(REVIEW) February is Black History Month, and it’s a reminder of the many contributions Black Americans have made to the culture, life and history of the United States. Often overlooked is the relationship between African Americans and the Roman Catholic Church in this country. Here are five books that delve into their history and why it matters.
Read More(REVIEW) In a push to create a conservative alternative to Hollywood, the conservative news outlet The Daily Wire produced its first film, premiering Feb. 10 on YouTube. “Shut In” is a solid home-invasion horror film that seamlessly integrates faith with thrills. ReligionUnplugged talked to producer Dallas Sonnier about how his parents’ murders influence his portrayals of violence and faith.
Read MoreA standing–room only crowd of 500 packed the Heichal Ya’acov synagogue in Jerusalem this week to pay their final respects to Esther Pollard, the wife of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollard. Esther Pollard, 68, died on Jan. 31 of septic shock complicated by COVID-19. She was also battling breast cancer.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The focus the past few weeks has been on Germany and the involvement of Benedict XVI in the handling of some abuse cases, decades before he became a key church official in Rome and, eventually, pope. This was also long before the church adopted stricter policies on how to handle cases of clergy sexual abuse.
Read More(OPINION) Recent years have seen several incidents in India that should have raised the alarm and should have been monitored and analyzed along the lines of the serious risk of genocide and other atrocities. These incidents include the government’s systematic discrimination against the Muslim minority in India.
Read MoreSyed Ali Sarvat Jafri lives near Ayodhya, the Indian city that witnessed violent intercommunal rioting after Hindu nationalists tore down a 16th century mosque. Jafri aims to spark conversations about history, memory and heritage-preservation through his art, which draws on his ancestral legacy of blending Hinduism and Sufism in poetry.
Read More(OPINION) America's religious congregations have, over all, suffered steady erosion in attendance, membership and vitality since around 2000. Analysts fret that worse may occur after the current COVID-19 emergency finally subsides because myriads of members are now accustomed to worshiping online rather than in person.
Read MoreCheryl Brown Henderson, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Oliver Brown, shares behind-the-scenes details about her family’s important connection to the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Henderson spoke at Oklahoma Christian University’s annual History Speaks event.
Read MoreFrom her front porch, adorned with periwinkles and impatiens, 90-year-old Evelyn Buck keeps watch over a small piece of American history: the West End Church of Christ at Silver Point, where a thriving community of Black Christians served orphans, taught schoolchildren, launched cottage industries and trained gospel preachers in the early 1900s.
Read More(REVIEW) Canadian singer Abel Tesfaye, known as the Weeknd, dropped his newest album, “Dawn FM,” in January and it’s packed with spiritual themes, including from Christianity. The Weeknd said he wrote the lyrics for the album, which has a much darker and melancholy edge than his previous work, during a state of pandemic depression.
Read More(Opinion) The Babylon Bee sat down with Elon Musk to talk about topics including why entrepreneurs are fleeing California, sustainable energy, superheroes, the physics of reusable rockets, cyborgs, how wokeness threatens humor and the future of a planet near an expanding sun. The podcast concluded with Elon Musk talking about his faith.
Read More(OPINION) Female genital mutilation stands for more than a medical procedure that inflicts temporary pain and suffering. FGM is a severe violation of human rights of women and girls. FGM is a human rights violation that results in physical and psychological consequences that women and girls have to deal with for the rest of their lives.
Read More(OPINION) Ukraine's ecclesiastical history, like its political history, is highly complex. Whether the nation faces a military invasion or less bloody subversion and hoped-for domination, journalists these next few years will need to understand and depict the religious aspect of Ukraine’s nationalism and resistance against Russian expansionism.
Read More(OPINION) As Russia amasses troops on the Ukrainian border in preparation for a potential invasion, tensions between the two countries are also playing out through a conflict in the Orthodox Church.
Read More(REVIEW) The film ‘Redeeming Love’ is based on the hugely popular 1991 Christian romance novel by evangelical author Francine Rivers that loosely retells the biblical story of Hosea. Unfortunately, this adaptation combines the worst parts of faith-based films, romance films and gritty dramas into a hilarious Frankenstein’s monster of a misfire.
Read More(REVIEW) “Prey” is a meticulously researched book, and Ali offers us page after page of grim statistics to support her thesis that the surge of immigration into Europe in 2015 has led to a surge in sexual violence.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in goes high-tech — with stories about online worship, virtual reality church and Wordle as ritual. Plus, catch up, as always, on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) After seeing 2018 General Synod reports, the Anglican Church of Canada’s research and statistics expert produced an analysis that said projections of the data indicate that there will be no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040.
Read More(OPINION) Read enough about Bitcoin, and you’ll inevitably come across people who refer to the cryptocurrency as a religion. Bloomberg’s Lorcan Roche Kelly called Bitcoin “the first true religion of the 21st century.” There is even a Church of Bitcoin, founded in 2017, that explicitly calls legendary Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto its “prophet.”
Read More(OPINION) The 2022 Beijing Games are surrounded by controversy. The Chinese government is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. Evidence shows the Uyghur people are held in concentration camps, forcibly sterilized and subjected to forced labor, torture, rape and sexual violence.
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