(REVIEW) Paul Seabright’s “The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power and People” does not take into account what’s true, but does explore well what pays. Churches compete with theaters and other entertainment venues. They also compete with each other and offer explicit or implicit inducements.
Read MoreIreland — once a bastion of Catholicism — has become a more secular, pluralistic nation. In the 2022 census, 14% of respondents reported having no religion, according to the Central Statistics Office of Ireland. That’s a rise of nearly 100,000 people since the 2016 census. With more Irish people moving away from organized religion, nonreligious weddings, have become increasingly common.
Read MoreThe Arizona Legislature repealed on May 1 an 1864 abortion ban that would have protected life from conception, but the law could still take effect temporarily during a 90-day waiting period for the repeal to become law. In Florida, meanwhile, a six-week abortion ban became law.
Read MoreWhen a monster tornado struck a small Oklahoma town, numerous businesses and houses were destroyed. But a church’s stained-glass windows escaped with just minor damage.
Read MoreNearly 150 Baptists have fled their homes in Mexico after village leaders persecuted them because of their faith, cutting essential services and blocking entry, CSW reported. The 139 Great Commission Baptist Church members, residents of Coamila and Rancho Nuevo villages in Hidalgo, left their homes April 26 after village leaders cut off their electricity, vandalized and blocked access to some of their homes and the church, and posted guards at village entry points.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The U.N. Security Council recently heard a new report on sexual violence in conflict (conflict-related sexual violence, also referred to as CRSV) prepared by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The report, which covers the period from January to December 2023, suggests that CRSV is on the rise. If the previous years were bad, the situation only got worse.
Read More(ANALYSIS) There is something different about how sci-fi movies deal with religion and how traditionally “faith-based” films do. And that is, quite obviously, when you think about it, that these movies treat faith like fiction and fantasy, whereas faith-based fiction treats it as fact. It’s the same as how comic books like Superman treat aliens as “real,” but no one would pretend these comics are making any claims about the existence of aliens.
Read MoreMohammed Soheb is a farmer in the northern Haryana state’s Nuh district, India’s least developed region. With a majority Muslim population, Nuh had been known for Hindu-Muslim harmony until July 2023, when a nine-day spate of communal violence disrupted that harmony. The unrest seemed to fit a pattern often seen in Hindu-Muslim relations in India.
Read More(OPINION) During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were all locked down, I suddenly had enormous stretches of time on my hands. I did a lot of reading. One thing I learned from all that reading was that I am, apparently, a jackleg Christian mystic.
Read MoreObituaries are hard to write. When a reporter tries to describe a complex person, who has lived a complex life, it’s rather like trying to write a biography in 700 to 1,000 words. In the end, you have to make choices about which facts and themes to stress.
Read MoreIt’s time for a reboot. This edition of Weekend Plug-in marks the launch of something new.
Read MoreNo money, no phones, no school, no medicine — and no questions. This is what life was like in Canaan, the shrine of an African Apostolic faith church on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, where police last month rescued hundreds of people — including more than 250 children — forced to believe they were prepared to depart for heaven.
Read More(OPINION) It is not so much that our elite universities have allowed a spirit of vile Jew hatred to take root on their campuses. Instead, they have cultivated that very spirit, fueling its fires and finetuning its ideologies. The universities are complicit.
Read More(ANALYSIS) During his 2,454 days in captivity — between strategic moves among 20 or more hiding places in Lebanon — journalist Terry Anderson was often allowed by Hezbollah leaders to read a Bible.
Read More(OPINION) When the National Council of Churches, an ecumenical group known for a more progressive approach to social policy, completed its Revised Standard Version of the Bible in 1952, it celebrated the text with a ceremony at the White House. NCC leaders gifted President Harry Truman the first printed copy, looking to gain publicity and credibility from the president.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Here are a few added observations to Religion Unplugged’s continued reporting this election year on vigorous agitation against “Christian Nationalism” as a threat to American democracy, with “White” often added to signal racial animus. This accompanies heavy breathing overall about fusing religion with politics in multiplied events, books, articles, Internet postings and broadcast punditry.
Read More(REVIEW) Though “Eli Harpo’s Adventure to the Afterlife” author Eric Schlich comes to this tale from a different spiritual trajectory than mine — I’m a former skeptic turned Holy Roller preacher — I found myself caught up in Eli’s story. That’s partly the result of good plotting. By the end of each chapter, I had to see what would happen next.
Read MoreU.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson heard from select evangelical leaders in a press call in advance of the chamber’s weekend passage of a $95 million foreign aid package. The U.S. must support Israel, Ukraine and other allies in a battle that threatens democracy and religious freedom beyond Europe and the Middle East, the leaders said.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The United Methodist Church’s General Conference will meet in Charlotte, North Carolina from April 23 to May 4, 2024. Originally scheduled for 2020 and delayed three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this meeting of the church’s legislative body comes at a critical time for the United States’ second-largest Protestant denomination.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Like the crowd that followed Jesus, do we miss an important sign pointing to the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist? Maybe.
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