Pope Leo XIV’s first international apostolic journey was clouded by heated disputes with President Donald Trump, criticisms of appearing to appease the Islamist persecution of Christians and ongoing conflicts over homosexuality and polygamy among those who are members of the Catholic Church.
Read MoreAs Weekend Plug-in columnist Bobby Ross Jr. connects with fellow Godbeat pros in Atlanta, he highlights a trend he’s noticed — the rise of religion newsletters.
Read More(OPINION) Iranians are trapped in a digital iron cage as the state continues to deprive citizens of internet access, largely thanks to Chinese and Russian technology. The Iranian diaspora is turning to Western news outlets — but their coverage of Iran has been problematic, too.
Read MoreWhen journalist Hiba Al-Tabai's husband posted a photo of the newlywed couple on Facebook last year, she never imagined it would upend their lives. Within hours of the seemingly innocuous post, Yemeni member of parliament and Muslim cleric Abdullah Al-Odini, who commands over 150,000 followers, condemned the image as "a violation of Islam and societal values.”
Read MoreAllen was a journalist who was a Catholic and an active Catholic who was a real journalist, and he fought to balance that equation in his daily reporting. His death on Jan. 22, after a long battle with cancer, left a strategic hole in Catholic life.
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“Religion is more than simply attending services; it is in the way we behave towards others,” Youngman said. “Showing religion in action and how it has affected culture, art and life around the world is important. My articles for Religion Unplugged show it at work quietly within the communities across Europe, and those stories can inspire others.”
Read More“Religion Unplugged covers religions around the globe, giving you a broader view of faith,” she said. “In my reporting, I look for religion in art, culture and politics. Religion is more present in our lives than we sometimes think, and it can change our decisions.”
Read MoreFilm and culture critic Joseph Holmes knows a good film when he sees one, but he hardly ever sees one — or at least that’s the running joke among Religion Unplugged staff.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One of the realities of being a journalist of a “certain age” is constantly hearing people ask, in digital and analog contacts, questions that sound like this: “What do you think of (insert a trend in the modern world or a specific event in news or entertainment)?”
Read More(ANALYSIS) A thumbsucker on the news business could review all those disheartening statistics about dying dailies and weeklies, declining ad and circulation income and shrinking newsroom staffs — all of which have escalated since the 21st century dawned.
Read MoreHere’s the big idea in the podcast: Elite newsrooms allowing reporters to live in the heartland offer opportunities for reporters to interact with voices and points of view that they would not have encountered otherwise. In the end, however, a newsroom is only as diverse as the worldviews and source lists found in the work of its editors and superstars.
Read MoreLet’s say that you know a teacher at a Catholic school that, when accepting this job, this person signed a contract in which he agreed to defend the doctrines detailed in the Catholic Catechism or, at the very least, not to oppose them in public. After several years of work, this teacher decided that gender is a social construct and that she was a woman trapped in a man’s body and began to transition into life as a woman. The school then declined to renew the teacher’s contract. Was that teacher canceled?
Read More(ANALYSIS) Why rake muck? For one thing, it’s biblical. Recall Scripture’s narratives about the venerated King David’s adultery and homicide or St. Peter’s multiple denials of Jesus Christ. It encourages healthy reflection on the forgiveness of sins, the ways power is misused, the dangers of celebrity worship, the ongoing impact of racial evil and the value in continually taking fresh looks at our own attitudes rather than remaining captive to the cultural assumptions in which we were born and raised.
Read MoreThe Epoch Times, a once obscure Chinese-American newspaper that rose to prominence as a promoter of Donald Trump and conservative causes, is distancing itself from a top executive arrested for allegedly laundering at least $67 million. On June 3, CFO Weidong “Bill” Guan pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court in response to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud.
Read MoreThe feature is framed with bad news — that progressive Catholics in the United States are experiencing pain because of the rising numbers of young priests and young adults (especially parents with, wink-wink, lots of children) seeking a more pro-Catholic Catechism approach to faith.
Read MoreFears of AI are not the only things driving public concern about the end of the world. Climate change and pandemic diseases are also well-known threats. Reporting on these challenges and dubbing them a potential “apocalypse” has become common in the media — so common, in fact, that it might go unnoticed, or may simply be written off as hyperbole.
Read MoreThe Pulitzer Prize committee awarded a “special citation” to journalists covering the war in Gaza. In addition, “A Day in the Life of Abed Salaman: Anatomy of a Jerusalem” Tragedy by Nathan Thrall, which documents the experience of a Palestinian father whose 5-year-old son was killed in a bus crash, won the prize for general nonfiction.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Since 2008, the PTA has repeatedly banned or taken steps to ban online Ahmadi content inside Pakistan. However, the PTA has now extended its efforts to block or remove content that is hosted outside of Pakistan in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Singapore and Switzerland.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in includes the announcement of finalists for the Religion News Association awards, plus coverage of mask mandates and churches, the death of civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis and other top headlines from the world of faith.
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