(ANALYSIS) Employees at large retail chains were instructed to avoid “Merry Christmas,” a greeting now deemed too specific and too religious. What emerged was designed to include everyone by addressing no one, to give a greeting that was universal because it had been smoothed of meaning. “Happy Holidays,” once an innocuous phrase, became a symbol in a newly branded American cultural war.
Read MoreHong Kong was tense and festive when I arrived for a small 1997 conference about religion coverage in global media. The reason for the odd atmosphere was obvious: In a few days, on July 1, Great Britain would yield control of that great city to the People’s Republic of China.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In a move that underscores the priorities of the Catholic Church in the U.S., Pope Leo XIV replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan as Archbishop of New York, appointing Bishop Ronald Hicks to lead the nation’s second-largest diocese. The announcement represents both a generational and ideological shift at the helm of a historically influential U.S. archdiocese.
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) Let us strive to spend more time caring for others in the truest sense and less time feeding the devil’s divisiveness, chastising those we think we disagree with.
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 More“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” has been celebrated by Christians and non-Christians alike. It has a 92% from critics and 94% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and Christian outlets like Christianity Today have given the film glowingly positive reviews and specifically for its representations of faith.
Read MoreA new report released on Monday revealed that majority of Americans continue to identify with the religion in which they were raised — but more than one-third have departed from their childhood faith. The findings — put together by the Pew Research Center — draw on two major surveys.
Read More(ANALYSIS) With 15 civilians and one gunman dead so far, and another 40 people injured, Australia is reeling from its worst act of terrorism on home soil. Two gunmen opened fire on a Jewish community gathering to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah at Archer Park on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach.
Read MoreActivists advocating for the repatriation of artifacts “stolen by Pope Pius XI and his missionaries” from First Nations communities are unhappy by Pope Leo XIV labeling of these items as a “gift” despite his agreement to return them. The Holy See said the pope “gifted to the CCCB the 62 artifacts belonging to the ethnological collections of the Vatican Museums” as “an act of ecclesial sharing.”
Read MoreA Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach turned deadly on Sunday with updated reports of at least 15 dead, including a Chabad rabbi, a Holocaust survivor and a 12-year-old girl. One suspect was killed at the scene and the other was arrested, in a targeted attack on Jews that authorities are investigating as terrorism.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Late in the movie “Shadowlands,” the C.S. Lewis character describes the role that books can play in real life. The famous Oxford don and author, played by Anthony Hopkins, notes, “We read books to know that we are not alone.” But Lewis never wrote those memorable words.
Read MoreRed post boxes are one of the most well-known and iconic British symbols — but at Christmastime, they take on a very different ambiance, often virtually overnight. Posting Christmas cards becomes even more fun as you never know quite what might appear on top of the post box in many part of the U.K.
Read MoreFor the fourth time in six years, Isaiah 41:10 was the most downloaded Scripture of the year on the YouVersion family of Bible apps, which according to its founder has been installed on one billion devices nationwide. “I think this verse keeps rising to the top because it addresses one of our deepest needs, the assurance that we’re not alone,” YouVersion Founder and CEO Bobby Gruenewald said.
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 More(ESSAY) These traditions, dating back to the Middle Ages, were born out of the darkest time of the year to symbolize the return of light to the world. Remembering them today confirms for me that God is present in beauty and in the effort we make to create peace for one another.
Read More(OPINION) As 2025 comes to a close, let us dedicate ourselves to a radical change in the way we think and act. Let us seize on the concept that every day, God gives us an abundance of chances to bring the “holiday spirit” into the lives of others — whether it’s December, April, June or September.
Read MoreBecause Mary herself was from the eastern Mediterranean, the subtle incorporation by Renaissance painters of abstractly rendered Arabic or Hebrew in religious art linguistically linked their sacred subjects to the region’s Biblical past as well as its bounteous wealth.
Read MoreWhat you choose to read matters. Only together can we can combat misinformation and uplift reporting that informs rather than inflames.
Read MoreCertain corners of the Orthodox internet are not just conservative or traditionalist, but openly racist and antisemitic, with several far-right figures converting in recent years. In the South, there is a strain of neoconfederate Orthodoxy that marries white supremacy and Orthodox practice. Matthew Heimbach, who organized the notorious Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, had been excommunicated from the Antiochian Orthodox church but joined another branch.
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