Keller and Carson on The Gospel Coalition's website wrongly characterized a meeting in Florida between him and TGC Executive Director Ben Peays. more >>

WASHINGTON – A group of about 150 Christian clergy, leaders, and Congressmen have signed a pledge to support persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

Meant as a stance of solidarity with Christians in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, the pledge was entered into the congressional record by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.).

"Now facing an existential threat to their presence in the lands where Christianity has its roots, the Churches in the Middle East fear they have been largely ignored by their coreligionists in the West," reads the pledge in part. more >>

Religious groups have expressed approval for the recent United States Supreme Court decision in the case Town of Greece v. Galloway that allows prayers to be spoken at government meetings.

The Rev. Rob Schenck, president and lead missionary with the group Faith and Action in the Nation's Capital, told The Christian Post that he was "delightfully surprised" by the Court's ruling.

"Even if [the decision] did uphold prayer in public legislative sessions, I wasn't sure how clear that would be. This is crystal clear," said Schenck. "I would say, from reading the opinion, this is going to give very clear guidance in the future and it's going to frustrate a lot of people who will attempt to get prayer at legislative sessions or any kind of public gathering shut down." more >>

A coalition of religious groups have sent letters to the National Rifle Association and Sarah Palin in response to the former Alaska governor calling waterboarding the way she would "baptize terrorists."

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) sent letters to Palin and the NRA Wednesday calling Palin's words "unacceptable."

"Ms. Palin's words are an unacceptable conflation of church and state that represents the worst of what is possible when political conflicts are expressed in theological terms," reads the letter sent to the NRA. more >>