Bible Belt Christians split over sex on the Bachelorette, reflecting larger trend

(COMMENTARY) "I have had sex and, like, Jesus still loves me,” contestant Hannah Brown recently said.

Five years after Yazidi massacre, Daesh persists in Iraq and Syria

(COMMENTARY) There are still hotspots of Daesh support, and a territorial defeat of Daesh does not mean the defeat of their perverted ideology, which is still threatening religious minorities like the Yazidis.

Will the new British Foreign Secretary take religious persecution seriously?

(COMMENTARY) Jeremy Hunt’s resignation puts his plan for an international overhaul of asylum requests, from persecuted Christians especially, in limbo with the UK’s new foreign secretary Dominic Raab.

This Indonesian village tradition has kept peace between Christians and Muslims

(COMMENTARY) In Maluku, two villages — one Christian and one Muslim — follow a unique tradition they say dates back to 1506 to live in harmony without diluting either of their faiths.

Faith and politics: Your guide to the Democratic presidential debates

We break down each candidate’s faith affiliation and how their religion could inform their chosen policy issues. Some might surprise you.

What we learned from the annual African bishops' summit

The nine-day conference featuring senior Catholic leaders from across Africa was an opportunity for the church to examine the many societal challenges currently facing the continent.

Meet the Vatican’s revamped press office and the challenges it faces

(NEWS ANALYSIS) The Vatican press office may be second only to the White House communications department when it comes to ranking the world’s busiest public relations operation. The upcoming Synod for the Pan-Amazon Region will be their first real test.

The landmark church sitting on a Methodist fault line

The United Methodist Church’s vote to uphold traditional views on marriage and clergy is playing out with particular intensity at an unconventional Methodist church in San Francisco. The denomination has filed a lawsuit that could result in drastic changes for the congregation and its community.

Attacks on Muslims and Christians Continue to Rise in India

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014 and reelection this May, brutal mob attacks by Hindu nationalist groups against India’s Muslim and Christian minorities have continued to steadily rise.

Songwriter and producer Rudy Perez talks about faith and his memoir 'The Latin Hit Maker'

The Grammy-winning Cuban-born American artist says that a persistent voice always guided him to music. His memoir hit shelves this week.

India's plan to resettle Hindus in Muslim-majority Kashmir

The Indian government is reportedly forming a new plan to resettle thousands of Kashmiri Hindus back to the Kashmir Valley, an army-occupied territory disputed with Pakistan. The plan would likely further inflame Hindu-Muslim tensions.

U.S. conference elevates religious freedom globally, grows alliances

The second-annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom has successfully encouraged a growing number of governments to pay attention to the issue and created an alliance on international religious freedom policy. But critics worry how successful those plans and statements can be, and what is motivating the Trump administration.

Religious freedom has never drawn a bigger crowd (from all walks of faith)

(COMMENTARY) The U.S. State Department’s second annual Ministerial on religious freedom drew over 1,000 official invitees and many more for side events.

From the U.S. religious freedom summit: good news and bad

(COMMENTARY) Last week’s State Department summit brought together representatives from nearly 100 countries and dozens of faith groups to discuss threats and successes of religious freedom globally.

How a growing evangelical Christian community in Latin America could threaten democracy

The book Evangelicals and Power in Latin America attempts to explain how the rise in evangelical voters will affect power and politics, human rights and the future of democracy in Latin America.

Former Times bureau chief investigates rash of French church vandalism cases

A recent piece posted to Real Clear Investigations takes a deep dive into the trend of church vandalism in France, quantifying it with anecdotes, lots of data and interviews with people in the know. The reporting sheds a spotlight on the attacks and may be one of the best reported pieces on what’s been going on there by any news organization to date.

The fight against halala marriages in India

The practice, enforced by some conservative Sunni clerics and condemned by others, requires a divorced Muslim woman to consummate a marriage with another man before she can remarry her first husband.

'Highway to Heaven' 30 years later: Remembering a show about something

What if you met a man who told you he was an angel? Would you believe him? That was the premise of the groundbreaking NBC show, which ended its five-season run 30 years ago this summer.

South Asia's cradle of Sufism is losing its traditional music

Kashmiri classical music, which blends Sufi traditions from Persia with Indian classical music, is facing threat of extinction as fewer students have leisure or funds to study the art form and fewer maestros exist to teach them. Its musicians believe the genre could bring peace to the army-occupied region, following the ways of Sufi mystics who preached peace, tolerance, pluralism and universalism.

Franklin Graham's charity is mobilizing aid to the U.S.-Mexico border

Samaritan’s Purse, the poverty and crisis relief organization known for sending millions of shoeboxes to orphans every Christmas, has said it is mobilizing resources to alleviate the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. The announcement came 10 days after Christian singer Nichole Nordeman wrote an open letter to Graham in the Washington Post.

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