The leading Republican presidential candidates had a spirited back-and-forth discussion during their first debate of the 2024 election season on Wednesday despite the leading candidate – former President Donald Trump – not being on stage.

Trump’s absence gave the candidates battling for second – including Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott – more time to talk. All total, eight candidates qualified and were on stage in Milwaukee, Wis.

Here are five key takeaways from the first debate:

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A viral video of pastor Greg Locke destroying a dollhouse doesn’t tell the full story, says a spokesperson for the Tennessee-based minister.

Two teen boys were sentenced to two years in prison in Austria for conspiring to kill as many Christians as possible at a middle school in the Styria city of Bruck an der Mur.

Parents across the country may want to consider contraceptives and birth control pills for their teens’ back-to-school supplies, according to a new USA Today column.

Christian singer Dante Bowe says Maverick City Music “paused” its relationship with him because he had started his solo career.

A video of pastor Greg Locke has gone viral, showing him demolishing a dollhouse with a Bible to represent a Christian destroying "strongholds" in their life.

At least 850 people are still missing almost two weeks after wildfires desecrated Maui, Hawaii, killing 115 people.

Are aliens real? Do UFOs really exist? These questions, once relegated to the confines of conspiratorial enterprises, are now legitimately being pondered among some scientists, academics — and even in the halls of Congress. It’s an issue Dr. Hugh Ross, an astrophysicist and apologist, has long researched and explored.

“I became a UFO expert, but not on purpose,” he recently told “Billy Hallowell’s Playing With Fire” podcast. “I was an amateur astronomer before I became a professional astronomer.”

Ross eventually found himself handling UFO reports at universities, exploring claims people made about aliens and unidentified phenomena. And he came to some fascinating conclusions.

Grammy-winning Christian artist Dante Bowe is facing criticism from his fans for a new music video that some say crosses the line with depictions of scantily clad women and provocative dancing, including twerking.

Tim Keller, an influential author and pastor known for his dedication to urban ministry, died on May 19, 2023, after a years-long battle with pancreatic cancer. A memorial service was held at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in his honor on Tuesday, August 15.

During the service, Keller, the long-time pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, was remembered as a humble servant and a dedicated student of God’s Word.

In an article written by the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center Director Francis Collins for Christianity Today, Collins recalled asking Keller one Saturday in April near the end of his chemotherapy treatment stint at the NIH hospital if he’d like to hold an impromptu service in the hospital’s atrium. Keller said yes. Collins then asked Keller if he had any favorite hymns to suggest. Again, Keller said yes.

“Let’s sing six hymns in a particular order, because they tell the whole story of Christian faith and God’s care for us,” Collins recalled Keller saying.

Those same hymns were sung at Keller’s memorial service earlier this month.

Here are the six hymns sung at late pastor Tim Keller’s memorial service:

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