Jews Push Back On #JewishPrivilege, Share Stories Of Anti-Semitism

Alt-right Twitter users created the hashtag #JewishPrivilege to spread anti-Semitic messages, and the hashtag surged to the top trending phrase in the U.S. Sunday night. Jews soon began to populate the hashtag with stories from the Holocaust, recent hate crimes and crime records showing rising cases of anti-Semitism in the U.S.

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How Will The Mainstream News Media Perform During Their Future LGBTQ Test?

(OPINION) Recent Supreme Court decisions have dealt heavily with LGBTQ rights and religious exemptions for these rights. It presents mainstream journalists with a test: to manage fair coverage of religious traditions that resist both same-sex relationships and gender identity as a replacement for DNA biology.

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Revisiting Christian Art History In Discussions To 'Cancel White Jesus'

Many Christians in America first think of Jesus as white, thanks to a widely reproduced Christ portrait from the 1940s. In the calls to tear down offensive statues, activists have called to “cancel white Jesus.” But the tradition of painting Jesus inaccurately isn’t just limited to America. Many images throughout art history have interpreted Jesus in a way that reflects their own culture.

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Making sense of the Supreme Court's ruling for religious schools

(OPINION) The July 8 Supreme Court decision allows religious institutions to choose teachers who align with their spiritual commitments. This is especially important for minority faiths like Judaism and Islam.

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ESPN basketball analyst Jimmy Dykes channels success through Christianity

(REVIEW) Jimmy Dykes’ new book isn’t just one long series of motivational speeches. Instead, he focuses on how people can strengthen their relationships with one another — the perfect recipe for any team’s success — along with serving God.

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The Faith of the Black Lives Matter Movement

While the Black Lives Matter movement has caused controversy in religious circles because of its support for non-traditional families and Marxist philosophy, researchers who study the movement say it is spiritual even with an antipathy for organized religion. Many activists want to explore their ancestors’ African spirituality, and Black churches and mainline Protestants are also influencing the movement.

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Churches as superspreaders: Worship connection to COVID-19 making news

This week’s Weekend Plug-in explores news coverage of churches as superspreaders of the coronavirus, plus top reads on a megachurch investigation, a Washington, D.C., church’s history and the faith angle on Kanye West’s potential White House bid.

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Supreme Court rules in favor of Catholic nuns for contraception exemption

The Little Sisters of the Poor claimed victory at the U.S. Supreme Court July 8 after the Court upheld 7-2 the Trump administration’s contraceptive exemption. This allows healthcare providers to opt-out of providing birth control with religious or moral objections.

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Election 2020: Catholic voters in these states could decide the presidential race

(ANALYSIS) For all the fallout caused by the virus (and how various states have handled it) and the divisions in this country around issues like race, the presidential election could — once again — be decided by a handful of majority Catholic counties in four states by voters who care about abortion and religious liberty.

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Why the Black Lives Matter movement is controversial to many Christians

Some Christians are strong supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. Others believe it’s a radical movement opposed to the goals of Christians. How are they combining the goals of their churches with the racial justice of the Black Lives Matter movement?

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'The Bible Code': What Was That All About, Other Than A Headline-Grabbing Pseudo-Mystery?

(OPINION) Take a look back at “The Bible Code,” the 1997 book that claimed that the Hebrew Bible’s text contained secretly coded, uncanny predictions of phenomena across the subsequent thousands of years that could only be revealed through modern computers. Did it ever prove anything?

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Pope Francis preaches about 'unbiased' journalism: Is the American press listening?

(OPINION) Pope Francis, who has consistently drawn the ire of Catholic media on the doctrinal right, gave his view of what the religious press should look like in the United States.

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In Rural Uganda, Churches Provide Speakers To Safely Unite Communities During COVID-19

While urban churches in Uganda have moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in rural areas with less Internet access have become more creative, using “horn” speakers to broadcast preaching, prayers and music to their communities inside their homes and allowing community leaders to give health announcements and guidance.

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In Rural Uganda, Churches Provide Speakers To Safely Unite Communities During COVID-19

While urban churches in Uganda have moved online during the pandemic, rural churches with less Internet access have gotten more creative. Using “horn” speakers, they are broadcasting daily gospel music, prayers and preaching to their communities inside their homes, and allowing community leaders to address the neighborhoods with health announcements and guidance.

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U.K. report on Nigeria's religious violence skirts around the word 'genocide'

(ANALYSIS) Nigerian diaspora academics discussed the findings of a U.K. government report on July 6, concluding that several factors like water scarcity are affecting violence in Northern Nigeria, complicating a designation of genocide. Many acts of violence carried out by Boko Haram against Christians bear Quranic punishments for so-called infidels, and the Nigerian army is struggling to contain the violence.

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Hall of Famer Rod Carew talks faith, COVID-19 and, yes, baseball

In an interview with Religion Unplugged, baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew — author of the new memoir “One Tough Out” — talked about his complicated faith, protests in his home city of Minneapolis and why he’s not a fan of baseball returning before there’s a coronavirus vaccine.

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