(ANALYSIS) The European Evangelical Alliance, which represents some 23 million evangelical Christians on the continent, recently released an important report “European Evangelicals in Public Life: Our Identity and Contribution.” It summarizes who European evangelicals are, what they believe, and what their major stances are on current public policy issues.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A new international Community-Based Truth Commission will examine the failure to deliver justice for Yazidis after the genocide of 2014. Scheduled for hearings in Berlin this year, it will hear survivor testimony and propose pathways to accountability, including universal jurisdiction and possible international tribunal mechanisms.
Read MoreThe way right-wing commentators talk about Islam has changed in the last few years. The same pundits who once criticized Islam are now defending it. To find out why, Matthew Peterson spoke with journalist Matthew Schmitz.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Sometimes the doom scrolling really does pay off. I hate to admit it, but flicking through thousands of social media posts a week is a way that I can find interesting stories to write about for Graphs about Religion.
Read MoreA recent Texas State Board of Education decision requires all public school literature classes in grades 1 through 12 to learn about 10 Old Testament and five New Testament passages.
Read More(ANALYSIS) What is happening in Argentina today is not a judicial process. It is the slow destruction of a human being under the guise of legality.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A new academic study argues that India has built an “infrastructure of inattention” around dowry killings — referring to legal and cultural processes that once made such deaths the focus of mass public protest but now allow such murders to pass with little public attention.
Read MoreThe Cambridge Dictionary defines this phrase — “Is the pope Catholic?” — as an idiom used, in a humorous or provocative manner, to say that the “answer to a question you have just been asked is obviously ‘yes.’”
Read More(ANALYSIS) A pediatrician recently asked one of Emily Harrison’s kids a logical question during pre-exam paperwork: Do you have a smartphone? Doctors often ask children practical questions, such as whether they’re getting enough sleep, have seen changes in their appetites or have started playing sports. These days, they may ask about anxiety or depression.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Throughout its history, Daoism never lost touch with the local traditions. Local gods and even vengeful ghosts come to be incorporated into Daoist pantheons, where they now serve to keep troublesome spirits from upsetting the community. As a result, Daoism continues to be an integral part of everyday life.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A culture that laughs off the parting of the Red Sea will nod along when a man declares himself a woman. A culture that calls the Jesus’ resurrection absurd will assure you civilization can thrive after dismantling family, faith and biology. Walking on water is preposterous. Walking away from every inherited moral guardrail is sophisticated.
Read More(ANALYSIS) I feel like I got into a debate or a disagreement with someone about politics or religion on a near daily basis when I was between the ages of 13 and 25. I would fight with anyone about anything and I would often argue positions that I completely disagreed with because I just liked the intellectual gamesmanship of the whole exercise.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Being around academics for my entire working career has taught me that most of them grew up in highly populated areas and want to live in close proximity to large population centers. I never really wanted to do any of that. I’m happy to live in a small town where housing is cheap, crime is low, and traffic is non-existent. But I also realize that my environment shapes my work. I understand American religion through the lens of a guy who has lived in the rural Midwest for four decades.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Pope Leo has reaffirmed that disputes over doctrine and worship within Catholicism ultimately converge on a single question: Whether authority rests with individual movements claiming to preserve tradition or with the pope as the center of ecclesial unity.
Read MoreThe Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, proved to be just the first bloodletting in a renewed cycle of violence and recrimination. Israel responded with its destructive campaign in Gaza. Far from the theater of war, American Jews reckoned with renewed fears of antisemitism and fractures within their own communities and families.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Did the founders of the United States intend to create a Christian nation? Political leaders who addressed a prayer rally on the National Mall on May 17 seem to think so: House Speaker Mike Johnson led the crowd in rededicating) the United States of America as “one nation under God.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) In 1526, books appeared in England that no one had seen before: printed New Testaments in the English language. The public snapped them up. For the first time, people read now-common phrases such as “the powers that be” and “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” But religious authorities condemned the English Bible and burned the copies they could find.
Read MoreAs Independence Day approaches, this week’s Religion Unplugged podcast episode features culture critic Joseph Holmes and his investigation into the faith of our first president.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the end, Vance is a work in progress — as all Christians ought to be. The Veep never quite reconciled with his father before he died. But there’s a “second chance” with his long-troubled mother, now substance-free and happily part of the family circle doting on her grandkids.
Read More(ANALYSIS) For more than two decades, the Supreme Court has issued a series of wins for plaintiffs seeking to protect their religious practices. On June 23, though, the majority delivered a defeat in this contentious area. Landor v. Louisiana Department of Public Education and Safety, a 6-3 judgment, rejected the claim of Damon Landor, a Rastafarian whose hair was forcibly shaved in prison.
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