Who Smoked Bristol’s Breakdancing Jesus?

A 2013 mural of a breakdancing Jesus in street artist Banksy’s Bristol neighborhood in England was recently defaced with blue paint.

Faith and politics: Your guide to the Democratic presidential debates

We break down each candidate’s faith affiliation and how their religion could inform their chosen policy issues. Some might surprise you.

What we learned from the annual African bishops' summit

The nine-day conference featuring senior Catholic leaders from across Africa was an opportunity for the church to examine the many societal challenges currently facing the continent.

The landmark church sitting on a Methodist fault line

The United Methodist Church’s vote to uphold traditional views on marriage and clergy is playing out with particular intensity at an unconventional Methodist church in San Francisco. The denomination has filed a lawsuit that could result in drastic changes for the congregation and its community.

Attacks on Muslims and Christians Continue to Rise in India

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014 and reelection this May, brutal mob attacks by Hindu nationalist groups against India’s Muslim and Christian minorities have continued to steadily rise.

Songwriter and producer Rudy Perez talks about faith and his memoir 'The Latin Hit Maker'

The Grammy-winning Cuban-born American artist says that a persistent voice always guided him to music. His memoir hit shelves this week.

India's plan to resettle Hindus in Muslim-majority Kashmir

The Indian government is reportedly forming a new plan to resettle thousands of Kashmiri Hindus back to the Kashmir Valley, an army-occupied territory disputed with Pakistan. The plan would likely further inflame Hindu-Muslim tensions.

U.S. conference elevates religious freedom globally, grows alliances

The second-annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom has successfully encouraged a growing number of governments to pay attention to the issue and created an alliance on international religious freedom policy. But critics worry how successful those plans and statements can be, and what is motivating the Trump administration.

How a growing evangelical Christian community in Latin America could threaten democracy

The book Evangelicals and Power in Latin America attempts to explain how the rise in evangelical voters will affect power and politics, human rights and the future of democracy in Latin America.

The fight against halala marriages in India

The practice, enforced by some conservative Sunni clerics and condemned by others, requires a divorced Muslim woman to consummate a marriage with another man before she can remarry her first husband.

South Asia's cradle of Sufism is losing its traditional music

Kashmiri classical music, which blends Sufi traditions from Persia with Indian classical music, is facing threat of extinction as fewer students have leisure or funds to study the art form and fewer maestros exist to teach them. Its musicians believe the genre could bring peace to the army-occupied region, following the ways of Sufi mystics who preached peace, tolerance, pluralism and universalism.

Franklin Graham's charity is mobilizing aid to the U.S.-Mexico border

Samaritan’s Purse, the poverty and crisis relief organization known for sending millions of shoeboxes to orphans every Christmas, has said it is mobilizing resources to alleviate the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. The announcement came 10 days after Christian singer Nichole Nordeman wrote an open letter to Graham in the Washington Post.

In Kashmir, pilgrimages diffuse Hindu-Muslim tensions

This month, thousands of Indian Hindu pilgrims are visiting the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir — a region of armed conflict between Kashmiri Muslim militants and Indian security officials — to pray at the Amarnath cave and shrine. Thousands of Kashmiri Muslims are setting up shops and travel businesses to accommodate them.

Why India is trying to criminalize instant divorce for Muslim men

A bill to ban triple talaq, or Islamic instant divorce, is creating controversy in India. The bill could be unconstitutional in two ways: it would criminalize only Muslim men for deserting their wives and it trumps so-called personal laws meant to provide religious freedom in civil matters like marriage.

A peek inside the restoration of New York’s historic Trinity Church

As Americans gather to celebrate Independence Day, it is worth remembering that historic Trinity Church in New York City played a significant role in the birth of America and remains the burial site of several Founding Fathers, including Alexander Hamilton.

Christians seek new audiences with graphic novels

Christian comic book fans see biblical influences on the origin stories of popular superheroes like Superman, Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer. Meanwhile, Christian publishers are getting into the graphic novel genre.

A more diverse, conservative Anglicanism is growing

The Episcopal Church in the U.S., part of the Anglican communion and the Church of England, is too liberal on issues like same-sex marriage for many expats from Africa and the Global South. The split in views and immigration to the U.S. and Canada is prompting growth in the conservative split-off, the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), while the Episcopal Church is gradually declining.

Video: LGBTQ Catholics celebrate Mass outside Stonewall Inn

The same-sex relationship affirming ministry of the Roman Catholic Church of St. Paul the Apostle represents a divide between some liberal Catholic parishes and the Vatican’s conservative teachings.

How churches are saving forests in Ethiopia

We spoke with award-winning photographer Kieran Dodds about his project capturing the gardens of Eden cultivated by Ethiopian churches. The conservation is an act of worship to save their forests and provide an oasis for their congregations. Listen to the full podcast or read the edited transcript here.

5 Takeaways from the International Religious Freedom Report

Saudi Arabia, China, Russia and Myanmar are the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom in 2018, according to the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report.

Address

Contact

Information