July 11, 2021, was the largest protest seen in Cuba in 62 years, since the socialist Cuban Revolution. Everyday Cubans risked attacks and harsh jail sentences to speak out against their government, many inspired to do so by their Christian faith. The series of protests lasted seven days, triggered by a shortage of food and medicine and the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The speculation over whether Pope Francis’ age — he turns 86 on Dec. 17 — will cause him to resign has increasingly become a story, first in the Italian press, and subsequently around the world. It is something that will preoccupy reporters throughout the summer.
Read MoreWith the United States Supreme Court’s decision last month in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case to overturn almost 50 years of a federally recognized right to abortion, anti-abortion ministries across the country are not closing their doors.
Read MoreThe FBI has raided four churches in connection with an investigation into alleged abuses of the GI Bill education program by House of Prayer Christian Church’s Bible seminaries. GI Bill benefits help veterans pay for college, graduate school and training programs.
Read More(OPINION) This is the 11th Guy Memo in a year guiding the media and other observers on dynamics within U.S. evangelical Protestantism. Though made up of organizationally chaotic fiefdoms, the movement’s impact rested upon substantial solidarity in belief and social outlook compared with other religious sectors. Then seven years ago the disruptive force known as Donald J. Trump emerged.
Read MoreOver the last 20 years, Serbia has been slowly improving its relationship with the Holy See. Last fall, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, visited Serbia. During his visit, he met with the country’s president and prime minister as well as recently-elected Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church, telling the Serbian press that “Pope Francis is open for all invitations.”
Read More(REVIEW) Comedians frequently take shots at taboo targets, but that wasn’t what Norm Macdonald was doing when he addressed Down syndrome while recording what became the new “Nothing Special” stand-up special on Netflix.
Read MoreEarlier this summer, Pakistani-American interfaith activist and former teacher Anila Ali led a historic delegation to Israel that brought together political leaders and influential Muslims and Jews to foster trust and develop relationships between the Abrahamic faiths. Ali recently spoke with ReligionUnplugged.com about her activism.
Read More(ANALYSIS) After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion is a more divisive topic than ever. These abortion movies share three key insights about the debate and hopefully increase empathy on both sides.
Read MoreChristian adoption agencies help women with unplanned pregnancies make a way forward for themselves and their babies. But with new abortion restrictions, they are seeing a flood of new women seeking assistance.
Read More(OPINION) Despite being reinforced and even expanded by the Casey decision of 1992, Roe was a bad ruling by the Supreme Court that simply had to go. It had no legal ground on which to stand and no constitutional logic behind it.
Read MoreAn annual Hindu pilgrimage to a holy cave in Kashmir has resumed after two years of its suspension during the pandemic and only days after a series of targeted deadly attacks on Hindus, allegedly by militants fighting against Indian rule.
Read MoreAs in many religions, gay relationships, sexual intimacy and marriage are frowned upon in mainstream interpretations of Baha'i law. Those found violating the law can face sanctions from the Baha'i administration, including being cut off from community gatherings and participating in Baha'i elections. Seán Rayshel aims to make his religion, the Baha'i faith, more tolerant of its LGBTQ adherents.
Read More(OPINION) We’re approaching June, Gay Pride Month. It’s a good time to get ahead of a tough topic because while many young evangelicals are returning to older church traditions, that number includes some entering the Episcopal Church — a tradition that in 2015 amended its canons regulating marriage to permit same-sex marriage. This troubles many conservative Christians.
Read More(OPINION) Without explanation, the Biden-Blinken administration removed Nigeria from America’s official listing as a “country of particular concern” on religious persecution while Nigeria is labeled the “most dangerous place to be a Christian” in the world. Why has the alarm over unending atrocities expressed by religious and human-rights media and organizations not broken into the West’s mainstream media in any major way?
Read MoreSome critics suggest that soft-on-crime policies have gone too far in recent years and perhaps even damaged efforts to help the homeless, drug addicts and prostitutes. The tensions around rising murder rates in major cities around the United States in recent years are also creating hurdles for the loose coalition of conservative, Christian and libertarian nonprofits and billionaires who have collaborated with progressive left activists in the cause of prison reform and deincarceration.
Read MoreThe fourth season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” once again teleports audiences back to the 1980s — and this time, that includes the historical background of the satanic panic. When the small town of Hawkins succumbs to the blind hysteria common in that period, it brings the show’s heroes additional difficulty. It also offers the audience a “God’s eye view” of the actual satanic panic and proves it did nothing but create irrational fear.
Read MoreArtyom Kirilenko, who survived in the besieged city of Mariupol, is now part of a band of brothers, nearly 50 in all, who load vans with water, ramen noodles, diapers and vitamins and drive from western Ukraine to the hard-hit cities of the east. They unload the supplies and ferry back women and children.
Read MoreStudents continue a three-week-long sit-in at Seattle Pacific University to protest the school’s traditional views on human sexuality and its policy against hiring full-time faculty who violate it, including those who engage in homosexual behavior. The sit-in comes after over a year of controversy surrounding the issue.
Read More(OPINION) This is not the time to gloat. We must do our best to reach out to those who are angry and fearful, doing so with love, longsuffering, and grace. This is not the time to win a debate as much as the time to change hearts and minds. But without any question whatsoever, this is also a time to rejoice.
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