Posts in Society
After Minneapolis, A YouTuber Chases Orthodox Jewish ‘Welfare Queens’

Overt antisemitism among online influencers has started to break into the real world. A notable recent example comes via Tyler Oliveira, a YouTuber who rose to fame with stunts like trying to absorb a swimming pool’s worth of water with paper towels before pivoting to “documentaries” that often purport to expose conservative bugaboos — and who has filmed two recent videos focused on Jews.

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How The Apocrypha Shaped Christian Tradition For Centuries

(ANALYSIS) Of Jesus’ 12 disciples, Saint Peter is one of the most important. In the Book of Matthew, Jesus declares that Peter is the “rock” on which “I will build my church.” Catholic tradition considers him the first pope. Martyred in the first century, Peter asked to be crucified upside down so he would not die the same way as Christ. That story, however, is not in the Bible.

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How C. S. Lewis’s Prophetic Warning Has Come True 80 Years Later

Lewis’s 1945 novel “That Hideous Strength” was marketed as fiction, but it read like more like a prophecy. Lewis’ warning at the time cuts deep for modern-day readers. The danger is not artificial intelligence itself. The danger, Lewis argues, is what happens when humans regard tech tools as oracles. It’s about what happens when humanity stops kneeling before God and starts bowing to its own tools.

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‘Blessed Are The Meek’: Once Considered Positive, It’s An ‘Undersung Virtues’

(ANALYSIS) What do you envision when you think of meekness? You probably see a mousy doormat, someone sheepishly acquiescing to the will of the stronger. When Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” you might think that those wimps will hand it over without a whimper or word of objection to stronger, more ambitious people.”

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Here’s What Helped Change The Faith-Based Film Industry For The Better

Christian movies have a pretty negative reputation. But, in recent years, their Rotten Tomatoes scores have been on a steady uptick. What’s happening? The tide that has turned in the faith-based film industry is multifaceted. The studios have become willing to give Christian directors bigger budgets. Writers have started telling stories with more complicated heroes and honest portrayals of life.

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Hospital Chaplain Shares What End-Of-Life Patients Regret Most

You don’t have to be a person of faith to be visited by or to express a desire to see a hospital chaplain. In fact, a 2022 Gallup survey found that approximately one in four Americans have encountered a chaplain, with half saying that the meeting occurred in a healthcare setting (a bit more than 10 percent of those polled mentioned the military).  

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Charity And The Art Of Seeing The Best In One Another

(ANALYSIS) Understanding others requires charitable interpretation: Seeing them as protagonists doing their best within imperfect circumstances. While we can misjudge by overlooking faults or inventing virtues, it is often worse to dismiss others outright. Balancing agency and generosity fosters humility, productive disagreement and cooperation across personal, cultural and political divides.

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‘Make It Visible’: Vatican Pushes For Unity Across Christian Denominations

In a profoundly positive appraisal of the Protestant Reformation, high-ranking Vatican officials are championing the Augsburg Confession — a pivotal Lutheran text — highlighting it as a shared basis for Christian unity, as the 500th anniversary of the document approaches in 2030. It would be a profound shift should Pope Leo decide to embrace the centuries-old document.

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Won’t You Still Be Our Neighbor?: Fred Rogers’ Legacy Lives On In 2026

Fred Rogers’ legacy continues to resonate in 2026, from Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl tribute to church celebrations, global music tours and educational initiatives. His timeless message of kindness, peacemaking and “looking for the helpers” remains a source of comfort and connection, inspiring new generations to practice neighborliness during uncertain times.

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Olympic Pin Trading Opens Doors To Gospel Conversations

During the Winter Olympics outreach in Milan, over 100 Southern Baptist volunteers shared the Gospel using Olympic-themed pins and QR codes. Conversations in areas packed with tourists sparked global interest, amplified by social media, leading to thousands of spiritual discussions with local and international visitors alike.

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‘I Can Only Imagine 2’: One Of The Best Faith-Based Films Ever Made

(REVIEW) When it came out, the film was a watershed moment for the faith-based film industry. It was the highest-grossing independent film of 2018. This showed that faith-based films could succeed in the mainstream commercially and critically. Not only did this create more investment in faith-based projects, but also shaped future films.

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When Faith Disappears, Idols Return: Santayana’s Warning to the Modern World

(ANALYSIS) People love to talk about “profound” philosophers. Socrates with his questions. Nietzsche with his hammer. Marx with his systems. But George Santayana rarely gets the same reverence, despite the unsettling precision of his view of modern life. Santayana is hard to place, which may be why he is often skipped.

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The Wisdom In The Middle: Resisting Our Age Of Binary Thinking

(OPINION) Drawing on a quote attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald and a passage from Ecclesiastes, I look at the challenges today’s binary thinking. From immigration debates to religion and marriage, it argues that wisdom lies between extremes, where justice and compassion, conviction and humility, can coexist without flattening complex human realities in society.

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Church Of England Votes Against Blessings For Same-Sex Couples

The Anglican denomination continues to reject gay marriage, a decision it affirmed in 2023 while instead voting to pursue blessings. The vote to end the pursuit closed three years of work in the broader Living in Love and Faith initiative regarding identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage, that the church launched nine years ago.

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Should Religions Have Rituals Such As Baptism For Infants?

(ANALYSIS) Former Irish President Mary McAleese argues that infant baptism violates children’s human rights by imposing church membership without consent. Critics respond that parents possess religious freedom in child-rearing, note historical and biblical defenses of infant baptism, and compare similar birth rituals across Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

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Hindu Moral Panic And The Policing Of Valentine’s Day In India

(ANALYSIS) Each Valentine’s Day, Hindu nationalist groups in India target couples, framing public affection as a cultural threat. Drawing on theories of moral panic, moral foundations and crowd psychology, this anxiety about social change, identity politics and purity-based values combine to justify moral policing and restrict personal freedom.

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From Fireworks To Family Dinners: Inside China’s Lunar New Year Traditions

Lunar New Year is a widely celebrated cultural and religious festival observed across Asia and worldwide. Marking the start of a new lunar cycle, it blends ancient traditions, spiritual practices and symbolic foods that express hopes for prosperity, health and happiness while emphasizing family unity, renewal and reflection.

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Churches Confront The Spiritual And Emotional Risks Of Chatbot Attachments

An upstate New Yorker developed a deep emotional attachment to ChatGPT, spending $900 trying to “free” it, before realizing it was a delusion. Experts warn AI relationships exploit loneliness, potentially harming mental health and spirituality. Churches and counselors are now addressing unhealthy AI attachments, helping people reconnect with real relationships and God.

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15 Years After Egypt’s Uprising, How Faith Reshaped A Generation

(ANALYSIS) Fifteen years ago, Egyptians from all walks of life took to the street to demand “bread, freedom, social justice.” They were protesting the oppressive 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak. Egypt had been under martial law for 31 years. This meant that political opposition was silenced, and opponents were often imprisoned and tortured. Police brutality was the norm.

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