Jamal Khashoggi may have signed his own death warrant with his opinion column in The Washington Post when he criticized the White House’s democratic efforts in the Arab world, including both the Obama and Trump administration.
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(COMMENTARY) While it's common to believe that religion evolves slowly over time, in a linear manner, the evidence suggests that history lurches through periods of "extreme, rapid, revolutionary change, when everything is shaken and thrown up into the air," said historian Philip Jenkins. Ever 50 years or so, new patterns and cultural norms seem to appear that never could have been predicted.
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(COMMENTARY) The venerable Mormon Tabernacle Choir has announced that it is now named “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.” Reason: President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has declared that “the importance of the name” that God “revealed for His Church,” means believers and outsiders must drop “Mormon” and use that full nine-word name.
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(COMMENTARY) Theodore McCarrick has become the iconic figure at the heart of the latest round of Catholic clergy sex scandals. Here in America, the key will be whether bishops find ways to hold each other accountable, especially with talk increasing of a federal investigation of cover-ups linked to sexual abuse.
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The U.S. Supreme Court isn’t only the highest court in the land, its judges have the responsibility to rule on cases that have a lasting impact on American politics, culture and religion. Driving those changes going forward will be a Catholic majority of justices who have become increasingly conservative, shifting the balance of the court for years to come.
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(COMMENTARY) The Catholic Church’s “bad guys” aren’t women, but men accused of molesting children and teens over the last few decades. Those who were victimized were children, teens and young people – all in large part males. The solution to the Catholic Church’s ills won’t come from the clergy – certainly not if Pope Francis and others protect the likes of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – but from the flock. And it will be women who will lead the way.
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Nestled between flashy carnival games, noisy food vendors and large, sweaty crowds, the small shrine of St. Gennaro glows and quietly blends in with the party atmosphere along Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy
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(OPINION) How will the recent Vatican-Beijing development — ostensibly designed to unite the much persecuted, Vatican-loyal, underground Chinese Catholic church with the government recognized, and controlled, official Chinese Catholic church — survive should Vatican officials decide to criticize one or another Chinese human rights violation? Or does China believe that this agreement is just another Chinese attempt to control religious expression?
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(COMMENTARY) Nothing much has changed in Western reporting about Russia since 1939. A recent meeting between the Patriarchs Cyril of Moscow and Bartholomew of Constantinople over an autocephalous or independent orthodox church in Ukraine is yet another example of the fog that surrounds Russian reporting.
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Sabelo Mlangeni is an award-winning photographer featured in galleries from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts to San Francisco’s MOMA. He’s been awarded residencies from Germany to France. Featured once in The New Yorker, he was described as South Africa’s “Flâneur,” a term used to describe his ability to capture intimate moments wherever he travels. But while he is known around the world, his home is close to heart. His most recent gallery is Umlindelo Wamakhlowa (Night Vigil of the Believers) at Wits Art Museum (WAM), located at the University of Witswatersrand in Joburg. His series of photos in the exhibit document the Church of Zion and his own experience.
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A whistleblower says the Vatican – and specifically Pope Francis – was aware of immoral sexual abuse behavior years ago. When it was revealed that two Catholic journalists helped him to edit and distribute the letter making those claims, it shed a light on the increasingly polarized Catholic Church and the growth and influence of conservative news and opinion websites that oppose Pope Francis and what they believe is the pontiff’s assault on orthodoxy.
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Australia has a new prime minister, which is certainly news. The new prime minister, Scott Morrison, is an outspoken, politically conservative Pentecostal Christian. This mixing of religion and politics may be old-hat at this point for Americans. But it's an entirely new experience for Australians.
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(COMMENTARY) It wasn't a normal Sunday in Catholic pulpits across America, as priests faced flocks touched by sorrow and rage after a sickening grand-jury report packed with X-rated details about decades of sexual abuse by clergy.
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Priests know what it's like to enter the pulpit facing scriptures that appear to have been torn from the headlines.That happened just the other day, with news that one of America's most powerful Catholics – retired Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. – had been accused of the sexual abuse of boys, as well as decades of seminarians. Days later the Sunday Mass lectionary featured the Prophet Jeremiah, speaking for Jehovah: "Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture."
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The Benda family faithfully observed the rites that defined their lives inside of their second-floor apartment. Every day, they prayed together, studied together and found ways to enjoy themselves – while doing everything they could to show others there was more to life than the rules of a paranoid police state.
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Despite one of the most severe crackdowns on North Korean refugees in China in recent years, Steven Kim and his team actively search in villages for North Korean women to support them through Christian counseling and provide humanitarian support.
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At long last, the United Methodist Church has posted detailed proposals (.pdfs here) from its emergency “Commission on a Way Forward” to address what it calls the “deepening impasse” over whether to approve actively gay clergy and same-sex weddings.
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In Kashmir, the Amarnath Pilgrimage showcases the perfect symbol of unity and bonding between Hindus and Muslims.
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The biggest star at this World Cup wasn't Messi, Ronaldo, or Neymar. How St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square became the symbol of #Russia2018
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A number of religious gurus in India have been recently convicted of sexual crimes. But what explains their continued influence over millions of followers?
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