Following the expanded Free Exercise protections under these decisions, ADF continues to litigate cases on behalf of Christian ministries, arguing for the continued expansion of these protections in different contexts.
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(ANALYSIS) When you teach certain classes at the college level, you just know you are going to have to cover certain subjects. Any introductory biology course should touch on photosynthesis, a class on philosophy should cover logical fallacies, and any course on American history has to spend way too much time talking about the constitutional convention.
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A large majority of American Catholics said they have a favorable view of Pope Leo XIV, even as many admit they know little about the new pontiff. A new report found that 84% of U.S. Catholics view Pope Leo positively, just months after he assumed the papacy following the death of Pope Francis in May. Only 4% reported an unfavorable view, while 11% say they have never heard of him.
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(ANALYSIS) The fatal shooting of Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University has drawn condemnation and renewed attention to the climate of political violence in the United States. He was one of the most visible leaders of the young conservative movement.
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(ANALYSIS) Any sounding music is not silent and, in human terms, silence is largely metaphorical, since we cannot escape sound. But Pärt’s silence is different. It is spiritual stillness communicated through his musical formulas but made sensible through the action of human performers. It is a composer’s silence as he gets out of the way of a sacred text’s musicality to communicate its truth.
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(ANALYSIS) Darren Aronofsky’s most formative encounter with Haredi Jews may have come when he was an 18-year-old in Israel at the Kotel. It was there at the wall, he told film journalist Andrea Chase, he met a group of Hasidim who introduced him to the Jewish mysticism he’d go on to use to award-winning effect in his debut feature, “Pi.”
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Conservative advocate Charlie Kirk was killed by a gunman at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Kirk is the co-founder and president of Turning Point USA, a non-profit aimed at spreading conservative principles on high school and college campuses.
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(ANALYSIS) Every decade or so, it's common to see news reports about pastors leaving pulpits in search of less stressful work. Consider the 2024 Hartford Institute for Religion Research poll in which more than half said they have considered quitting. According to 2022 polling by the Barna Institute, the main causes for anxiety were strong job stress (56%), followed by feeling isolated (43%).
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A majority of Americans do not believe God plays a role in presidential elections — a view that has remained consistent across several cycles, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The survey found that 49% said God does not get involved in presidential elections, while another 14% say they don’t believe in God at all. About a third said election results are part of God’s overall plan.
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(ANALYSIS) As disputes rage on over religion’s place in public schools, the Ten Commandments have become a focal point. At least a dozen states have considered proposals that would require classrooms to post the biblical laws, while three recently passed laws mandating their display starting this year.
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(ANALYSIS) The international legal team for Jimmy Lai, and his son Sebastien Lai, has submitted a new Urgent Appeal to the United Nations experts in relation to the serious and immediate risk to Jimmy Lai’s life posed by his ongoing detention.
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(ANALYSIS) Leo Tolstoy spent half a century avoiding arguably the most essential truth of them all: Everything comes to an end. If that’s true, which it is, what’s the point? He’d conquered every peak the world could name. “War and Peace” made him immortal. “Anna Karenina” made him rich. Critics worshipped him in tongues he didn’t even speak. Russian aristocrats name-dropped him like Scripture.
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(ANALYSIS) For now, it would be premature to declare that that moment has arrived. Yet it would be incautious, too, to ignore the warning signs. The latest terrorism in Jerusalem may not be the turning point. But unless the trajectory changes — unless there is a serious Israeli effort to address Palestinian grievances, rather than inflame them — the explosion everyone fears may soon become impossible to prevent.
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In remarks at the Museum of the Bible during a meeting of his Religious Liberty Commission, President Donald Trump touted his administration’s religious liberty victories, vowed to protect prayer in public schools and announced the donation of his personal Bible to the museum.
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Days after challenging Pastor Doug Wilson to a public debate, Peter Bell, producer and host of the podcast “Sons of Patriarchy,” made a social media confession that has forced a reckoning within the community he helped build around exposing abuse in patriarchal churches. Bell, whose podcast investigates Wilson’s Idaho church movement, said in a since-deleted Aug. 23 Facebook post that he struggled with pornography addiction for nearly two decades, was fired from multiple jobs for lying and experienced marital separation during his podcast’s first season last year.
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(ANALYSIS) In Washington, D.C., recent events have pushed some Christian leaders to become vocal against the Trump administration. As clergy argue that federal law enforcement agencies increasingly encroach upon church property and community spaces, the result has been a growing movement of men and women who argue that enough is enough.
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(ANALYSIS) One thing I consider part of my job as a columnist is pointing you to opinions that are better-expressed and more revelatory that what I’d normally produce on my own. That’s the case here.
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(ANALYSIS) “Murderbot” has options, but only a few. Kill all the stupid humans and flee, which likely means another SecUnit would stop him and then the company would melt him down as scrap. Or play along, pretending to do the job you’ve always done but hope no one notices when you’re not all there because — you’re bingeing thousands of hours of “content” — human/bot/AI entertainment.
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(ANALYSIS) History was made on Sunday in St. Peter’s Square. Pope Leo XIV declared Carlo Acutis — the 15-year-old tech prodigy known as “God’s Influencer” — the first Millennial saint. Before 80,000 pilgrims, many of them young families and digital natives, this wasn’t just a canonization. It was a prophetic moment for the Catholic Church as it grapples with its place in the 21st century.
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The Catholic justice said what motivated her to write a book is to shed a light on the Supreme Court’s inner workings and give a behind-the-scenes look at what the justices do. She added that while the Supreme Court may not always “get it right” in every case, she does “think Americans should trust that the court is trying to get it right.”
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