Top Stories

UMC edges toward historic split over LGBTQ inclusion. This church showed the way.

By Emily McFarlan Miller

(RNS) — Community of Hope was founded in 1993 as an outreach to ‘people on the margin,’ including LGBTQ people and people living with HIV/AIDS, according to its former pastor.

Reparations bill gains momentum as an interfaith cause

By Adelle M. Banks

At Tokyo Olympics, even faith events look different as COVID spikes. Here’s how.

By Emily McFarlan Miller, Adelle M. Banks

La Luz del Mundo congregants ‘frightened’ after attempted burglary and shooting at two temples

By Alejandra Molina

Confessions of an exhausted Catholic

By John Gehring

(RNS) — The Catholic narrative in public life has become a soul-wearying experience.

‘My Unorthodox Life’: Meh

By Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — The Netflix series isn’t antisemitic or self-hating. But there are deeper questions to mine.

The Pillar investigation of Monsignor Burrill is unethical, homophobic innuendo

By Steven P. Millies

(RNS) — The hook on which this story hangs is a long-discredited link between sexual abuse and homosexuality.

Other Faiths

Sikhism

Islam

Buddhism

Judaism

Christianity

Unaffiliated/Atheism

Hinduism

Alternative Faiths

Qatar’s Baha’i community and the plight of foreign workers

‘An excuse for the feast’: Witches celebrate the summer solstice with cakes, mead — and salsa

Health experts, faith leaders and White House target the ‘movable’ on vaccines

Bob Abernethy, host and founder of ‘Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly,’ dies at 93

Read More
Other Faiths

Wally Funk, right, describes their flight experience as Mark Bezos, left, and Jeff Bezos, left, center, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, applaud from the spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

RNS News Quiz: Ben & Jerry’s and Wally Funk

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, July 16, 2021, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Noem to headline GOP event in early-voting South Carolina

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, right, and his new justice minister, André Mendonça, attend his swearing-in ceremony at the Planalto presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, on April 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

André Mendonça, President Bolsonaro’s ‘terribly evangelical’ Supreme Court justice

World

A man holds a girl as they pose for a photo in front of a large mural depicting Chinese President Xi Jinping, bottom center, and other Chinese leaders at a public square at the base of the Potala Palace in Lhasa in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region on June 1, 2021. Xi has made a rare visit to Tibet as authorities tighten controls over the Himalayan region’s traditional Buddhist culture, accompanied by an accelerated drive for economic development and modernized infrastructure. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

China’s Xi visits Tibet amid rising controls over religion

The wooden bridge, right, connecting the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. Experts say the rickety bridge that allows access to the Holy Land's most sensitive religious site is at imminent risk of collapse. But the shrine's delicate position at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict prevents it from being repaired -- raising fears of another disaster just months after 45 people were killed in a stampede at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish shrine where organizers had also ignored years of safety warnings. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Politics foil replacing hazardous bridge to Jerusalem site

People stand in a guard tower on the perimeter wall of the Urumqi No. 3 Detention Center in Dabancheng in western China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on April 23, 2021. China's largest detention center is twice the size of Vatican City and has room for at least 10,000 inmates. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Room for 10,000: Inside China’s largest detention center

Health & Lifestyle

Photo by mina6120/Pixabay/Creative Commons

Dating as a Catholic: Sweet dream or not-so-beautiful nightmare?

Orphans eat a meal in Sylhet, Bangladesh, in April 2021. Photo by Imdadul Hussain/Unsplash/Creative Commons

With more than a million children orphaned by COVID, faith-based groups look to mobilize support

People listen to a Native Deen concert during an Eid al-Adha celebration at the Green Meadows Petting Farm in Ijamsville, Maryland, July 20, 2021. Photo courtesy of Laila Tauqeer

Maryland Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha with a farm-focused carnival

Arts & Culture

Amy Grant has a new tour marking the 30th anniversary of her album “Heart in Motion.” Photo by Cameron Powell

Oh Baby, Baby: Amy Grant’s biggest hit turns 30

Pope Francis passes by British musician Gordon Sumner, better known as Sting, and his wife, Trudie Styler, as he leaves at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Aug. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

New book examines Sting’s enduring Catholic imagination

“My Unorthodox Life” on Netflix follows the family of Julia Haart, center. Image courtesy of Netflix

Netflix’s ‘My Unorthodox Life’ is an exposé that fails to explain some basic facts

Science & Tech

FILE - In this July 12, 2021 file photo, people wait in live to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at the James River Church West Campus in Springfield, Mo. Across Missouri, hundreds of pastors, priests and other church leaders are reaching out to urge vaccinations in a state under siege from the delta variant. Health experts say the spread is due largely to low vaccination rates — Missouri lags about 10 percentage points behind the national average for people who have initiated shots.(Nathan Papes/The Springfield News-Leader via AP File)

Missouri church leaders implore congregants: Get vaccinated

Wally Funk, right, describes their flight experience as Mark Bezos, left, and Jeff Bezos, left, center, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, applaud from the spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Wally Funk’s church celebrates her Blue Origin spaceflight: ‘What an inspiration she’s been to us all’

TikTok creators are talking about some of the most mistranslated words in Scripture using the platform TikTok. Video screengrabs

Three of the most mistranslated words in Scripture — according to TikTokers

Sponsored

A Hindu priest performs rituals at the Sangam, confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, on the eve of the Maghi Purnima, or the full-moon day, during the annual traditional fair of Magh Mela in Prayagraj, India, Feb. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

India can still turn the tide back toward democracy

An Iranian woman holds a portrait of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally marking the 42nd anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A hard-line stance on Iran endangers Christians. There’s a better way.

In this March 7, 2021, file photo, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public rally ahead of West Bengal state elections in Kolkata, India. (AP Photo/Bikas Das, File)

President Trump failed to challenge India on religious freedom. Will Biden follow suit?

Reparations bill gains momentum as an interfaith cause

At Tokyo Olympics, even faith events look different as COVID spikes. Here’s how.

La Luz del Mundo congregants ‘frightened’ after attempted burglary and shooting at two temples

How limiting Latin Mass may become the defining moment for Pope Francis

RNS News Quiz: Ben & Jerry’s and Wally Funk

Vanderbilt’s James Lawson Institute honors rights activist

US churches reckon with traumatic legacy of Native schools

Priest outed via Grindr app highlights rampant data tracking

China’s Xi visits Tibet amid rising controls over religion

Noem to headline GOP event in early-voting South Carolina

RNS Press Releases

Danielle Bean’s ‘Whisper: Finding God in the Everyday’ reveals how to slow down and listen to God

AME Church elects new leadership and begins LGBTQ+ discernment process at 2021 General Conference

Science of Identity Foundation releases ‘Kirtan Meditation’ video series