Posts in Conflict
This year's Purim carnival set off more than firecrackers in Israel

(NEWS ANALYSIS) Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked released a satirical perfume ad jabbing at leftists who call her fascist, the country’s largest English daily labeled Israel’s democracy a joke and President Trump upended decades of U.S. policy in one tweet.

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ISIS’s final battle will not blot out its brutal legacy

Surviving Yazidis and Christians in Iraq and Syria will remember their people’s genocide for generations. And in the aftermath of ISIS attacks, help and hope are still in very short supply.

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Philippines President Duterte Prophesies End of Catholicism in 25 Years

The president’s remarks over the weekend denounced clerical sexual abuse and corruption, but come after a string of insults hurled against Catholics that many believe encouraged religious violence.

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China’s Faithful Endure a Long, Bitter Winter of Persecution

Today, China continues to escalate its massive suppression of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, Jews and Uighur Muslims. 

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My visit to a Black Hebrew Israelite meeting in Harlem

(OPINION) There are faiths that people may be hesitant to understand. Some wouldn’t dare walk through the church doors because of the group’s radical theology. And the Black Hebrew Israelites are one of those faiths that many would pass by.

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At March for Life, embracing ancient doctrines reveals modern tensions

(COMMENTARY) While the United Methodist Church homepage notes a tension between upholding the sanctity of unborn human life and also the life and well-being of the mother, Bishop Timothy Whitaker spoke out against abortion referencing the Didache, a doctrinal statement on “gross sins” like murder.

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A Hindu story of garlic and onions, and what it means for our "tribal" religious divisions in 2019

(COMMENTARY) Without making an effort to understand how all these small differences expressed in eating habits add up to create the chasms that divide us, we have no hope of overcoming them.

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India’s Hindu Nationalists want to build a temple over a mosque

(COMMENTARY) Twenty-six years ago, Hindu nationalists destroyed a 16th century mosque. Today, the right wing’s campaign issue is how to build a temple on that site.

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The Saudi puzzle: Here are four religion threads woven into this sordid political drama

(OPINION) There are several more religion stories to be told surrounding the murder of the former Washington Post op-ed writer Jamal Khashoggi.

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American missionary killed by reclusive island tribe in India

A 27-year-old American, John Allen Chau, was killed by members of the Sentinelese tribe in the North Sentinel Island of Andaman, India after he made several unsuccessful attempts to contact them, allegedly to preach Christianity.

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A Christian’s acquittal in Pakistan is fueling advocacy against "blasphemy"

After the unprecedented acquittal of a Christian from blasphemy charges, Pakistan is bowing to pressure from hardline Islamist groups to ban her exit from the Muslim-majority country.

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1,000 years of Orthodoxy history loom over today's Moscow-Istanbul clash

(COMMENTARY) There are three distinct Ukrainian Orthodox strains with differing loyalties to Russian and Turkish Orthodox patriarchs. While an Istanbul patriarch has lifted a condemnation of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, a Moscow patriarch has severed ties with Kiev.

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Jamal Khashoggi and the Middle East’s Game of Thrones

Jamal Khashoggi may have signed his own death warrant with his opinion column in The Washington Post when he criticized the White House’s democratic efforts in the Arab world, including both the Obama and Trump administration.

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Christian Afghans Flee Taliban and Find Safety in India

The Afghan embassy estimates there are 30,000 Afghan refugees living in Delhi today. Many Afghans in Delhi are Hindu and Sikh whose families migrated from India before Afghanistan’s independence in 1919. Many of those fled to India for religious freedom and settled in a South Delhi colony that today has temples, mosques, gurudwaras and even an unmarked, underground church.

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