A Florida woman who impersonated the father of a Camp Mystic flood victim to solicit donations through GoFundMe has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to online fraud.
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Christian Chinese human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping, who represented persecuted religious believers and other victims of government repression before fleeing China, was released on bond July 24. He had spent nine days in federal immigration custody despite having been granted asylum in the U.S.
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(ANALYSIS) What began as an exercise movement of primarily older adults in China’s northeast has proved to provide the largest, best-organized and most-sustained resistance to Chinese government rule since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
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(ESSAY) Cozy eateries and hole-in-the-wall cafes serve up flavorful stew alongside legendary potato-and-meat casseroles every Thursday night. The long lines are a testament to the delicious dish’s well-deserved reputation. Its history stretches back centuries and the dish has become a sabbath ritual.
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Can an anti-conversion law protect indigenous culture, or does it threaten religious freedom? In this documentary, Newsreel Asia producer Harshita Rathore travels to Arunachal Pradesh to understand the decades-long debate surrounding the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act of 1978.
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(ANALYSIS) The secular world has engineered a brilliant liturgy of despair and its high priests come with PhDs in economics. You’re no doubt familiar with the prevailing narrative, as familiar as it is depressing. Marriage has become a luxury product, crushed by stagnant wages, soaring living costs and, in many places, a housing market where buying your first home is impossible.
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(ANALYSIS) Hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the U.S. are living in uncertain times. On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could proceed with a plan to end Temporary Protected Status — a federal program that allows people to stay in the United States when the government considers their own country unsafe — for around 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians.
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(ANALYSIS) A leaderless protest movement in New Delhi has evolved into a broader rejection of the divisive politics associated with Hindu nationalism. Sparked by a police crackdown, demonstrators have created an unusually inclusive public space where people of different faiths, castes, genders and backgrounds gather in solidarity.
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Move over history, crime and literature. Escape room themes featuring faith and the Bible are taking over in the United Kingdom. Churches and social groups are turning to this popular leisure activity and using it to challenge people to think about spirituality, life and even their connections with science.
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(ANALYSIS) The Vatican’s latest statement on the canonical trial of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik was intended to quash rumors that one of the Catholic Church’s most controversial abuse cases had quietly ended in acquittal. Instead, it highlighted a different issue: The secretive process by which the church’s judicial system operates and whether it’s capable of delivering justice.
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(OPINION) The problem is not that Christians care about justice or participate in public life. The problem arises when Christianity becomes a vehicle for advancing political agendas.
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Amid a civil war, the government army finally reclaimed Emelda Vonve’s home city. She could finally go back to her church. She saw the priest. She saw faces she hadn’t seen since before the war. They prayed together, aloud, as a congregation, as they used to. Outside, 15 police cars were waiting to arrest them.
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Father Vladimiras Seliavko risked everything when he decided to condemn the Russian war against Ukraine. As a result, his parishioners turned into his enemies, his relatives abandoned him and he was branded a traitor. On the other hand, he said it was impossible to be a priest who blesses war criminals.
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(ANALYSIS) For Iran’s Baha’i community, the country’s latest political upheaval has revived a painful historical pattern: Whenever the Islamic Republic faces existential pressure, one of its first responses is to intensify its campaign against vulnerable religious minorities. The case of Peyvand Naimi and his cousin Borna Naimi illustrates this dynamic.
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Over the past decade, churchgoers are more likely to see someone of a different ethnicity in their congregation but less likely to hear about that racial diversity from the pulpit. A Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant pastors finds churches have seemingly grown more diverse, while pastors have grown less likely to see that diversity as a goal and preach about racial reconciliation.
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(ANALYSIS) To be sure, embryo adoption occupies a small corner of U.S. fertility medicine. Few people choose to donate remaining embryos for procreative use. Nor is embryonic personhood a popular idea: Only 39% of Americans support laws declaring that human life begins at fertilization. A majority of white evangelical Protestants, Hispanic Protestants and Latter-day Saints support that view, yet majorities of these religious groups also oppose banning IVF.
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Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is one of Africa’s most religious nations. In fact, about 90 percent identify as Christian. However, faith in the kingdom is far from uniform. A king and queen hold absolute power, but it is used to help integrate cultures and foster inter-religious understanding.
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As global headlines celebrated the release of one prominent Chinese minister, the wife of another pastor is pleading with the world not to forget those still jailed in China. “Zion Church has eight leaders still detained,” said Sister Su Ziming, wife of Pastor Wang Lin, who leads Beijing Zion Church alongside the recently released Pastor Ezra Jin. “Our family and the others all eagerly await reunion.”
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While other community members chase modernity, migrating to cities for greener pastures due to recurring economic hardship, members of the Mennonite church, like Charles Ncube, a father of four, believe in faith-based farming, through which he is able to fend for his family and help needy neighbors.
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(ANALYSIS) The military's decision to eliminate a distinct religious code for Native American service members has sparked concern that their unique spiritual traditions and accommodation needs will become harder to identify, potentially undermining religious liberty protections, access to appropriate support and accurate representation within the armed forces.
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