(ANALYSIS) Described in the Bible as the first nation to attack the Israelites after the Exodus, the Amalekites came to symbolize a recurring evil: Not merely one that seeks to harm the Jewish people, but one bent on their erasure. Across the centuries, Jewish thinkers have mapped this archetype onto real-world threats. Some are asking: Should Iran be added to that list?
Read More(ANALYSIS) There’s a really big problem with just using religious attendance as a proxy for religiosity. It masks a way more interesting feature of American life — a never-attending person who identifies as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular is a completely different species compared to a never-attending person who still identifies with a religious tradition.
Read MoreWhen a shell slammed into a madrassa (an Islamic school) housing over 1,200 children, its caretaker, Sayyed Habib, didn’t dial the army or the police. He didn’t call emergency services. He called Pradeep Sharma, a Hindu and former lawmaker, and his best friend since ninth grade. it was an example of how people of differing faiths found it in their hearts to help one another.
Read MoreWhen Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, it wasn’t all that surprising when her Notre Dame Law School colleagues offered high praise for her work. Earlier, when she was nominated to the 7th Circuit in Chicago, every single member of that faculty signed an endorsement letter stating, in part: “Amy is a role model for all of us, and will be a model of the fair, impartial, and sympathetic judge."
Read MoreThe Oklahoma City Thunder are still praying. Presumably, so are the Indiana Pacers. Plus, a big rally for Pope XIV at the Chicago White Sox ballpark, and an NFL head coach says God guides him.
Read MoreIn the wake of federal funding cuts affecting nonprofits, over 150 organizations have signed a pledge urging grantmakers to extend their support and funnel fresh funds to hard-hit advocacy groups that have lost federal contracts.
Read MoreIn a historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 18 that a Tennessee law banning gender transition medical treatments for minors is constitutional. The case involved a suit brought by three transgender teenagers and the Biden Administration against Tennessee officials seeking to bar the state from enforcing its ban on gender transition interventions or so-called “gender affirming care” for minors.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Details are still emerging about Vance Boelter, the 57-year-old man accused of killing a Minnesota state politician and her husband and grievously injuring another state senator and his wife. But the more we learn about Boelter, the more likely it seems that Christian nationalism may have played a role in motivating the attack.
Read MoreThe 500 Christians had already fled terrorism at home and found temporary shelter in storefronts transformed into living quarters in downtown Yelewata. But as they slept overnight on June 13, men identified as militant Fulani attacked from multiple sides.
Read MoreNondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for child sex abuse victims are no longer allowed in Missouri, thanks to a piece of new legislation known as Trey’s Law. It is in memory of Trey Carlock, a victim of abuse at Kanakuk Kamps in southwest Missouri, who took his own life in 2019 at the age of 28.
Read More(REVIEW) When it comes to U2, perhaps the only thing harder to find than a nuanced opinion of them is an accurate portrayal of their faith. It was a shock to some that the Dublin-based band — who became big in the 1980s — refused to be pigeonholed as apologists for Irish nationalism. Anyone who looks at their religious makeup shouldn’t have been surprised.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The central government’s gazette notification for India’s upcoming 2027 census omits the word “caste.” This, despite earlier public assurances that caste data would be collected. The absence of explicit mention has triggered accusations of deliberate evasion. Is the reluctance tied to the disruptive potential of a full caste enumeration—one that could unsettle the ideological foundations of Hindu nationalist politics?
Read More(OPINION) As a historian of Christianity, I have studied how religion has been manipulated to bless empires. In the year 325, Constantine declared himself Christian and forged the Christian Empire. In 800, the Pope crowned Charlemagne, merging the power of church and state. During colonial expansion, Christianity was exported alongside conquest and commerce.
Read More(ANALYSIS) To this day, there are no national memorials for the victims. Instead, triumphalist military monuments, many of them built in Tamil-majority areas, celebrate a victory in a war whose collateral damage amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Maybe what stands out here is that no matter how much the country has changed socially, religiously and politically, none of that has really shifted the overall relationship between Jews and the Democratic Party.
Read More(ANALYSIS) This is not a moment for faith-based institutions to retreat or sanitize their convictions. It is a moment to reclaim their voice and affirm their rightful in shaping a public life capacious enough to hold true difference, including sacred difference. Religious freedom — grounded in conscience, practice and institutional distinctiveness — must remain a cornerstone of our shared civic life.
Read MoreIn other words, the moral battle lines at the heart of America’s “culture wars” continue to shift and evolve. Maybe the editors at the Times should assign a religion-beat professional to the team that is covering these trends?
Read MoreAt its annual meeting in the Dallas, the nation’s largest Protestant nomination tackled social issues such as same-sex marriage, online porn and sports betting.
Read MoreAs the evening crowd arrived for services Thursday evening at Young Israel of Century City, Benny Factor watched for updates on his phone, which was leaned against a tissue box on the table in front of him. The chyron of an Israeli TV channel he was streaming told the story: “Happening now,” it said in Hebrew: “A wave of attacks has begun in Iran.”
Read More(OPINION) We are all curious to see how Pope Leo XIV will engage with the Trump administration. The Chicago Archdiocese’s upcoming celebration of the pope, an American-Peruvian dual citizen, stands in contrast to the military parade being hosted in Washington, D.C. on the same day. At the same time, the Catholic Church has seen empires rise and fall.
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