Posts in Opinion
We Must Protect Survivors Of Mass Atrocities Like Uighurs From Witness Intimidation

(OPINION) On March 24, the U.N. marks the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. It is a day designated to honor the memory of victims of gross and systematic human rights violations and promote the importance of the right to truth and justice. We need to do more to ensure that there are comprehensive investigative mechanisms in place for the Uighurs.

Read More
Race, religion draw focus after killings of eight, including six Asian women

Was race a motive in Tuesday’s killings of eight people — including six Asian women — at three Atlanta-area massage parlors? Was religion? These were among the questions that quickly emerged after the arrest of a White suspect with ties to a Southern Baptist church.

Read More
Why The Death of Tanzania’s President Magufuli is Bad For Christianity

(OPINION) Tanzani’s president John Pombe Magufuli made global headlines for stubbornly refusing to implement World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. A Christian, he insisted that God would protect his country’s citizens and downplayed the risks of contracting and dying from COVID-19.

Read More
Remembering Luis Palau and his last trip to Peru: 'Well done, good and faithful servant'

(OPINION) Luis Palau, called the Billy Graham of Latin America, died March 11 at age 86. Religion Unplugged contributor and board member of The Media Project recalls what it was like working with Palau in Peru and accompanying him on official meetings with government officials and artists.

Read More
The Array Of Beliefs Inside America's Rising Religious 'Nones'

(OPINION) Religion Unplugged contributor and data journalist Ryan Burge thinks the rising number of Americans who don’t identify with any particular religion may be the most consequential religious group. They are one-fifth of the population and the fastest-growing religious group in the U.S. On point after point, they are notably different from both atheists and agnostics.

Read More
How Much More Evidence Is Needed Before The International Community Acts On Xinjiang?

(OPINION) On March 9, 2021, Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a non-partisan think tank based in the U.S., published a new report co-authored by over 50 global experts in human rights, war crimes and international law, analyzing the situation of the Uyghur community in Xinjiang, China, against the legal definition of genocide and the duties to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.

Read More
Beth Moore, Southern Baptists and the story behind the scoop that broke the internet

This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the story behind Religion News Service’s big scoop on Beth Moore declaring she is “no longer a Southern Baptist.” Plus, find links to all the top headlines and best reads in the world of faith.

Read More
Christians, Jews, Muslims and Lobbyists Left and Right Fret Over SCOTUS 'Donor Privacy' Case

(OPINION) What cause could ever possibly unite the Christian Right and the pro-choice left? Non-profit groups cannot operate or raise money in the state of California unless they give its attorney general the names and addresses of their major donors, the same list that's required as an appendix to their federal IRS returns.

Read More
The Tyrannical Threat of New Blasphemy Laws in Scotland

(OPINION) In Scotland, old blasphemy laws are being discarded — only to be replaced with harsher ones. The bill introduced is opposed by many faith and secular groups.

Read More
Polls apart: Pew Research Switching Methodologies With its Much-Used U.S. Religious Surveys

(OPINION) These days the "response rates" among those in randomly selected samples are so low it's tough to tell how representative the people are. Pew's expertise often provides all-important distinctions between white "mainline" and white "evangelical" Protestants, and between white and Hispanic Catholics. Pew is changing the way it surveys religious behavior and attitudes, so the media will want to be aware of why and how.

Read More
Why I Won't Make Another Christian Film

(OPINION) A filmmaker writes that none of the films he made had cursing, they didn’t have sex scenes, they didn’t have endings where everything wasn’t tied up nicely with a happy ending bow— not because he didn’t want to put them in his movies, or thought he could tell a better story without them, but instead because he knew if he did include mature content or unanswered questions in his films, they wouldn’t sell.

Read More
Pope Francis On A Historic Visit To Iraq

(OPINION) Pope Francis’ Apostolic Visit to Iraq begins on March 5, 2021. This first-ever papal visit to Iraq aims to provide moral support to Christian minorities in Iraq and the region while facilitating the Vatican’s goal of building bridges with the Muslim world. The visit comes close to seven years after religious minorities in the region, including Christians and Yazidis, have been targeted for annihilation by Daesh.

Read More
Turning Point in 'Reindeer Laws' Debate in Indiana's Nativity Court Case

(OPINION) The majority in the new 2-1 decision in Indiana regarding Christmas decor in front of the Lion’s Club argued that the "nativity scene is constitutional because it fits within a long national tradition of using the nativity scene in broader holiday displays to celebrate the origins of Christmas." This post-Christmas decision in the heartland may have been a turning point in the ‘reindeer laws’ debate.

Read More