Pope Francis can be described as an "evangelical Catholic," theologian George Weigel told The Christian Post Tuesday.

Weigel is a Catholic theologian and distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He has written many books on Catholicism, including a biography of Pope John Paul II. His most recent book, published last month by Basic Books, is Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church.

In an email interview, Weigel talked about the new pope, Pope Francis, and how he compares to his predecessors. Here is a transcript of that interview. more >>

Having your own hunger for God is an essential foundation for ministry work, well-known pastor and theologian John Piper told those attending and watching the Internet livestream of a Christian leadership conference held in Raleigh, N.C. on Tuesday.

"The foundation of your ministry is a hunger for God," said Piper at the Advance 13 conference. "Above that, the foundation for your ministry is being satisfied in all that God is for you in Jesus. The goal of that ministry is to help people go there. All your life, give yourself to that – to bring those people from loving the world, being satisfied in the world, until they put all that to death and to praise Jesus as their all satisfying treasure. That's the goal in ministry, to help them get there."

Piper, whose last sermon as the lead pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis will be on Easter Sunday, said he believes that ministry leaders should have the joy of Christ inside them in order to lead well. more >>

Matthew Vines, a Harvard-educated gay Christian who sparked a great deal of controversy in the church community last year with his in-depth analysis on why the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, has launched a new leadership training conference aimed at teaching Christians how to lead LGBT-friendly churches and communities.

In a video announcing the project, Vines says The Reformation Project will "train, connect and empower gay Christians and their allies to reform church teaching on homosexuality from the ground up."

Vines gained a wide recognition and stirred controversy last year with his hour-long YouTube video, which has gained over half a million views, where he presented a detailed argument on why he believes the Bible does not condemn gay people. more >>

Several news sites have accused televangelist Pat Robertson, host of CBN's "The 700 Club," of pushing a prosperity gospel after he encouraged viewers to join the Club for $20 a month following a story about a Christian family that came out bankruptcy.

Opposing Views and Raw Story both claimed that Robertson was asking "poor families who could not pay their bills" to "send him $20 a month," but the actual CBN video where the televangelist explains his comments does not quite tie in with those alleged statements.

"They were faithful," Robertson concluded following a CBN report on the story of D.L. and Deborah Hobby, a Christian husband and wife who kept on tithing despite going bankrupt. Eventually, their business started to rebound, and two years later they were back on their feet – thanking God for giving them hope that things can get better. more >>

Phillip Pullman, the famous atheist author behind the best-selling His Dark Materials trilogy, has recently said that Jesus Christ is a great speaker that children in school can learn from.

"Jesus was a great storyteller. To invent the story about the Good Samaritan, you hear it once, you never forget it, you tell it to somebody else and it still has the same effect. The man was a genius of storytelling, if nothing else," Pullman said at the Oxford Literary Festival on Sunday, according to The Australian News.

Pullman, who is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society and supporter of the British Humanist Association, insisted that it is "very important" that children be familiar with biblical stories, as well as classic folk tales. more >>

An emeritus professor of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands is claiming in his newly-released book that a 1,200-year-old Egyptian text depicts Jesus as a shape-shifter and Pontius Pilate as a compassionate person.

The author also claims that the text describes the reason behind Judas' kissing of Jesus, as well as offers a different timeline for the Easter season, stating that Jesus was arrested on a Tuesday rather than a Thursday.

Roelof van den Broek makes these claims in Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the Life and the Passion of Christ. more >>