Posts in North America
Religious Freedom Lately: SCOTUS lifts COVID restrictions on religion, France's Muslim ID Mix-Up And More

The highest court in the U.S. overturned an attendance limit on New York houses of worship, Europeans deal with miscommunication over anti-radicalization policy, Greece joins the Serbian Orthodox Church in a battle over safety in worship as the pandemic tears through their highest-ranking clergy, and China eyes a new law to control religious appointments.

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8 Faith-Based Movies To Watch With Your Family This Holiday Season

The holiday season is the best time to explore your streaming services. Don’t know where to start? Check out these faith-based movies you can watch with your family this holiday.

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Netflix’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Fails To Explain White Evangelicals. Here’s Why It’s Still Worth Watching

(REVIEW) “Hillbilly Elegy,” the newest Netflix movie, is an adaptation of the 2016 memoir about the life of J.D. Vance growing up in Appalachia. The movie portrays the story of family well, and it doesn’t attempt to solve any political or cultural problems beyond that.

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'Gleaners' fulfill spiritual commands to feed the hungry, reduce food waste

Up to a third of all produce never leaves the farm. That's why “gleaning” societies pick left behind fruits and vegetables to feed families in need— an estimated 50 million Americans this year, up 13% from 2018. It is one of the most ancient forms of faith-based charity. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all mandate gleaning as a way to live out the divine commandment to care for the poor, the widowed and the orphaned.

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Amid COVID-19 uncertainty, pastors and churches struggle in hiring slowdown

Churches are hiring fewer pastors as the pandemic constrains their finances, even as hospitals request more chaplains. Churches that do want to fill an empty pulpit struggle to vett candidates virtually.

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On virus-stricken Native reservations, church shares food and light

Evan Todachine and his wife Crystal lost their 18-month-old son shortly after their baptisms into the Christian faith. Their church is sharing their resources and faith with American Indian communities that are suffering terrible losses from COVID-19. “We have the peace, we have comfort, having gone through a tragedy like this,” Todachine said. “Our people have to know this peace and this hope.”

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The Religious Life of Reality Winner, the Gen Z whistleblower who exposed Russian interference in U.S. elections

Reality Winner was arrested in 2017 for leaking a five-page NSA report about Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Today, Winner hopes for a judge to give her “compassionate release” before she completes her sentence. A vocal group of supporters are active on Twitter daily to promote her name and story, highlighting the times her religious personal items have been taken away in jail.

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Who's to blame for McCarrick depends on what news sources you read

(OPINION) A week after the Vatican released its much-anticipated investigation of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, there remain many unanswered questions. Whether journalists will delve deeply into these unanswered questions remains to be seen.

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COVID-19 Claims Lindy McDaniel, Retired Major-League Pitcher And Longtime Preacher

McDaniel, 84, served as an elder of a 50-member congregation northeast of Dallas. He is known for a career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals — and for his devout Christian faith and service.

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Christian Astronaut — And His Communion Cups — Lifting Off On Space Mission

Victor Glover is a NASA astronaut and one of four crew members for the SpaceX Crew Dragon’s first operational flight that launched this weekend. He’ll rely on his Bible and prayer to deal with isolation at the International Space Station.

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The Charismatic Christians prophesying Trump's victory (and not backing down)

The possibility of President Trump winning a second term is looking dimmer and dimmer as election results show President-Elect Joe Biden eking out a victory even in traditionally GOP states such as Arizona and Georgia. But these modern-day prophets aren’t taking no for an answer.

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How Sci-fi Writer Octavia Butler’s Invented Religion Predicted 2020 Chaos

Fourteen years after her death, Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel “The Parable of the Sower” hit national bestseller lists for eerily predicting this year’s dystopian-feeling chaos. Her invented religion Earthseed, along with her identity as a Black woman, sets her apart from other science fiction writers who often imagine a faith-less future.

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Disney’s ‘Clouds’ Tells True Story of Catholic Teen with Terminal Cancer

(REVIEW) “Clouds,” a new movie streaming on Disney+, tells the true story of Zach Sobiech, a Catholic teenager and musician who suffered from a rare form of cancer. The movie emphasizes faith and the importance of having hope.

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Pennsylvania Church Tells Followers To Be Ready To Die For Trump In 'A Gun Fight With Police'

In an online broadcast to his followers, Rev. Sean Moon, son of the Unification movement’s founder, said America is threatened by totalitarianism and must fight back to ensure President Trump serves a second term, even if that means dying in “a gun fight with police.”

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Religions for Peace Leader Azza Karam Shows the Role of Women in Faith and Diplomacy

From Nov. 11-13, more than 600 people from 90 countries attended a virtual and in-person conference in Germany to discuss the role of women in the world’s religions and their leadership in their faith communities, development work and diplomacy. Azza Karam, the Secretary General for Religions for Peace, has spent her career showing international agencies like the United Nations why understanding religion is central to their missions.

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How liberal are Republicans? How conservative are Democrats? Here's what religious Americans think

(ANALYSIS) White evangelicals think that Democrats are incredibly liberal, but atheists see them as just slightly left of center. Comparing how religious groups perceive the political parties shows us how politicians are able to exploit the partisan divide to paint the other side as radical or extreme.

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'Culture Of Clericalism': Firestorm Of Letters Fly From Cardinals, Bishops Following McCarrick Report

Cardinals, archbishops and other clerical leaders of the Catholic Church from around the world have penned a flurry of letters and official statements in the wake of the ground-breaking McCarrick report that concludes while many in the Vatican hierarchy had known for years about sexual abuse allegations against ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick and not removed him, Pope Francis was not complicit.

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McCarrick report: Vatican hierarchy downplayed past sex abuse reports

A long-awaited Vatican probe into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick found that many in the Catholic hierarchy — starting with Pope John Paul II — continuously turned a blind eye to a series of red flags that he’d sexually abused children and seminarians.

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