Beliefs
Shunned for centuries, Vodou grows powerful as Haitians seek solace from unrelenting gang violence
By DÁnica Coto — May 10, 2024
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Shunned publicly by politicians and intellectuals for centuries, Vodou is transforming into a more powerful and accepted religion across Haiti, where its believers were once persecuted.
How 19th-century Spiritualists ‘canceled’ the idea of hell to address social and political concerns
By Lindsay DiCuirci — May 8, 2024
The number of religious ‘nones’ has soared, but not the number of atheists – and as social scientists, we wanted to know why
By Christopher P. Scheitle and Katie Corcoran — May 6, 2024
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A milestone reached in mainline Protestant churches’ decades-old disputes over LGBTQ inclusion
By The Associated Press — May 6, 2024
(AP) — The United Methodist Church, which stripped out its bans and related social teachings over the past two weeks, is the last of the major mainline church bodies to go through this process.
How ‘apocalypse’ became a secular as well as religious idea
By Erik Bleich and Christopher Star — May 3, 2024
(The Conversation) — Events that the media describe as ‘apocalyptic’ reflect changing anxieties about the future.
3 things to learn about patience − and impatience − from al-Ghazali, a medieval Islamic scholar
By Liz Bucar — April 19, 2024
(The Conversation) — In religious traditions, patience is more than waiting, or even more than enduring a hardship. But what does patience look like? And when should we not exercise patience?
Hindu Lord Ram road-trips through the United States
By Richa Karmarkar — April 17, 2024
(RNS) — For the first time in North America, an image of Lord Ram is being paraded from temple to temple on a two-month-long road trip, just in time for the deity’s birthday, Ram Navami.
Solar New Year celebrations unite religious groups across the South Asian diaspora
By Richa Karmarkar — April 15, 2024
(RNS) — This week, people of all South Asian backgrounds celebrated the Hindu Solar New Year in their unique, regional ways. But common threads between the holidays, many say, have the power to unite those living in the diaspora.
As a landmark United Methodist gathering approaches, African churches weigh their future.
By Peter Smith — April 15, 2024
(AP) — Today, members from four continents vote at legislative gatherings, serve on boards together, go on mission trips to each others’ countries and are largely governed by the same rules.
US Catholics more polarized than ever about still-popular Pope Francis, survey says
By Aleja Hertzler-McCain — April 12, 2024
(RNS) — The Republican and Republican-leaning favorability rating represents a decline, creating the largest partisan gap in approval of Francis since his papacy began.
Why Sikhs celebrate the festival of Baisakhi
By Anshu Malhotra — April 9, 2024
(The Conversation) — The spirit of Baisakhi for Sikhs is reminiscent of the ideals of their gurus, who encouraged them to work toward building a just society.
A dramatic schism over social issues? The United Methodist Church has been here before – but this time, America’s religious landscape is far different
By Christopher H. Evans — April 9, 2024
(The Conversation) — The United Methodist Church will hold its General Conference, delayed several years by the pandemic, in April 2024. The meeting comes amid a dramatic divide over LGBTQ+ rights.
For some Christians, a solar eclipse signals the second coming of Christ
By Eric Vanden Eykel — April 5, 2024
(The Conversation) — A scholar of early Christian literature writes that religious theories around celestial events are part of a larger human pattern to find meaning. And they go back thousands of years.
Awe and dread: How religions have responded to total solar eclipses over the centuries
By David Crary, Mariam Fam, and Deepa Bharath — April 5, 2024
(AP) — Ahead of the total solar eclipse that will follow a long path over North America on Monday, here's a look at how several of the world's major religions have responded to such eclipses over the centuries and in modern times.
For the Maya, solar eclipses were a sign of heavenly clashes − and their astronomers kept sophisticated records to predict them
By Kimberly H. Breuer — April 3, 2024
(The Conversation) — The skies and the gods were inseparable in Maya culture. Astronomers kept careful track of events like eclipses in order to perform the renewal ceremonies to continue the world’s cycles of rebirth.
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