(ANALYSIS) Saturday marks two years since Putin’s Russia attacked Ukraine and unleashed a full-scale invasion, with horrific atrocities against the Ukrainian nation, in an attempt to destroy Ukraine as a country.
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Christie’s New York auction house is hosting a weeklong exhibition of 70 works of art that trace Israeli culture over the past century. The paintings, sculpture, drawings and video have never been shown outside Israel before. The show takes place in the U.S. at a time of unprecedented anger toward the Jewish state over its military campaign in Gaza.
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In recent decades, poor attendance led an increasing number of congregations to end Sunday night activities or try approaches such as small-group meetings or service projects instead of regular assemblies. For many, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated that trend as churches stopped Sunday night services and never resumed them.
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It’s easy to focus on the celebratory language throughout The New York Times report on the St. Patrick's Cathedral funeral for “Cecilia Gentili, a transgender activist and actress, former sex worker and self-professed atheist whose memorial functioned as both a celebration of her life and an exuberant piece of political theater.”
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(REVIEW) “Ordinary Angels” is a welcome sign of how the baseline modern faith-based films have come a long way since their beginnings 20 years ago. Those who enjoy the formula will be happy at how the quality has increased and will get everything they’re looking for. Those who wish the industry would grow beyond that need to keep wishing – but will find the ride more enjoyable than 20 years ago.
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This week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights Donald Trump’s remarks to the National Religious Broadcasters’ convention in Nashville, Tenn. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
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(ANALYSIS) For decades, the Turkish government has sent imams to work in mosques across Germany. But the German Ministry of the Interior recently announced that it had reached an agreement with the Turkish government to put an end to the practice.
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The memory of Feb. 25, 2020, remains vivid in Mohammed Tahir Saifi’s mind, as if it occurred only yesterday. He often looks back on that day as the one that turned his life upside down because he had to spend two years in jail for a crime he he did not commit. It was a day when a riot erupted in India’s capital, resulting in the death of over 50 people.
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Cardinal Timothy Dolan defended the priests working at St. Patrick’s Cathedral this week, saying the funeral held there for a transgender activist came as a surprise and that the prelates “knew nothing about this that was coming up.”
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In a new poll, less than a third of Michigan voters said they supported a continuation in the fighting to eliminate Hamas in the ongoing war with Israel. How that will impact President Joe Biden’s chances in the Great Lake State remains to be seen.
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(OPINION) Modi and former President Donald Trump are hyper-nationalists and Islamophobes. Both push fear-driven campaigns based on historical grievances and aversion to foreign religions and ethnicities. A militant Hindu monk has been elected to lead India’s largest state, and he is rabidly anti-Muslim.
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“Towards Jihad? Muslims and Politics in Postcolonial Mozambique” says that although Muslims in Mozambique have become more active in politics in the post-independence period, they have not moved towards jihad, but that only a small group has done so.
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(ANALYSIS) No doubt there are those who falsely claim conversion from Islam to claim asylum, and some churches may be too credulous. But such conversions are occurring and such genuine converts face violence, imprisonment and even death if returned back to many countries.
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(ANALYSIS) As a rule, evangelists from Texas don’t go shopping for bourbon before a speech. But that’s what Marcel LeJeune and some friends did when the Catholic Missionary Disciples leader spoke at a Franciscan University conference last summer in Ohio.
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A coalition of Jewish groups and other organizations is fighting an effort to replace guidance counselors with chaplains in public schools in Texas. The chaplains are not required to be licensed as mental health practitioners or have any specific credentials and will be paid with tax dollars.
Read More(OPINION) As leaders in the Body of Christ, nothing is more important than your personal testimony — your hard-earned reputation for soundness in life, faith, and practice. You are a representative of Jesus in a formal and public way, with believers looking to you for guidance and unbelievers looking at you, scrutinizing you for godliness.
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“Bob Marley: One Love,” a new movie that chronicles on the life of legendary reggae singer and songwriter — from his rise to fame in the mid-1970s up until his death in 1981 — has put a spotlight on what it means to be Rastafarian. Widely considered an iconic figure in the history of music, he is revered as the pioneer of reggae and a symbol of peace.
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(ANALYSIS) A group of independent United Nations human rights experts called on the authorities in Hong Kong to drop all charges against Jimmy Lai and release him. Lai, a pro-democracy and human rights defender, has been detained and subjected to multiple Kafkaesque trials for fighting for freedom of speech.
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Even before last week’s shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally, Branden Mims was focused on reducing violence in this city that amassed a record 182 homicides in 2023. Mims, the 35-year-old minister for the Greater Metropolitan Church of Christ, leads a nonprofit called Greater Impact that served more than 400 shooting victims last year.
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(REVIEW) A new documentary “God and Country” tries to warn against an American political movement that is corrupting both politics and Christianity — but its misrepresentation of the topic only makes its audience less informed and instead gives strength to the movement.
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