Culture

(COMMENTARY) The women’s soccer team representing the Vatican — yes, the Vatican has a women’s soccer team — canceled its planned international debut in Austria when sports, religion and politics made for a bad mix.

We spoke with award-winning photographer Kieran Dodds about his project capturing the gardens of Eden cultivated by Ethiopian churches. The conservation is an act of worship to save their forests and provide an oasis for their congregations. Listen to the full podcast or read the edited transcript here.

Two very different French sites — Lourdes, one of the holiest in the world for Roman Catholics, and the American cemetery at Normandy — have the ability to bring visitors closer to God in very different ways.

Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and Myanmar are the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom in 2018, according to the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report.

A fragile Christian alliance that supported Pres. Bolsonaro’s election to office in October is weakening amid rising unemployment, budget cuts to education, and their leader’s negative comments about women, black people and the LGBT community.

A new survey named the Holy See’s famous museums first among its top 10 travel experiences — beating out second-place Chicago for their architectural river cruises — and the only religious tour to crack the global list.

The Rohingya, an ethnic minority persecuted by some Buddhist groups in Myanmar, are facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises of this century. We spoke to Yangon-based activist Sam Naeem about the evolution of their struggle so far.

(COMMENTARY) On the one-year anniversary of the revelations that exposed the past misdeeds of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the story doesn’t look like it is subsiding anytime soon.

A recent report estimates 60,000 organ transplant surgeries happen in China every year, an industry adding $1 billion a year to the economy and cracking down on religious groups seen as a threat to the Communist Party.

(COMMENTARY) A recent UFO sighting by the US Navy made news but not many delved into the religious implications of intelligent design or life beyond Earth.

(COMMENTARY) The Italian director is known for many things, but will be most remembered for is his deep Roman Catholic faith, his an ardent support for the anti-abortion movement and his 1977 masterpiece movie Jesus of Nazareth.

Rebuilding Notre Dame will be a painstaking task. Estimated to cost in the billions, the cathedral has also become a political pawn in a broader fight between traditionalists and secularists. In a country divided politically — the recent European election was another reminder of this — the fate of Notre Dame very much rests in the hands of the country’s warring lawmakers.

Do you vver wonder what happened to Osho’s ranch in Wild Wild Country? Young Life, a Christian student ministry, bought the land for a camp retreat center 20 years ago this month. We paid a visit.

(COMMENTARY) Pope Francis is a great example of an international leader whose handlers like to control the message. Not too different from the White House press office, where access can often be very limited. That makes the papal news conference, the one that takes place aboard the pope’s flight on the way to Rome at the end of very trip, very important.

(COMMENTARY) The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting wrapped up Wednesday by taking an “action” against sexual abuse that is a way of distancing itself from churches that have mishandled sexual abuse instead of reaching out to victims.

A recent poll found that only 80% of Americans believe that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust.

(NEWS ANALYSIS) Top rabbis and politicians have been accused of sexual assault this year, and Israelis are protesting for their convictions and removals from leadership.

One nun acted as the church’s contractor and another the mechanical engineer to build this $2 million Greek Orthodox church and its surrounding monastery, including a popular bakery and coffee bar that locals and tourists drive more than 50 miles through Indian country to reach.

We talked with Steven Waldman, founder of BeliefNet and author of the new book Sacred Liberty, about America’s battles for religious freedom— how the notion that the US was founded with religious liberty in mind is wrong— our current challenges for preserving it, and much more.

(COMMENTARY) What has been lacking throughout the ongoing abortion debate, from a media coverage standpoint, has been broader context. This is especially true of covering those who are adamantly opposed to abortion.

From the White House to London and Brooklyn, interfaith iftars — the fast-breaking meals of Ramadan — are trending this year.

(NEWS ANALYSIS) Never shy about brandishing a rosary or invoking God’s help, Italy’s Matteo Salvini has provided voters in the recent European elections with an alternative to Pope Francis’ pro-migrant stance and the church’s traditional social teachings.

(COMMENTARY) Christians cannot earn their way into God’s good graces by voting for a certain political party. Christians are freely granted God’s grace purely through their faith. If one believes that the only way to be a “good Christian” is to vote for a specific party, he or she is missing the big picture of Christianity.

Who could imagine that a Norwegian itinerant preacher and entrepreneur born in the 18th century would become a leadership model in modern business? 

(COMMENTARY) Foundling wheels or baby hatches were safe spaces for women to leave unwanted babies anonymously for the church to adopt and care for. The same principle could be replicated today.

(COMMENTARY) When we think of North Korean armed forces, most of us envision a formidable parade of clean-cut, perfectly uniformed soldiers marching in lock-step. However, like the “Potemkin Villages” a few tourists manage to see, those tidy uniforms are nothing more than window dressing for the bankrupt regime.

(COMMENTARY) If an Evangelical crisis is coming, journalists need to spring into action immediately.

(COMMENTARY) As 2020 approaches, two key issues morally bind Christian voters: abortion and immigration. Any voter — secular or spiritual — should shed themselves of political jargon and focus on the platform of the Republican and Democratic candidates.

(COMMENTARY) In a very consumeristic fashion, Americans are consuming from churches and not participating in the life of the church or giving back in return. The rise of Internet-based congregations is only making the problem worse.