This week’s Weekend Plug-in features a retrospective from columnist Bobby Ross Jr. on his 25 years on the Godbeat. Plus, a major new study on ‘nones’ — and, as always, all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights plans for the annual March for Life, expected to draw 100,000 abortion opponents to the nation’s capital. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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(ANALYSIS) The #WithoutJustCause campaign, highlighting the fates of a broad range of political prisoners including faith leaders, civic activists, businesspeople and former government officials, aims to shine the light on their stories, raise awareness and increase pressure to secure their release.
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(ANALYSIS) The story of Michael Foster got me thinking about how two concepts (environmentalism and religion) may be deeply intertwined with each other. In the current discourse about religion, climate change has not really taken center stage. It seems the debate is focused on social issues: same-sex marriage, the rights of transgender Americans and abortion.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In an age in which Christian colleges and universities face intense legal pressures on moral issues — especially policies linked to sex and marriage — it is now especially important to note whether schools require faculty, staff and students to sign "doctrinal covenants" defining commitments on behavior and beliefs.
Read MoreIn this era where the transcendent is often overlooked, advocating for spiritual and religious freedom transcends mere individual rights. It's about preserving our inherent spiritual dignity and embracing a worldview where spiritual elements like truth, goodness and beauty hold significance in every aspect of our lives. Without acknowledging and having the freedom to explore our spiritual dimensions, we risk passing on a materialistic outlook to future generations, devoid of the profound sacredness interwoven in every facet of life.
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(ANALYSIS) New Year’s resolutions often come with a renewed investment in making our bodies healthier. Many may take to the newest diet plan or sign up for a health club membership, but it is worth taking time to consider what constitutes a healthy, happy body.
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(ANALYSIS) The Vatican’s decision to allow priests to bless couples in what they called “irregular relationships” continues to get lots of media attention, especially since it involves same-sex couples. Here’s how some Catholic priests who are active on social media and YouTube are explaining what it all means.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in focuses on the evangelicals supporting Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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(ANALYSIS) Shared testimonies, collective singing, silent meditation and baptism rituals — these are all activities you might find at a Christian church service on a Sunday morning in the United States. But what would it look like if atheists were gathering to do these rituals instead?
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(ANALYSIS) For all the death and destruction that COVID-19 brought to the United States and every other country on Earth, it also gave us a tremendous window into how folks handled mental stress in near real time. Here we look at whether there’s an association between mental illness and religious attendance.
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(ANALYSIS) Recent months (and years) have seen a crackdown by the Nicaraguan government against religious leaders and institutions. Among others, President Daniel Ortega “ordered the arrest of, forced into exile, and verbally attacked priests and bishops, labeled them ‘criminals’ and ‘coup-plotters,’ and accused them of inciting violence.”
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(ANALYSIS) Fiducia Supplicans ("Supplicating Trust") document triggered debates around the world, but negative reactions have been especially strong in Africa, with strong protests from bishops' conferences in Malawi, Zambia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Angola and other nations.
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(ANALYSIS) As long as they’ve been around, so-called “faith-based films” have been mired in controversy. Whether it’s accusations of bad writing and acting, heavy-handed messages or the demonizing of non-Christians, such movies always seem to be a lightning rod of passionate disagreement.
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(ANALYSIS) Jan. 5 marked 336 years since the death of an extraordinary woman you have probably never heard of: Catarina de San Juan. Her life reads like an epic. Born in South Asia during the early 17th century, she was captured by the Portuguese at age eight and sold to Spaniards in the Philippines.
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The first Weekend Plug-in of 2024 looks ahead to the year’s expected big news. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Religion is likely to play a big role in voters’ choices in the 2024 presidential election — much as it did in previous years. Despite an overall shift away from participation in organized religion in the U.S. populace, religious rhetoric in the political arena has intensified.
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There’s a pile of other recent books and articles that bemoan the sprawling U.S. evangelical movement over the militant politicization of a Trump-Era growth sector. Some of this literature reminds one of outside anthropologist Margaret Mead scrutinizing teens in American Samoa.
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(ANALYSIS) I swear I don’t try to write about abortion so much, but I always end up there. I just think it’s this issue that is like no other when it comes to social issues. What really spurred this post, was a previous one that I put together called, “Liberals Have Won the Cultural War.”
Read More(REVIEW) Both rightly-named football matches and their American cousins have halftimes. The kind of “football” dominant in the United States is poorly-named because in it only one person on the field, a kicker, uses his feet, and that only at specialized times. In both varieties, though, players at halftime get a short rest and coaches offer rallying words. Books that try to answer why we exist should not have halftimes. Authors should offer a consistent vision.
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