This week’s Weekend Plug-in explores the faith angle in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida. Plus, catch up on all the week’s top headlines and best reads in the world of faith.
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(ANALYSIS) KASHMIR -- Nearly two years after Jammu and Kashmir was split into two Union Territories and Article 370 of the Constitution was revoked, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met 14 J&K leaders in New Delhi on June 24 to end the political impasse in the former state.
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(OPINION) What’s important to remember is that as Catholics our faith is not a set of political positions that we hold on a variety of issues. Our faith is rooted in what Jesus said about God’s purpose and his will for every person. That has been transmitted to all of us in the gospels, through centuries of church tradition and Canon Law.
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After the remains of 215 indigenous children were found in Canada, churches are working to confront their past and serve their communities.
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(ANALYSIS) It's hard to follow warfare inside the Southern Baptist Convention without a working knowledge of biblical symbolism. Here is a recap of some of the images and references at play.
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In a 2019 survey, 44% of Americans – along with 45% of people across 34 nations – said that belief in God is necessary “to be moral and have good values.” So what happens to a person’s morality and values when they lose faith?
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(REVIEW) This unique sporting event is the focus of a new 69-minute documentary called “The Holy Game” by filmmakers Brent Hodge and Chris Kelly. The film, distributed by Gravitas Ventures, details what’s often called the “World Cup of the church” — but also takes a behind-the-scenes look at these young seminarians who love both playing the game and God.
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(OPINION) After centuries of slavery and racial persecution in U.S. history, a fascinating era emerged when the Bible was used to promote peace and equality rather than strife and subjugation.
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(OPINION) Standard news judgment automatically puts the spotlight on hot disputes in the nation's two largest religious sectors — white evangelicalism and Catholicism. Meanwhile, the media consistently downplay the third-ranking religious category, "Mainline" Protestantism. Do these “Mainliners” hold insights into how to mitigate sexual abuse scandals in churches?
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As the pope met with local Christian and Muslim leaders in March 2021, the names of smaller religious groups found in Iraq also made the news. One of these was the Mandaeans. Also called Sabians, they are followers of the last Gnostic religion to survive continuously from ancient times down to the present day.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in explores the role of Christian denominations in taking Indigenous children from their families in Canada and the U.S. Plus, check out all the top headlines and best reads in the world of faith.
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(OPINION) The Census Bureau reports the “unprecedented environment” during the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a boom in “pandemic pods” as well as parents considering virtual schools and home-school organizations beyond the neighborhood public school. The Census Bureau reported home-schooling among Black or African Americans increased by five times to 16.1% of households last fall.
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The structure of St. Baglan's Church in North Wales is simple, with plastered stone walls and whitewashed timbers between the slate slabs of its roof and floor. The 13th Century sanctuary was rebuilt in the 1800s, but the carved doorway lintel dates from the 5th or 6th century. An adjacent field contains the 7th Century well of St. Baglan and for ages the faithful sought healing in its waters.
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(OPINION) Whether you’re a Catholic or just like to root for the underdog — or both — then you’ll be watching Croatia at this summer’s European Championship.
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(REVIEW) “Otherwise/Revival” was co-curated by Cara Lewis and independent curator Jasmine McNeal. It presents the work of 31 contemporary artists exploring the impact that the Black church and, more specifically, the Black Pentecostal movement has had on their lives.
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ReligionUnplugged talked to a sex trafficking survivor in the U.S. about the Christian misconceptions of human trafficking: false, incomplete, misguided, unhelpful and even harmful ideas. She has both praises and criticisms of how American Christians are responding to prostitution… “I feel like the biggest misconception, especially in the Christian realm, is just that it's not the movie Taken in the United States. It can be, but that is the minority. The majority you know, looks very much like chosen prostitution. But it's not.”
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(OPINION) The U.S. bishops used their recent spring gathering to urge the church to be welcoming to migrants. In the spirit of Mother Cabrini, the church needs to continue to reach out to immigrant communities. The bishops have pinpointed some of the issues. It’s time now for talk to be put into action.
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(OPINION) Faith-based foster care services are one essential element to providing children with loving families in a system where too many children languish. As recent research indicates, there are high turnover and recidivism rates among foster parents, yet more than 80% of foster parents cite faith or church support as an element that contributes to successful and sustained fostering. As the unanimous Court stated in Fulton, “[t]he City apparently prefers to risk leaving children without foster parents than to allow CSS to follow its religiously dictated policy, which threatens no tangible harm.”
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(ANALYSIS) Following three days of contentious debate, the U.S. Catholic bishops approved a measure on Friday to draft a statement that could deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden. Here’s what happens next.
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Local Muslims believe the new proposed regulations threaten the culture of the Muslim-majority islands and are aimed at furthering the Hindu nationalist agenda of India's ruling party.
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