In his new book, Ian Johnson features Chinese historians who record the darkest episodes of Communist Party rule. The current president of China, Xi Jinping, calls alternatives to the state-sponsored narrative of Communist rule “historical nihilism.” For Xi, Chinese Communism is “the conclusion of history.”
Read MoreThere were 200 synagogues in Latvia before World War II. Peitav-Shul is the only synagogue building to have survived both the Nazi and the Soviet occupations of Riga. The bright blue interior, built in 1905, is decorated with Egyptian and Assyrian-Babylonian geometric patterns. The Aron Kodesh (the Holy Ark), where the Torah scrolls are kept, faces Jerusalem. A marble pulpit faces the congregation.
Read MoreMary Keitany is one of the finest athletes in the history of the world, with seven major marathon wins. She’s also a Catholic, mother, business owner and nonprofit board member who as a teen in poverty, dropped out of school to work as a housemaid. “God did amazing things for me,” she said.
Read MoreThe Nairobi Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1912 to serve the Jewish diaspora doing business in Kenya. Today, most of the two dozen congregants gathered for Shabbat on Saturday mornings are Kenyan-born converts to Judaism.
Read MoreKenyan Christians are organizing prayer caravans to quell violent hostilities during the country’s presidential campaign season. This time around, denominational leaders are remaining politically neutral in their public statements. This empowers the church to be a force for civility and peace.
Read MoreIn Kenya, an especially noxious scandal involved “pastors” making robocalls to people promising miracles in exchange for donations. The harder the miracle, the larger the donation. In 2014, in the wake of a fake miracle spree, the government of Kenya tried to sharply curtail the freedom of fake pastors to operate.
Read MoreAmerican journalists have been fascinated by Kalenjin runners for decades, and their explanations for Kenyan dominance in running have included training, culture, biology and diet. However, one factor remains little explored or understood in media coverage: The spiritual lives of the Kalenjin runners have received scant attention.
Read More(REVIEW) “Prey” is a meticulously researched book, and Ali offers us page after page of grim statistics to support her thesis that the surge of immigration into Europe in 2015 has led to a surge in sexual violence.
Read More(REVIEW) Justice John Marshall Harlan was the sole defender of civil rights in a series of 1883 Supreme Court cases. In a new book, Peter Canellos argues that Harlan’s distinctive moral values came from his deeply held religious faith, commitment to the founding ideals and personal experience, including inspiration from his biracial brother.
Read More(REVIEW) America’s White underclass suffers from many of the same social problems as its Black urban counterparts. National Review journalist Kevin Williamson documents what he calls the Big White Ghetto, where he grew up, to illustrate how both Republicans and Democrats are promoting a narrative of White victimization rather than an ethic of personal responsibility.
Read More(OPINION) White supremacist terror is as lethal as Islamist terror — and here’s why it may be even harder to combat.
Read More(OPINION) Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs wants to model a way of being a faithful and zealous Muslim that is consistent with Indonesia’s tradition of tolerance and pluralism. Their work is especially important at a time when Indonesia is experiencing a rise in religious extremism and intolerance.
Read More(OPINION) Coronavirus is not the world’s first pandemic. The Black Death in the 14th century brought sweeping changes in Europe: the loss of people to the plague gutted the Church of its most faithful clergy, allowed survivors in lower classes to fill higher social positions and even encouraged innovation to replace the lost human labor with machines, including the printing press that made possible the Protestant Reformation.
Read MoreIn a remote part of the Guatemalan highlands, Israeli businesses are creating jobs and wealth for Guatemalan youth. The Israeli-Latino alliance relies on the prominence of evangelical faith in Guatemalan politics and culture that sees Israel as an important ally, even as locals worry whether Israeli backpackers are a bad influence on their kids.
Read MoreThe 2019 documentary, now airing on PBS, follows a Somali father’s quest to understand why his American-born son tried to join ISIS in Syria.
Read More(REVIEW) R.R. Reno is one of America’s most prominent Roman Catholic public intellectuals. In his new book, he writes an eloquent but unAmerican defense of American populism.
Read More(NEWS ANALYSIS) From corporations to schools, Chinese campaigns of intimidation are turning American institutions into propaganda outlets for the Chinese Communist Party.
Read MoreA review of the book From Fire, By Water, which recounts Sohrab Ahmari’s spiritual journey from revolutionary Iran to membership in the Communist Party before he finds a spiritual home in the Roman Catholic church.
Read More(COMMENTARY) Europe took a dystopian turn last week when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that governments can punish citizens for criticizing the prophet Muhammad if such criticism “conflicts with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.”
Read MoreJamal Khashoggi may have signed his own death warrant with his opinion column in The Washington Post when he criticized the White House’s democratic efforts in the Arab world, including both the Obama and Trump administration.
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