A rock formation in rural Kenya attracts pilgrims from a variety of Christian sects that mix Catholic and Anglican practices with traditional African paganism. Some even receive angelic messages, they say.
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What is the future of American conservatism? This question and others were discussed in a Feb. 11 webinar in the “Conservative Conversations with ISI” series.
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(REVIEW) “Minari” is the story of a Korean American family that moves from California to a stretch of farmland in the Ozarks to start over. What they encounter there grows their family through trial and brings them closer to the land they tend to.
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(OPINION) What has been the result of some Catholic news websites giving Trump any form of editorial support? Catholic news sites across the doctrinal spectrum should have done a better job calling out both sides — something the mainstream press no longer does, especially on moral, cultural and religious issues.
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(OPINION) Farah Shaheen, a 12-year-old Christian girl, was kidnapped from Faisalabad in June 2020 and abused by three men who chained her to a cattle pen. They claimed that she married one of her abductors, a 29-year-old Muslim man, of her own will. However, her family tells a different story.
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The National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul claims a 1,200-year-old Hebrew prayer book at the Museum of the Bible was stolen from their collection in the nineties. It’s the latest in a series of scandals about looted and forged antiquities that has rocked the Museum of the Bible since its 2017 opening in Washington, D.C.
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(ANALYSIS) Recent global headlines sparked by a former BBC reporter claimed that 750 Orthodox Christians were killed in northern Ethiopia, but there is not evidence of these deaths. Moreover, international media has mischaracterized the recent crisis in Ethiopia and ignored decades of history that’s pitted federal armed forces against the powerful, well-funded Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
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(OPINION) President Biden, in his first hours in office, directed each government agency to spend the next 100 days reframing all gender policies surrounding transgender students. The backlash from other Catholics in power has brought further controversy about Biden being a “fake Catholic.”
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(ANALYSIS) The share of Americans who self-identify as evangelicals has not changed in any meaningful way over the past decade. In fact, larger shares of Americans have said that they have had a born-again experience in 2018 than at any point since 1972, according to the General Social Survey. Moreover, their link with politics may in fact be a central reason evangelicals are not declining significantly as a share of the U.S. population.
Read MoreSince the fall of President Suharto in 1998 and especially since the establishment of regional autonomy in 2001, there has been controversy over the practice by many Indonesian public schools to require Muslims and non-Muslims to wear symbols related to religion, like a headscarf.
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(OPINION) Katherine Stewart, Times reporter outwardly against the Christian Right, makes the surprising assertion that to understand Sen. Josh Hawley’s role in the unprecedented furies of recent weeks we must look back 16 centuries to one of the hottest theological disputes in Christian history.
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(OPINION) Nearly half (49%) of participating pastors agreed with the statement: “I frequently hear members of my congregation repeating conspiracy theories they have heard about why something is happening in our country,” revealing that QAnon conspiracy theorists are spreading from the Internet to the pews.
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The Catholic Church in Germany is already the most disruptive and wealthiest national church in communion with the Pope of Rome. Now, the bishops of the German Catholic Church are dropping a massive, controversial document onto the Vatican’s lap that seeks to break away from Catholic doctrine in the realms of sexual morality, ordination of women and episcopal authority.
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(ANALYSIS) Myanmar’s military has held a prominent political position in the country for decades. For almost 50 years, the country was under successive military regimes. These regimes displayed an ambivalent attitude to the country’s main religion, Buddhism – Buddhist movements, which were on the whole in opposition to military rule, were severely repressed.
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Nearly a dozen pastors and church workers in Florida and elsewhere have been charged with possessing child pornography and/or other sex crimes against children in recent months.
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(ANALYSIS) The Supreme Court recently reversed California’s discriminatory ban on indoor worship in a case brought by two churches against Governor Gavin Newsom. Here’s what the justices had to say, and what rules houses of worship must comply with during the pandemic.
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Sr. Nathalie Becquart, a French nun, was appointed as under-secretary for the Synod of Bishops on Saturday, Feb. 6. The decision has been divisive for Catholics. Becquart is the first woman to be appointed to the Synod, a Catholic institution established by Pope John Paul II as an advisory council for the pontiff made up of clergymen from around the world.
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Streaming service Amazon Prime contains three documentaries by Black creators that delve into the history of racism in the church, back to the origin of slavery in the U.S. and often further. Each takes a different focus, whether White Jesus, BLM or the structure of worship services.
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(ANALYSIS) It remains to be seen how the Biden administration will advance an approach to working together across differences, particularly between government and diverse faith-based and community-based organizations. Whatever approach the Biden administration takes, it will be building upon over two decades of bipartisan principles advancing faith-based and government collaboration.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in asks whether it’s accurate to say that Pope Francis is a “fan” of President Joe Biden, America’s second Catholic president. Plus, find links to all the week’s top religion reads.
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