Posts in Society
On Religion: Pope Francis On Cats, Babies And Indonesia's Interfaith Life

(ANALYSIS) It was the kind of quote that, when said by the right person under the right conditions, would inspire bold headlines. “Your country ... has families with three, four or five children,” Pope Francis told President Joko Widodo of Indonesia. “Keep it up, you’re an example for everyone, for all the countries that maybe ... these families prefer to have a cat or a little dog instead of a child.”

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‘God, I Need Help’: 9/11 Military Heroes With PTSD Still Fighting A War At Home

SOF Missions helps veterans who — like retired Air Force Lt. Col. Damon Friedman — struggle with PTSD and other challenges from military service. At the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, many of those who served their country overseas still fight a war at home. “I’m telling you, I was going to become a statistic,” Friedman said.

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Hey, Bill Maher, I’m That Other Guy Who Loves Being A Dad

(OPINION) For men and women alike, choosing to remain childless used to be a decision frowned upon by the larger culture. Now, childlessness is rapidly becoming our culture. Look, I get it. Yet I don’t get it. Having kids might be only a choice, but it’s a choice I can’t imagine having forgone.

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Is The UK’s New Atheist Prime Minister Cause For Caution?

(ANALYSIS) Keir Starmer's ascent as the U.K.'s first openly atheist leader marks a significant milestone in British political history. This development prompts the question: Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Unsurprisingly, the answer is rather complicated. Today's U.K. is vastly different from the country of Starmer's childhood.

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Digging Deeper Into Spiritual Issues In Screens Culture

(ANALYSIS) In my “On Religion” column — “Jonathan Haidt: It's time for clergy to start worrying about smartphone culture” — I focused on what the author of “The Anxious Generation” had to say about the decisions faced by religious believers in the age of digital-screens culture.

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Are People Nowadays Really More Lonely And Miserable?

(ANALYSIS) I am going to pull out some questions that piqued my interest when I was scrolling through the codebook. The first is a set of two questions about mental health. Folks were asked, “How often do you get the social and emotional support you need?”

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The Power Of Christ Compels Them: Why Hollywood Is Making So Many Exorcism Movies

(ANALYSIS) Exorcism movies are making a comeback — and the reasons are more interesting than you might think. The likely reasons actually say a lot about the present and the future of religion in America and its intersection with the future of mass media. Here's a deeper look at why Hollywood is going all in on the genre.

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Americans More Liberal On Moral Issues, Grow Pessimistic About The Future

Overwhelmingly, Americans think the moral values of the country are worsening. Around four in five U.S. adults (81 percent) say the state of moral values is getting worse, and only 14 percent say it’s getting better. That gives the future outlook a minus 67 score — down 24 points from 2002.

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Indigenous Rituals In Mexico: Connecting With The Land And Community

The Mixe language continues to thrive. The Mixe people consider themselves never conquered, and turkey — an animal native to the Americas before colonization — is served at all significant events. Asking Mother Earth for permission and for the well-being of the plants does not only accompany coffee producers of the Mixe group, but also other farmers in Oaxaca.

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Crossroads Podcast: Where Are The Young Women Leaving Churches Going?

Before we get to the issue of modern women fleeing church pews, let’s pause and do something that — as a rule — I try to avoid doing when discussing matters of cultural, morality and faith. Let’s consider some political numbers. In a recent Pew Research Center package of survey data, there is this headline: “Partisanship by gender, sexual orientation, marital and parental status.”

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Many Say It’s Important That A Nation's Leader Stand Up For Religious People

Many people around the world are more likely to say it is important to have a nation's leader stand up for those who share their religious beliefs. The survey, conducted by Pew Research Center, found that in countries where faith is “perceived as very important” that citizens are overall “more likely to value each of these qualities in a leader.”

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Why Some Cathedrals Look Like Amusement Parks This Summer

How about a trip on a Ferris wheel, walk a labyrinth or rest under the stars? It’s summertime, and British cathedrals took on a holiday atmosphere — complete with some unusual activities. You might even encounter creatures from the deep oceans or step back in time. Such activities have become very much part of a British summer.

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If You Want Young Men to Leave Christianity, Have Them Watch ‘The Forge’

(REVIEW) While “The Forge” deserves credit for wanting to address the real problems of struggling men and boys, it fails to speak to the very people it says it wants to help. Christian parents of such boys would be better off passing on this movie and following other sources for their boys, and following the example of the movie’s Cynthia by praying for them instead.

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Christian Movies A Useful Tool When It Comes To Discipleship And Evangelism

Not only are churchgoers watching Christian movies, but some find them useful as an evangelistic and discipleship tool. A recent study asked churchgoers if they agree with the statement, “Christian movies are effective evangelism tools.” The study by Lifeway Research finds 68 percent of American Protestant churchgoers have watched a Christian movie in the last year. Around four in five say Christian movies are effective evangelism tools.

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Why Gen Z Have Turned On Churches In Kenya During Anti-Government Protests

As the rattle of gunfire and the spirited sloganeering raged on in the streets, Gen Zers opened a new theater in this fight: training their rage on the church for allegedly working with the state. They have accused church officials of being subservient to the political class.

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‘God Bless Bitcoin’ Makes A Sincere — But Mixed — Case In Cryptocurrency Belief

(REVIEW) Cryptocurrency is a really fascinating topic worth talking about. It’s gratifying to see it being talked about in the context of faith. If the documentary had only trusted the audience more to inform them rather than advertise to them, it would have added something even more valuable to the conversation.

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A Look Back In Time To Japan’s Forgotten 19th Century Martyrs

(ESSAY) In one theme of this summer's travels, the history of Japanese Christianity, I found a different issue. This is the ignorance not only amongst foreigners but also amongst Japanese themselves of that history, particularly the long history of persecution. Some of this, especially the dire persecutions of the early seventeenth century, is better known through Shusako Endo's gripping 1966 novel “Silence.”

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Zimbabwean Community And Jesuits Clash Over Ancestral Land

Local residents and the Catholic order have engaged in a years-long court battle after the church tried to evict them from their ancestral land on the outskirts of the capital Harare. The more than 1,000 families, however, were relieved when a court agreed to halt, for now, a move by the Jesuits to evict them from their land that the church wants to turn into an urban residential area.

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‘Doing What God Had Called Them To’: Q&A With ‘Accidental Diplomats’ Author Phil Dow

During the Cold War, an oft overlooked battle for minds unfolded on the vast stage of Africa. As colonial powers withdrew and new African nations emerged, both the United States and the Soviet Union scrambled for alliances.  Author Phil Dow’s new book, “Accidental Diplomats,” catalogs the influence of American evangelical missionaries in Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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‘Every Tribe And Every Nation’ Gather In Unity Despite Worldly Conflicts

About 200 Christians of multiple nationalities — Russian, Ukrainian, Iranian and Israeli, to name a few — sang a hymn of unity together, their citizenship on Earth far less important than a shared home in heaven.  Some attendees drove 45 minutes. Others spent more than a day on planes and buses. They gathered in a city known for a particular distance — 26.2 miles.

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