(ANALYSIS) I keep a little list in the notes app on my phone — just a running log of potential ideas for the newsletter. Most of them are only a few words, just enough to remind me to poke around in the data when I get back to my computer. If I’m being honest, about 75% of those ideas go nowhere. Either the data doesn’t tell a compelling story, or that “great dataset” someone mentioned turns out to be nothing like they described.
Read More(ANALYSIS) “News as we have hitherto known it has died and been laid to rest.” So wrote illustrious former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell, ending his autobiography, “War and the Death of News.” He was not writing the BBC’s obituary, but he could have been. No, he was arguing the BBC no longer knew the difference between fairness and neutrality.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One of the most important questions we are trying to answer in The Nones Project is: Do non-religious people have feelings of self-worth and satisfaction that are similar to traditionally religious Americans? In many ways, this may be the most important issue to address when talking about the rising share of nones in the United States.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It’s been over a decade since Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Borno, in April 2014. The abduction received international attention, with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirl being shared globally, including by Michelle Obama.
Read More(ANALYSIS) During the Renaissance, it was a common motif in paintings. There would be a skull in the background or possibly an hourglass.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Israel’s chief rabbis — known as the Rabbinate and the top authority for the country’s Orthodox institutions — do not recognize women as rabbis or permit their ordination. A big change came this year when Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled women must be allowed to take the exams.
Read MoreConflicts like these are not common, but they can happen. I moved them into present tense for reasons that will become obvious, as I connect them to news coverage we discussed in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast, focusing on tensions between a few Christian schools and Turning Point USA.
Read MoreIn 1982, a 3-month-old girl named Rebecca became the 13th child adopted through Lifeline Children’s Services. The Birmingham, Alabama, nonprofit — launched the previous year — grew out of an evangelical crisis pregnancy ministry called Sav-a-Life.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Students’ sense of religious and spiritual belonging comes from everyday relationships — authentic connections and conversations that faculty and staff can help foster. I believe universities can create an environment where all students, including religious minorities, feel seen, accepted and appreciated.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A majority of mainline Protestant Christians voted for Donald Trump in 2024. They also supported him in 2020 and 2016. In fact, even during Barack Obama’s landslide election in 2008, the mainline was evenly divided at the ballot box.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the most talked-about film from the final year of the 20th century, “The Matrix,” a computer hacker named Neo finds that the world he lives and works in isn’t real. It’s a virtual reality, created by artificial intelligence.
Read More(ANALYSIS) OK, so there’s this response option to a single survey question that has intrigued me for a very long time. It’s about religious attendance. Across different surveys, the number of response options can vary. The standard is typically six increments, but others — like the General Social Survey — use eight.
Read MoreOnce again, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gathered for debates and votes with serious implications for the current occupant of the White House and his supporters.
Read MoreIn the early 1960s, Ron Bever paid 50 cents — roughly $5.34 in today’s dollars — for an old religious book at an estate sale. A rare books enthusiast, even Bever didn’t realize at first what a treasure he’d acquired.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It would be a mistake to assume that everyone in these movements adheres to one viewpoint, or is interested only in stopping abortion. In reality, there are many motivations that lead to people using the phrase “pro-life.” When reporters asked Pope Leo, he said, “It’s important to look at many issues that are related to the teachings of the church.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) Elected on Tuesday during the bishops’ fall meeting in Baltimore on the third ballot, Coakley, who turned 70 this past May, succeeds Archbishop Timothy Broglio, promising a leadership style that balances moral conviction with pastoral sensitivity in a time of deep political and cultural polarization.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Oversight Board, a body making precedent-setting content moderation decisions on the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, issued a decision calling on Meta to mitigate information asymmetries in armed conflicts. The Oversight Board is a body examining whether Meta’s decisions are in line with its policies, values and human rights commitments.
Read More(ANALYSIS) President Trump recently designated Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act. Like most of his acts, this ignited major controversy, much of it reflecting longstanding and now renewed disputes about what is really happening in that country.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Bad Bunny is more than a global music phenomenon; he’s a bona fide symbol of Puerto Rico. The church choir boy turned “King of Latin Trap” has songs, style and swagger that reflect the island’s mix of pride, pain and creative resilience.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In recent years, litigation on certain types of religious freedom lawsuits have been practically run of the mill: prayer on school premises, for example, and government funding for students at faith-based schools.
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