(ANALYSIS) You’ve seen the headlines about Iran’s uprising, but there is a deeper story: Two-thirds of the nation’s mosques, 50,000 out of 75,000, have been closed due to declining worship attendance, according to a high-ranking cleric. What does that mean for Iran and for Islam?
Read More(ANALYSIS) Religious freedom in Hong Kong and Macau seems to be at the mercy of the ruling authoritarian Chinese Communist Party in People's Republic of China. Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that was banned by the People’s Republic of China in 1999, but remained active in Hong Kong and Macau, has been gradually losing its religious freedom.
Read More(OPINION) Christian Reconstructionism was a small but influential movement within conservative Protestantism that argued society should be governed by biblical law. Originating with R. J. Rushdoony, its ideas spread through churches, homeschooling, and dominionist networks, shaping debates over religion, politics and culture in the United States.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Pope Leo XIV used an annual address to Vatican diplomats to warn that global politics had shifted toward militarism and force. Without naming any political leaders, he criticized war, erosion of international law and weakened human rights, positioning the Holy See as a moral counterweight to rising geopolitical tensions in many places around the world.
Read MoreRather than answering blood with blood, many residents in one part of India turned to prayer, ritual and mutual care. This response has become as much a political statement as a spiritual one. In the days after deadly clashes took place, monks were visible in the streets. They organized food for families stranded by an imposed curfew, led quiet gatherings — and urged people to avoid retaliation.
Read MoreA federal judge blocked a California policy that barred teachers from informing parents about students’ gender confusion, ruling it unconstitutional. The decision affirms parental rights, religious freedom, and teacher conscience protections, halting parental exclusion rules statewide while leaving similar policies intact in many other states.
Read More(ANALYSIS) What are called "hate" laws frequently violate freedom of speech, of the press and of religion. They also tend to be vague and, hence, their scope expands and governments use them to punish views that they simply do not like.
Read More(ANALYSIS) There are moments in our national life when a legal controversy reveals something deeper than a dispute over statutes or precedent. It exposes a fracture in our shared moral imagination — a failure to recognize what is sacred to communities whose ways of life do not mirror our own. The struggle for Oak Flat in Arizona's Tonto National Forest is one of those moments.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Steve Bannon is both brilliant and brutal in equal measure. A man of fierce intellect and darker instincts, he’s a practicing Catholic who talks about the culture wars and outside threats to the West. For him, politics isn’t about policy alone. It’s about purpose — a battleground where soul and state collide.
Read MoreDespite cannabis's central role in Rastafarian worship, adherents face persistent criminalization and face a minimum 10-year prison term for simple possession. Police raids on tabernacles remain routine across Kenya, with officers confiscating plants, destroying drums and sometimes forcibly cutting dreadlocks. Now, adherents are trying to legalize it.
Read MoreOne of Christianity’s last strongholds in the Middle East is rapidly losing Christians, who are fleeing the country after years of wars and economic failures. Pope Leo XIV visited Lebanon earlier this month to encourage the nation’s young Catholics. But local young adults say it could be too little, too late.
Read MoreIt was a stunning reversal of fortunes. In October, Lazarus Chakwera, Malawi’s charismatic preacher-turned-politician who once promised to “serve both God and the people,” lost his presidential re-election bid to long-time rival Peter Mutharika, who was formerly president himself from 2014 to 2020.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Until the 1960s, Quebec was the most religious part of North America. Now it is home to an aggressive secularist government that, on Nov. 27, introduced a proposed law, Bill 9, that would outlaw public prayer. For several centuries, religious minorities faced discrimination and, until the 1960s, Jehovah's Witnesses were still being arrested for their refusal to salute the flag.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In Laos, Christian burials are barred from cemeteries, churches have to find improvised worship spaces, and Christians are often pressured to engage in activities that go against their religion. And with neighboring China’s new influence, it may get even worse.
Read MoreHundreds of Christians from various churches in South Africa came together recently to march to the Union Buildings, the seat of the national government, to protest the establishment of a statutory regulatory body that they say is a violation of their right to freedom of religion. It came after the government passed a law regulating the activities of churches.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Street protests spill into riots. Universities host intimidation campaigns. Digital mobs savage anyone who dares step outside the script. Across America, political anger is spilling into the open, and on the left it increasingly takes a violent shape. What begins as dissent can tip quickly into destruction.
Read MoreFor months, a Washington state bill generated controversy over two critical interests: protecting children from abuse and protecting the freedom of religion. Signed by the governor this past May, SB 5375 designated clergy as mandatory reporters, requiring them to report child sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect — even if they learned of the abuse during a confidential sacred rite.
Read More(OPINION) After participating in multiple protests this year opposing authoritarianism, a Christian minister reflects on how people of faith can help sustain the growing No Kings movement — with hope, humor, and moral clarity. The “No Kings” movement, thank God, has only just begun.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The question of whether Christianity is under attack, especially in the United States, is a complex and deeply polarizing one. Is it discrimination? Is it part of an overall decline? Is it a cultural shift? It could very well be a combination of all three.
Read MoreAs he took the bench, Jerry Crosby II told the court that he was serving as the circuit court judge. Crosby intentionally used the word “serving” because of his faith. “I never say I am the judge,” he said. “I understand the only person that’s the true judge of all things and of all of us is God. I want to make sure each and every day.”
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