(OPINION) A recent Pew survey found that 40% of countries and territories worldwide had blasphemy laws in 2019. But a few caveats bring a greater understanding of how blasphemy laws and hate speech laws are impacting believers and nonbelievers today.
Read MoreIn an increasingly divided culture, even within the church, the Rabbit Room was created to build and nourish stronger Christ-centered communities by cultivating stories, music and art. It was founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter and author Andrew Peterson after he visited Oxford, England, and was inspired by the stories of the Inklings.
Read MoreToday, more than 70 years after World War II and as the world marks the 18th annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day — 30 years after both the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the end of the Bosnian War — Bosnian Jews are still awaiting restitution for long-gone homes, commercial buildings, places of worship and burial sites.
Read MoreUkrainian Christians have experienced death, displacement and loss in conflicts with Russia that date back to 2014. That’s when Russia seized Crimea. And now, Russia has amassed some 127,000 troops along its western border with Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry.
Read MoreOf the 7.6 billion people on Earth, 2.4 billion identify as Christian, 1.9 billion as Muslim, 1.2 billion as Hindu and more than 500 million as Buddhist. Those are just the four largest religions. In other words, 310 million in the U.S. do not necessarily constitute the epicenter for all religion in the world. If anything, religion in America is a unique outlier.
Read More(REVIEW) Coming of age film “The Hand of God” intertwines the life of a young Italian boy in the midst of tragedy and famed soccer player Diego Maradona. Both create mystical stories of hope tied to faith and strange miracles.
Read More(OPINION) Religious leaders have long involved themselves in the immigration debate, taking a variety of of pro and con positions. So does religiosity make people more welcoming, or more suspicious, of the stranger? A recent Religion News Service story tries to answer the question as it has unfolded in Europe.
Read MoreIt was another tough year for many people around the planet. The pandemic, just as it seemed to be subsiding this fall, rages on thanks to the omicron variant. Aside from COVID-19, issues such as climate change and the plight of migrants continues to plague nations, and international conflicts continue to rattle millions around the globe.
Read MoreThe country responsible for the term “ethnic cleansing” can show off a respectable drop in religiously-motivated hate crimes over the last decade — at least on paper. But experts inside and outside Bosnia-Herzegovina say the IRC’s current numbers are misleading and the potential for conflict may be at an all-time high.
Read More(TRAVEL) Among all the hustle, bustle and stress that comes with Christmas, we should also all be reminded that it is a time of prayer. While prayer can take up many forms, Catholics are returning to in-person Mass now that COVID-19 lockdowns have largely been done away with.
Read More(OPINION) Queen Elizabeth’s recent message to the Church of England’s General Synod — in her first absence from the gathering — was strong and personal. She was most concerned with matters of doctrine and spiritual life — not the church’s role in politics and various cultural disputes.
Read More(REVIEW) “Carlo Acutis: God’s Computer Genius” makes for a perfect present for your child or preteen this Christmas. Catholic children are no strangers to books featuring saints, but Acutis is special because he speaks to the current generation. That is why his life is worth re-examination and why this is a book worth stuffing into a Christmas stocking.
Read More(REVIEW) On the very first page of Karl Ove Knausgård’s new novel, “The Morning Star,” you will find a quotation from Revelation 9:6, giving the reader a key to understanding the separate life stories that make up the book: “During that time these men will seek death, but they will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
Read More(OPINION) In “The Most Reluctant Convert,” the famous Christian writer C.S. Lewis first explains how he became an atheist after the shallow Christianity of his childhood. But later in life, the move back to Christianity was aided by a circle of Oxford friends, including the famous scholar and novelist J.R.R. Tolkien.
Read MorePlans to build two skyscrapers near a historic synagogue in London are sparking controversy and pushback from the U.K.’s Jewish community. The buildings would block the natural light that illuminates the sacred space and contributes to its ambience.
Read MorePrison officials finally allowed Catholic and Orthodox Christian political prisoners pastoral visits after more than a year but prevented one from attending a worship meeting. Meanwhile, a court in Gomel Region punished a Council of Churches Baptist for baptizing his son in a lake in a ceremony attended by about 25 people.
Read MoreThe Rev. Gary Mason spent decades ministering to Protestant loyalists and Catholic nationalists during Northern Ireland’s bloody conflict. He then helped establish Skainos, the largest faith-based redevelopment project in Western Europe, as a model of coexistence that he believes can help heal other nations, including the U.S., Israel and Palestine.
Read MoreA Crimean court jailed 49-year-old Jehovah's Witness Igor Schmidt for six years on extremism-related charges, to be followed by six years of restrictions, although the prosecution presented no victims of any wrongdoing in court. Schmidt is the fourth Crimean Jehovah's Witness handed a long jail term. At least 12 more face criminal cases.
Read More(OPINION) In the 2002 race to become the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, critics noted that Bishop Michael Nariz-Ali was a strong evangelical leader in the global Anglican Communion. But more recently, Nariz-Ali stunned the Anglican world by announcing that he was returning to Roman Catholicism.
Read More(ANALYSIS) A funny thing happened when President Joe Biden visited Pope Francis at the Vatican. The event actually made news, especially with Biden quotes about what allegedly happened in private. It was big news across the media ecosystem because of 20 words the president uttered to reporters in Rome after the face-to-face.
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