This week’s Weekend Plug-in opens with the top headlines from the International Religious Freedom Summit. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and big news in the world of faith.
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This year’s Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers may be contested at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas — known as Sin City — but it will feature two very pious quarterbacks when Patrick Mahomes faces off against Brock Purdy. Both are practicing Christians unafraid to talk about their faith.
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Palestinians celebrated the country’s national team after qualifying for the knockout stage at the AFC Asian Cup. The historic win, a 3-0 victory against Hong Kong to close out the group stage, allowed Palestine to reach the round of 16 for the first time in the tournament’s 68-year history. It also brought some comfort amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in features a retrospective from columnist Bobby Ross Jr. on his 25 years on the Godbeat. Plus, a major new study on ‘nones’ — and, as always, all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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(ESSAY) For veteran religion writer Bobby Ross Jr., an unexpected assignment to cover Pope John Paul’s 1999 visit to St. Louis planted a seed. Twenty-five years later, Ross reflects on that experience as the spark that launched the most important phase of his journalism career.
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A new report on “nones” — one of the largest ever conducted on this fast-growing demographic — attempts to drill down into what these Americans believe, their feelings towards organized religion and politics. The decades-long rise of the “nones” has been one of the most talked about phenomena in the United States.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights plans for the annual March for Life, expected to draw 100,000 abortion opponents to the nation’s capital. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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Over the next few weeks, a team of pastors will organize events in Ivory Coast — with plans to involve players, coaches and fans — throughout the Africa Cup of Nations, which ends on Feb. 11 with the final. The host nation — along with Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt — are among the favorites to win Africa’s premier soccer tournament for national teams.
Read MoreIn this era where the transcendent is often overlooked, advocating for spiritual and religious freedom transcends mere individual rights. It's about preserving our inherent spiritual dignity and embracing a worldview where spiritual elements like truth, goodness and beauty hold significance in every aspect of our lives. Without acknowledging and having the freedom to explore our spiritual dimensions, we risk passing on a materialistic outlook to future generations, devoid of the profound sacredness interwoven in every facet of life.
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Tributes to the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. took place on Monday across the country and included a mix of politics, faith and community service. This year’s observance — the 38th since its was made a federal holiday in 1986 — commemorated the Baptist preacher and Civil Rights Movement icon's importance to American history.
Read MoreIn the face of the vast human suffering, staggering damage to infrastructure and environmental catastrophe caused by the conflict — which marks its 100th day on Sunday — another controversial post-war scenario is for Israel to rebuild some of the post-1967 Gaza Strip settlements from which it unilaterally withdrew in 2005.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in focuses on the evangelicals supporting Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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Like all Muslims, Islam and its teachings is for the Molbog a way of life. But for them, crocodiles are considered sacred and their ancestors. In fact, the Molbog word for crocodile — “opo” — is the same one used to refer to grandparents.
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(OPINION) As I get older, I find my resolution for each new year is the same. I don’t need to make a list of resolutions. I just want one thing: Peace.
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In order to build the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, critics said TotalEnergies is moving over 2,000 graves in Uganda and Tanzania, without adhering to cultural and religious burial customs. GreenFaith — a multi-faith climate justice organization — recently released a report titled “As If Nothing Is Scared” to shed light on the issue.
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As India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to run for a third term, the country remains on the brink. Activists, journalists and civil society groups have continued in recent months to raise alarms at the rise in religious persecution of minorities throughout the country.
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The first Weekend Plug-in of 2024 looks ahead to the year’s expected big news. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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Religion Unplugged’s former executive editor Paul Glader reported a three-episode narrative podcast for the Sony Entertainment Media show “Infamous” about GOP operative Paul Erickson who led a colorful life that included advising a presidential candidate, making a Hollywood movie and dating an alleged Russian spy named Maria Butina. Upon hearing the podcast, Butina reached out and agreed to an interview to share her perspective on her now ex-boyfriend.
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In a special year-end edition, Weekend Plug-in counts down the Top 10 most popular ReligionUnplugged.com stories of 2023.
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(EXCLUSIVE) The national spotlight turned on Paul Erickson in recent years when the red-haired, Russian national he was dating, Maria Butina, was accused of being a Russian spy during intense scrutiny on Russian connections to the United States during the Trump presidency. Butina was arrested in 2018 and deported in 2019 after she pleaded guilty for failing to register as a foreign agent.
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