Is it hard to be a Christian and a journalist? Is it possible to be a Christian and a journalist? This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights recent first-person pieces that explore these questions. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith?
Read MoreLast week, the last of the three criminals confessed to conspiring to defraud churches as part of a scheme they cooked up back in 2013. The news was announced by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, which charged the three men in 2019.
Read More(OPINION) Naomi Judd had battled through waves of anxiety attacks to address some dark realities — such as rape, crisis pregnancy and her battle with hepatitis C that retired the Judds. What she hadn’t discussed was the sexual abuse in her childhood that led to treatment-resistant depression.
Read MoreThe humanitarian activist and religious freedom fighter Cardinal Zen, who had previously served as bishop of Hong Kong from 2002 to 2009, was detained, along with four others, in connection with his role as administrator of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which supported pro-democracy demonstrations by paying for the legal and medical fees of protesters.
Read MoreIn an interview with ReligionUnplugged.com, theoretical physicist and Templeton Prize winner Dr. Frank Wilczek said he was raised in New York City by parents with Italian and Polish backgrounds who wanted him educated in the Catholic tradition: “As a child, I took it very, very seriously and I think it had a residual influence in my later life in helping me to think big and look for the hidden meaning of things.”
Read MorePoliticians from both parties benefit from the abuse of the tax code, but they differ over who’s responsible, claiming that those on the other side are guilty of the greatest abuse. But they agree on one thing: Abuse has skyrocketed since 2010 and the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision.
Read MorePakistani wives of former militants who returned to Indian-administered Kashmir after the announcement of an amnesty policy in 2010 have been demanding that they must be either deported or given Indian citizenship.
Read MoreChurches throughout Romania are helping Ukrainian refugees by coordinating shipments of supplies, helping with resettlement, collecting funds to help in relief efforts, making quilts, offering shelter and food, and praying.
Read MoreA Washington, D.C.-area law firm has filed a complaint in a Virginia district court alleging Liberty University failed to properly investigate a student’s report that she was raped by another student and retaliated against her after she made the report.
Read MoreLike many people seeking special companions in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States, we drove hours, invested hundreds of dollars and loads of emotional energy into this pilgrimage to a unique religious and cultural landscape. We’d come to adopt a five-pound, brown, furry little friend. She was an Amish-born canine Doodle princess. Her given name: Alisha.
Read MoreWeekend Plug-in features a reporter roundtable on this week’s bombshell news: the leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would reverse Roe v. Wade. Plus, as always, catch up on all the week’s best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) With the barrage of horrors from Ukraine, it wasn’t hard to distinguish between the messages released by the Eastern Orthodox leaders of Russia and Ukraine to mark Holy Pascha, the feast known as Easter in the West.
Read More(ANALYSIS) On Tuesday, a preliminary draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked to Politico, revealing that the court — as of February — intended to overturn Roe v. Wade. What does the leak mean for the court and America, and how have faith voices responded?
Read MoreSikh Americans are the most disproportionately targeted group in the country, at a rate four times the national average. Anti-Sikh hate crimes hit a record high of 89 documented incidents in 2020, reflecting an 82% increase over 2019, despite an overall decrease in the number of anti-religious hate crimes.
Read More(OPINION) According to an exclusive story on Politico, the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade when ruling on the Dobbs v. Jackson in June. But what happens if Roe is overturned? Then we will walk straight into an impassioned, even frenzied, potentially violent ideological civil war, one that could quickly divide America into pro-life states vs. pro-abortion states.
Read More(REVIEW) Deepfakes, the satanic panic and the influential power of media are all explored in the Museum of the Moving Image’s newest exhibition and film series.
Read More(REVIEW) “Under The Banner of Heaven” wants to be both a thrilling true crime drama and a faith-shaking takedown of the religious right, but so far its treatment of the topic is too shallow and too un-self-aware to challenge anyone who doesn’t already agree with it.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Something akin to a Catholic “Trial of the Century” has gotten underway in Rome and there’s plenty of palace intrigue to go around. The trial involving corruption, bad real estate deals and financial wrongdoing has placed Pope Francis in the center of a controversy that for the first time doesn’t involve doctrine or theology.
Read MoreBill Hwang was hailed as part of a new evangelical donor-class for donating nearly $80 million to dozens of evangelical ministries. But his fortune — which, it turned out, was based on lies, heavy borrowing and risky stock bets — blew up in March 2021, when he was unable to pay creditors. Hwang was arrested April 27, 2022.
Read MoreThe Satanic Temple has filed a civil lawsuit against a Pennsylvania elementary school after the school turned down a request to form an after-school Satan Club. The proposed club for Northern Elementary School in York, Pennsylvania, was voted down 8-1 at an April 19 school board meeting.
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