(ANALYSIS) For decades after Supreme Court rulings barred school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading, faith remained present in public schools through student-led religious expression and community culture. Now, a series of new state laws mandating displays like the Ten Commandments are testing long-standing church-state boundaries and reigniting debate.
Read More(OPINION) In their legitimate efforts to oppose tyranny, many Iranian Christians are dangerously mixing politics, nationalism and their Christian faith. Christian leaders present Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as the best, or even the divinely appointed, option for Iran’s transition and churches are displaying the Iranian flag during worship services.
Read MoreNine members of Beijing’s Zion Church have been released on bail after more than eight months in detention, while nine remaining church leaders now face more serious criminal charges in one of China’s most closely watched religious freedom cases.
Read MoreThe Chennai office and other programs are carefully presented in the language of human dignity and spiritual accompaniment, not rights advocacy. But the effect, in the current political moment, is inherently political. For trans Catholics who seek out these spaces, carrying both faith and the experience of rejection, the distinction may matter less than the fact of welcome itself.
Read More(ANALYSIS) As Canada marks National Indigenous Peoples Day, the often-overlooked partnership between evangelicals and Indigenous leaders deserves recognition. From Elijah Harper’s Sacred Assembly to ongoing reconciliation efforts, Canadian evangelicals have helped advance healing, Indigenous rights and renewed relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Democrats hope Texas state legislator and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico can win a U.S. Senate seat by appealing to religious voters. Republicans are highlighting his progressive positions on gender, sexuality, abortion, and church-state issues as evidence he is out of step with Texas conservatives.
Read MoreAuthorities in southwestern China launched a large-scale raid against Early Rain Covenant Church during its Sunday worship service on June 14, detaining dozens of believers, according to reports received by ChinaAid and a subsequent church statement.
Read MoreOne of America’s greatest and fearless investigative journalists, Amy Goodman, seeks the truth and reports it. Religion Unplugged sat down with her to discuss how her Jewish upbringing and its influences on her career and reporting.
Read MoreA new Pew Research Center study found religious hostilities increased sharply around the world in 2023, driven by harassment of religious minorities and fallout from the Israel-Hamas war. Government restrictions on religion remained near record highs, an issue affecting billions of people across dozens of countries.
Read MoreMore than 3,000 Christians from multiple countries gathered in person and online on June 9 for a global prayer event supporting believers facing persecution in China, where authorities have intensified pressure on house churches and clergy in recent years.
Read MoreChristians and Muslims used to fight over food at this internally displaced refugee camp in Nigeria. Following a key change by the camp’s leadership more than a decade ago, the families now live peacefully, befriending each other, eating meals together and raising their kids as a single community.
Read MoreEighteen pastors and church workers, including Senior Pastor Ezra Jin, remain in detention. In an interview with The Free Press published May 11, Jin’s daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, also disclosed previously unreported details of a 2021 incident in which she alleges her father was drugged.
Read MoreDuring the American Revolution, women like Abigail Adams asserted moral and spiritual authority despite lacking legal rights. Through religion, household leadership and revival movements, they shaped communities and laid groundwork for later reforms in abolition, education and women’s rights.
Read MoreA court in central China, issued verdicts on May 22 against 31 members of a house church fellowship in one of the largest coordinated prosecutions of Christians in recent years.
Read MoreIn the heart of Budapest lies a theater unlike any other. Founded 20 years ago, Gólem Theater stands as the only professional Jewish theater in Hungary. By blending humor with questions of identity, the theater seeks to engage audiences with a different side of Jewish culture.
Read More(OPINION) An international investigator will visit Nigeria to assess the religious persecution occurring across the country, and there are so many issues that it’s hard to know where she should begin. Will she detail the mass kidnappings that have occurred regularly over the past decade? The religious and tribal fighting? The terrorist organizations wreaking havoc on the country?
Read More(REVIEW) How did Christianity shape North Korea? A new 745-page book argues the regime built by Kim Il Sung resembles a national religion that borrows some ideas from Christianity — complete with myths, rituals and a central, quasi-divine figure — rather than a typical authoritarian state.
Read MoreJoseph Holmes speaks with the director of “Cast Aside The Clouds” about why she wanted to make a film about a Bahá'í/Muslim love story, her own journey with the Bahá’í faith, and the unity and conversations she hopes will come about as a result of its release.
Read More(REVIEW) A “Romeo and Juliet” style love story, “Cast Aside The Clouds” that protests how religious intolerance — such as the kind regularly levied against the Baháʼí people in Iran — threatens love by targeting innocent people for oppression.
Read MoreThe fledgling country has yet to hold its first democratic general election, while the South Sudanese suffer from extreme poverty, ethnic violence, lack of water and more. Local and international faith groups lend a measure of stability, working to meet everyday needs while providing a measure of hope.
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