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"Our glorious diversity - our diversities of faiths, and colors, and creeds - that is not a threat to who we are; it makes us who we are," Michelle Obama said Friday during her last public remarks as first lady. She visibly was overcome with emotion as she reflected on her eight years in the White House, and delivered personal messages of empowerment through education, one of her treasured causes.

Immediately following a gunman's shooting attack on passengers at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport in Florida Friday afternoon, groups and individuals began to send prayers for the victims, and their families and friends. Some say they are praying for a nation during this current transition period, which is also riddled with confusion, anger and sorrow.

A gunman opened fire Friday afternoon at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, shooting at least nine people and killing one, Broward County officials said. Local law enforcement sources say a gunman was in custody.

Requests are circulating on social media platforms for people to pray for gospel-recording artist James Fortune, who was hit by a drunk driver in four-car accident Wednesday night. Fortune was headed to church at the time of the crash.

Wagner de Lima Figueiredo, a 34-year-old Paraguayan cowboy, died on New Year's Day 2017 in a motorcycle accident in Brazil. Figueiredo's best friend for many years was his horse, Sereno. Figueiredo's brother, Wando, felt Sereno should be at the funeral, alongside Wagner's human friends and family members. But the range of emotions Sereno exuded during the funeral procession and at the coffin took many mourners aback.

New U.S Army regulations released on Tuesday state service members at the brigade level now will be granted religious accommodations to wear turbans, skullcaps, beards and hijabs, in accordance with their faith, effective immediately. The new policies also permit religious bracelets, as well as dreadlocks for female soldiers. Permissions of this type previously were made on a case-by-case basis.

Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life staffers released a new study that indicates one of two vastly different realities: either "a profound theological dissonance" exists between American people and those they elect as their representatives in Congress, or "a great number of those representatives lie to people who take surveys," proposes Charles P. Pierce, lead political blogger for Esquire.

India's Supreme Court officials on Monday ruled future political elections must be secular in approach, and specifically banned the use of religion and caste in political activities prior to state polls, citing that such affiliations often determine the fate of campaigns.

New York Police Department (NYPD) managers now allow police officers for religious reasons to wear turbans in place of traditional police caps, and to have beards up to an inch away from their faces.

Northern California county officials recently reversed their decision to ban a Christian congregation from meeting in a barn. Located just outside of Oroville, Calif. in Butte County, a group of Christians had been holding meetings in a barn, but county officials informed the owners of the barn and property they could no longer use the space to host church services. The same officials later even banned church gatherings in an open pasture on the property.

Christians are among the most persecuted religious groups in the world, with approximately 90,000 killed for their faith in 2016, stated representatives of a leading religious study group. Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) director Massimo Introvigne told Vatican Radio that half a billion Christians around the globe are unable to express their faith completely freely, while estimates indicate one Christian died every 6 minutes for their faith during 2016.

While Pope Francis tries to heal a decades-old religious rift with China within which Chinese Catholics are divided between loyalty to him and those who are members of a government-controlled official church, China's head of religious affairs on Tuesday said Beijing is willing to have constructive dialogue with the Vatican but stressed Catholics should "hold up high the flag of patriotism" and adapt Catholicism to Chinese society.

Carrie Fisher, who famously starred as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" films and later endured drug addiction before sharing her story as a best-selling author, died on Tuesday aged 60, her family said. She suffered a heart attack aboard a plane on Friday as she flew into Los Angeles, after which she was met by paramedics and rushed to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Fisher described herself as an "enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God." She was raised Protestant, but often attended Jewish services, the faith of her father, with Orthodox friends.

One of the most generous 2016 Christmas gifts bestowed actually started by church members donating one dollar at a time! A Coral Springs church in Margate, Fla., surprised a mother of two children with a new car after she thought her 1992 vehicle was being towed. Church by the Glades in Coral Springs staffers and members executed a convincing prank on one of its members, Nicole Rollins, as she watched her car being pulled away.

A Jewish American with Russian roots, Don Horwitz, believes God called him to lead the Christian ministry, Christians Care International (CCI), to help bolster impoverished Jews of the former Soviet Union (FSU). After numerous visits to Russia and witnessing neglect and abuse of Jews, Horwitz adopted three daughters from a Russian orphanage, and founded a group in Moscow to help other orphans. Now, as CCI's executive director, Horwitz just managed an expansion of the organization from Europe into the U.S., including a new website. The organization formerly was known as 49:22TRUST, taken from the biblical verse in Isaiah.

People who consider Christmas a "religious feast" rather than just a "cultural feast" are more likely to feel happier than usual during the festive season, indicated a MaltaToday recent survey.

The ministries of Samaritan's Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) recently were listed in the top 10 charities changing the world. "That is an incredible privilege. All of our work is done in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the One able to change hearts and lives - and able to change the world," stated Franklin Graham, president and CEO of both relief groups.

President-elect Donald Trump closed out what he called "thank you" tours Saturday afternoon with a rally in Mobile, Ala. Trump drew an estimated crowd of 20,000 supporters to the Ladd-Peebles Stadium during the 2016 presidential campaign. "There's no better place to celebrate then right here," he told Saturday's rally attendees. "I want to thank so many great people, but having Franklin Graham, who was so instrumental, we won so big, with evangelical Christians, we won so big."

The award-winning weekly public television series (PBS), "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly," is slated to end after 20 years of broadcasting, announced representatives of WNET, the parent company of Thirteen Productions. The show's last episode will be Feb. 24, 2017. The group's website will remain available, providing an extensive archive, including transcripts of individual shows and streaming videos. Des Moines Register staffers called this show "a blueprint for how to accurately report on religion."

Conservative author and commentator Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News Thursday the destruction in Aleppo, Syria, will be an often remembered part of U.S. President Barack Obama's legacy, rather than his foreign policy for the Iran deal or the death of Usama bin Laden. The chaos in Aleppo is the result of a years-long civil war between Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and rebel forces trying to overtake the government. Obama, during his final press conference on Friday, said he feels "responsible" for some of the suffering in Syria, but he defended his decision to avoid significant military action there. He said while military options short of invasion were tempting, it was "impossible to do this on the cheap."

David Grisham, an evangelical street preacher from Anchorage, Alaska, decided to inform a line full of unsuspecting children at a mall in Texas they were being lied to about Santa Claus. "Kids, I want to tell you today that there is no such thing as Santa Claus," Grisham told people waiting in line for Christmas photos at the Westgate Mall in Amarillo, Tex. "Santa Claus does not exist. The Christmas season is about Jesus."

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the Christian governor of Jakarta in Indonesia, denied insulting Islam in the first day of a trial in which he is blamed of blasphemy. As a non-Muslim governor of the capital of Indonesia, Purnama was accused of misusing a Qur'anic verse to gain votes during his pre-election campaign -- a verse that suggests Muslims should not be ruled by non-Muslims. His case is being perceived as a test of religious liberty in Indonesia, which is about 87 percent Islamic and home to 12.7 percent of the world's Muslims.

Representatives of the Organization for Legal Aid (OLA) announced they will represent a Christian woman who was assaulted by an influential Muslim for refusing to clean his house. Bashiran Bibi, 58, allegedly was beaten into unconsciousness after an angry male said Christians couldn't refuse to take orders, stated ACLJ spokespersons.

Disney Studios' new full-length, animated feature, "Moana," expands the ethnic and religious diversity in its heroines, and is likely to impact children in mainstream Christian, Jewish and secular homes in a considerable manner, said Mark Pinsky, author of "The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust."

Paintings of artistic genius Rembrandt, who traditionally was more associated with Protestant Europe, now are on display at the Vatican Museums -- a first for the popular spot that attracts millions of visitors annually. Titled "Rembrandt in the Vatican: Images Between Heaven and Earth," the show includes 53 artworks from the Zorn Museum in Sweden and the Kremer Collection in the Netherlands. Some of the Dutch artist's best-known works are biblical scenes, such as "The Raising of the Cross" and "Adam and Eve."