(COMMENTARY) In recent decades, LDS leaders have made several attempts – prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, for example – to distance themselves from the M-word. Now, the church's president has made another appeal for journalists, and everyone else, to avoid "Mormon" when referring to members of his church. To be blunt, he said he's on a mission from God.
Read More(COMMENTARY) The flight from reporting to opinion and advocacy journalism is on full display in the first day reports from the British secular press of the Viganò affair. Like their American counterparts, leading mainstream news outlets are portraying the revelations of coverup and abuse in political left/right terms.
Read MoreActivists and the survivors of India’s worst anti-Christian violence in modern times say that a decade later, the government has failed to provide justice through compensation or convictions, and instead, sentenced seven innocent men to life imprisonment.
Read More(COMMENTARY) It wasn't a normal Sunday in Catholic pulpits across America, as priests faced flocks touched by sorrow and rage after a sickening grand-jury report packed with X-rated details about decades of sexual abuse by clergy.
Read MoreThe Kenyan media is fighting back against politicians who are determined to restrict them from exposing corrupt deals. This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta approached the church seeking divine intervention and comfort after he lost friends who were unhappy with his stance against theft of public land.
Read MoreThe last thing an America bishop wanted to see was a letter from the relentless A.W. Richard Sipe, who spent more than a half-century studying the sexual secrets of Catholic clergy. As a psychotherapist, his research files included hundreds of thousands of pages of church reports and court testimony. As a former Benedictine monk and priest, his private files included notes from years of work at the Seton Psychiatric Institute in Baltimore, where he counseled legions of troubled priests sent there by bishops.
Read MoreSince the premiere of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who is America?, many people have compared the British provocateur comedian to American conservative political activist James O’Keefe of Project Veritas. Their tactics are similar. Both don false identities and provoke subjects to say or do unsavory things on camera and both violate standard journalism ethics.
Read MoreHorrific reports have circulated via social media of late regarding bloodthirsty jihadi attacks on Nigerian Christians. So far in 2018, 6,000 innocent victims have been maimed or murdered. The news comes from devastated church leaders in Nigeria’s Plateau State, declaring that thousands of children, women, and the elderly have been brutalized — with many killed — in night raids by armed herdsmen.
Read More(COMMENTARY) The Republic of South Sudan is one of the world’s misery portals. Since its independence in 2011, it has known little else but war, poverty, hunger and political infighting among its power elites. South Sudan sought to secede from its northern neighbor, Sudan, in large part over religion. A newly brokered power-sharing agreement could change things for the better. However, those in the international media paying close attention to South Sudan note that we’ve been here before.
Read More(OPINION) This week 20 years ago, Tom Osanjo was running late to report on a press conference between Kenya’s Trade Minister and the U.S. ambassador. It may have saved his life.
Read MorePriests know what it's like to enter the pulpit facing scriptures that appear to have been torn from the headlines.That happened just the other day, with news that one of America's most powerful Catholics – retired Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. – had been accused of the sexual abuse of boys, as well as decades of seminarians. Days later the Sunday Mass lectionary featured the Prophet Jeremiah, speaking for Jehovah: "Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture."
Read More(OPINION) “Mainline” Protestant groups have been ardent in politicking for leftward and anti-Trump causes, perhaps even moreso than with the typical evangelical congregation. You would barely know this, if at all, from reading or viewing most news media reports.
Read MoreThe Benda family faithfully observed the rites that defined their lives inside of their second-floor apartment. Every day, they prayed together, studied together and found ways to enjoy themselves – while doing everything they could to show others there was more to life than the rules of a paranoid police state.
Read MoreDespite one of the most severe crackdowns on North Korean refugees in China in recent years, Steven Kim and his team actively search in villages for North Korean women to support them through Christian counseling and provide humanitarian support.
Read MoreAt long last, the United Methodist Church has posted detailed proposals (.pdfs here) from its emergency “Commission on a Way Forward” to address what it calls the “deepening impasse” over whether to approve actively gay clergy and same-sex weddings.
Read MoreMary McAleese, an attorney and the former president of Ireland, assailed her Catholic Church for its practice of baptizing infants shortly after birth with parents making vows on their behalf. She argues that this treats children as “infant conscripts who are held to lifelong obligations of obedience,” and is a violation of their human rights.
Read MoreIn Kashmir, the Amarnath Pilgrimage showcases the perfect symbol of unity and bonding between Hindus and Muslims.
Read MoreTwo years after British Islamist Thomas Evans (aka Abdul Hakim) died in a hail of Kenyan military bullets, his younger brother, Michael, is still searching for answers.
Read More(COMMENTARY) The International Football Association Board's "Laws of the Game" – used at the FIFA World Cup – state: "Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images." This rule "applies to all equipment (including clothing) worn by players," according to IFAB guidelines. BUT Does this apply to religious symbols woven into the flags and traditions of many nations?
Read MoreThe biggest star at this World Cup wasn't Messi, Ronaldo, or Neymar. How St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square became the symbol of #Russia2018
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