(OPINION) The roles that religion and religious leaders play during crises have consequences for how people regard religion long after the crisis ends. We should consider the past to understand the implications the coronavirus pandemic will have.
Read More(OPINION) One woman — Mary Mohammadi — has come to represent the imprisoned persecuted Christians of that Shiite Islamic country, who face vicious treatment and the threat of deadly disease inside Iran’s notoriously filthy and brutal prisons. Their crime? Belief in Jesus.
Read More(OPINION) The Bible and the CDC both impose isolation on us, requiring us to use a higher power to overcome our human instincts to comfort each other with touch.
Read More(OPINION) For many clergy, taking their services online is a new phenomenon, but the liturgy at the heart of these services has been passed down through many times like this one.
Read More(OPINION) Iain McGilchrist says Western Christianity is undermining itself. C. S. Lewis said something similar. Both cite the same reason. We’re starting with the wrong metaphor. By focusing too much on law and substitutionary atonement, Christians forget the marital love present in the cross.
Read MoreIn an interview with Poynter.org, NBC’s Lester Holt — whom I respect — said: “I always thought 9/11 would be the biggest story I would ever cover. But this (the coronavirus pandemic) is the biggest story we have ever seen.” Wow. That’s an amazing statement from a journalist of Holt’s status.
Read More(ANALYSIS) We are living in surreal times. The world as we knew it just over a week ago has been brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic. After the virus devastated China’s Wuhan province, it spread to Europe and now the rest of the world. Our daily lives have been disrupted in a way never seen in our lifetimes.
Read MoreDeliberately vague definitions of “extremism” are infringing on the religious liberties of many in Russia. As a result of this legal language, at least 313 Jehovah’s Witnesses have been placed under investigation, and many more have been imprisoned and convicted.
Read More(REVIEW) I Still Believe is a beautiful and necessary Christian love story that corrects some of the problems of other Christian films. Still, the movie suffers from the same weaknesses that plague the secular young adult romance genre.
Read More(OPINION) A recent report from the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom reveals that the Chinese government has forced Uighur Muslims to work in factories that may connect to supply chains in large American companies.
Read MoreHeartbreak and hope. It’s a combination our Weekend Plug-In columnist has witnessed repeatedly when covering catastrophes, from the Oklahoma City bombing to Hurricane Katrina to, most recently, the March 3 Tennessee tornadoes that killed 25 people and injured hundreds.
Read MoreAs a noun, cloister means a covered walk in a convent with a wall on one side and a colonnade open on the other. As a verb, it means to go into seclusion. The connection between a monastery — during Lent no less — and self-isolation makes a place like The Met Cloisters in New York more relevant than ever.
Read More(OPINION) With proper precautions, religious traditions can and have continued. For priests, a pandemic is not only an impediment to their duties but is central to their calling.
Read MoreItaly’s lockdown to contain the coronavirus interrupted a Raphael show of more than 100 of the artist’s paintings and drawings. The exhibit ironically marks the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance artist’s death by fever at the age of 37. A private tour of the Vatican Museum last week gave one of the last peeks into the now-closed Rafael show, among other treasures of the art world in Vatican City.
Read More(OPINION) The Democratic primary race has shifted rapidly. The changes have implications for the general election in November, which we can try to make some sense of by examining polling across religious groups.
Read More(OPINION) Argentina is a case study of the dwindling influence this pope has — even in his home country — when it comes to trying to influence the outcome of an issue that the Catholic church has seen as important for decades.
Read More(OPINION) The Muslim-majority West African nation has historically had high religious freedom, but changes to its Constitution and growing territorial control of terrorist groups could threaten that.
Read MoreThe best news stories start with a fantastic lede. Here are two fantastic ones from the world of religion news.
Read More(OPINION) The billionaire’s funeral raised the question of his personal legacy as well as his spiritual life. Based on interviews over the years, Welch, who grew up Catholic but did not practice for years, began to privately cultivate a Christian faith later in life with his wife Suzy, a Baptist.
Read More(REVIEW) Best-selling author and NY Times op-ed contributor Timothy Egan lets us tag along on his journey from Canterbury to Rome in his latest book, A Pilgrimage to Eternity. He’s on his camino – the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage of over a thousand miles beginning from the English world’s oldest church and ending at St. Peter’s Square.
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