There has been an increase in crimes committed against houses of worship across North America, predominantly aimed at Catholic churches, since last year. Many of these incidents have taken place in the weeks prior and after the Supreme Court decision to roll back federal abortion rights.
Read MoreOrthodox Christians in North America and around the world already are venerating the Alaskan matriarch for her care and concern for abused women.
Read More(REVIEW) The creative team behind “The Chosen” put together a documentary in which nine members of Gen Z binge-watched the first season of the show and shared their reaction. The documentary showcases a lot of genuine spiritual growth, but don’t expect it to solve all the problems present with young people and the church.
Read MoreThe arrival of St. Herman and a group of eight monks on this island on Sept. 24, 1794, planted a seed for the Orthodox Church on the continent. Since then, Alaska has been a spiritual cradle of Orthodox Christianity in North America.
Read MoreFor years, Fairfax church members — including older Christians such as Harrington, Jan Johnson and Juanita Wheeler — have connected in person with immigrants through FriendSpeak. But when the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown came in the spring of 2020, face-to-face studies with friends from China, El Salvador, Syria and elsewhere became impossible.
Read MoreSeveral young Orthodox converts who live at the St. James House, a self-directed program for young Orthodox adults, kept asking me during my visit last November if I had met Joe, the beekeeper. From what I had gathered, this guy named Joseph “Joe” Dunham, 68, was a living legend of the Eagle River community. He sounded quirky. I had to meet him.
Read MoreWhile less than 1% of Americans identify as Orthodox Christians, 5% of Alaskans identified as Orthodox in 2014, according to Pew Research. And while the number of regular attendees at Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. has declined 14% from 2010 to 2020, the number of parishes grew 3% over the same decade, according to the latest data in the 2020 Census of Orthodox Christian Churches.
Read More(ANALYSIS) One of the most sacred places in the Latter-day Saints temple in Washington is the Celestial Room on the sixth floor, where people come, sit quietly and pray. The Mormon leaders say this is a place to “feel close to and commune with God.” There are no ceremonies in this space.
Read MoreWhile there has been a prevailing narrative since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June that pro-lifers don’t care about women, the facts tell a different story. For over 50 years, even preceding the Roe v. Wade decision, Christians have been serving women in unexpected or crisis pregnancies.
Read MoreThe Central Lutheran Church of Dallas just celebrated its 100th anniversary. The congregation, which recently merged with 70-year-old Bethany Lutheran Church of Dallas, is starting to reckon with the decline in attendance and membership that is plaguing mainline traditions across the United States.
Read MoreJoshua Prager’s book, “The Family Roe” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction and received broad acclaim for Prager’s painstaking research into the life of the Roe v. Wade plaintiff — Norma McCorvey in real life and “Jane Roe” to the court — and many people connected to her, including the daughter born to her before abortion was legalized.
States, lawyers and legal scholars are continuing to evaluate the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned the decision in Roe v. Wade and subsequent abortion cases and held the U.S. Constitution does not, in fact, recognize a right to terminate a pregnancy.
Read MoreFor four weeks each summer, Kids & Christian Camp brings children ages 3 to 12 together in the nation’s capital to cook Jamaican food, listen to African music, learn about Mexican history and Japanese clothing, practice Brazilian martial arts and tour the Tanzanian embassy.
Read More(REVIEW) Dr. Donald Cline was once regarded as one of the best fertility doctors in the state of Indiana. But the rise in home DNA testing revealed years of invasive, unethical practice. For dozens, it brought into question Cline’s religious beliefs and position as a church elder.
Read More(OPINION) In the Bible, does St. Peter call women the “weaker sex”? Jackson Wu, an evangelical theologian with the Global Training Network, raised the question about 1 Peter 3:7. Wu complains that the physical strength explanation “has often been used” to “subtly affirm the inferiority of women.” But some translations include a different interpretation in the text.
Read More(REVIEW) “Elvis,” the biopic that explores the life and career of the “King of Rock ’n’ Roll,” shows him as a larger-than-life figure and an extremely talented performer who was largely inspired by gospel music. This is what the movie gets right, and what it missed out on.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Political news coverage is, in part, guided by polls. There are dozens of them that come out every few days in reporters’ email inboxes trying to gauge the temperature of the electorate on any given politician or policy decisions. This is especially true in a presidential election year. It’s also true during the midterms, which will arrive on Nov. 8.
Read MorePope Francis apologized to Canada’s Indigenous communities for the Catholic church’s role in forcibly converting them to the faith that led to generations of physical and sexual abuse. “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” the pope said.
Read MoreCatholic nun and medical doctor Teresa Forcades says women should make their own abortion decisions. Forcades is quick to clarify that she is not “pro-choice” and that she, too, believes in the sanctity of life, but the situation is “way more complex” to squeeze into the pro-choice/pro-life binary that frames today’s abortion debate.
Read MoreIn the past few years a national conversation has ignited about the character of racial and religious outsiders, who belongs in America and under what terms and conditions they belong. According to Stanford historian Kathryn Gin Lum in her latest book “Heathen: Religion and Race in American History,” these ideas and American conceptions of race can be traced back to the religious and racialized concept of the “heathen.”
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