Politics

Survey: Mainline clergy are more liberal than their congregants
By Yonat Shimron — September 14, 2023
(RNS) — Mainline clergy are more supportive than their congregants of LGBTQ rights, more likely to have opposed the overturn of Roe v. Wade and less likely to believe America is in danger of losing its culture and identity.

Mainline Protestants, though divided politically, make room for clergy’s views
By Melissa Deckman — September 14, 2023
(RNS) — America’s nonevangelical white Christians are cultivating healthy political discourse.

The latest US Census figures show the harm done by letting poverty programs expire
By David Beckmann — September 13, 2023
(RNS) — The success of COVID-era programs followed by an immediate reversal after they ended makes clear that the persistence of poverty is a political choice.

Painting asylum-seekers as potential threats is an old, cynical game
By Avi Shafran — September 13, 2023
(RNS) — Fears of malefactors entering the U.S. among legitimate asylum-seekers are overblown.

Christian lawmakers push battle over church and state after Roe
By Henry Larson and Francesca D'Annunzio/News21 — September 13, 2023
(News21) — A group of Christian lawmakers has been busy reshaping America’s relationship with abortion, LGBTQ issues and religion. But their ultimate goal — bridging the separation between church and state — is far more ambitious.

Three anniversaries will force issues of religious persecution at the UN General Assembly
By Knox Thames — September 12, 2023
(RNS) — Whether world leaders grapple with interconnecting issues of religion and global affairs remains to be seen, but they cannot afford to ignore them.

Why Jerusalem’s Latin patriarch opened church courts to non-Catholic lawyers
By Daoud Kuttab — September 11, 2023
(RNS) — A courageous decision gives more people access to the law.

‘On 9/11 there was a sense of unity in the country. We’ve taken a collective step back.’
By Simran Jeet Singh — September 8, 2023
(RNS) — A surgeon who volunteered at Ground Zero recalls the aftermath.

At African climate summit, faith leaders join demands for climate justice
By Fredrick Nzwili — September 6, 2023
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — ‘Matters of climate change cannot be politicized, reduced to economies,’ said a Lutheran priest, but instead should be ‘treated as a matter of life and death.’

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s mission to heal our cities with compassion
By Simran Jeet Singh — September 6, 2023
(RNS) — Good public policy, the mayor says, happens when we’re standing on compassion.

France’s laicité in the name of secularism is really only supremacist legacy of colonialism
By Omar Suleiman — September 6, 2023
(RNS) — What is it that makes a schoolgirl’s choice to wear the abaya a form of religious proselytism?

Pope Francis chides his American critics — but who is he talking about?
By Jack Jenkins — September 5, 2023
(RNS) — When it comes to the pope’s right-wing critics here in the U.S., he has a broad spectrum to choose from.

China bars Chinese bishops from traveling to see pope in Mongolia
By Claire Giangravé — September 1, 2023
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (RNS) — The decision by Beijing is the latest sign of tension in the already strained relations between China and the Holy See.

Catholic educators need to take a lesson from public school battles
By Charles C. Camosy — August 31, 2023
(RNS) — The ‘wokeism’ crisis in public education is a historic opportunity for Catholic schools.

Black Muslims will play a big role in the next election. Join us.
By Salima Suswell — August 30, 2023
(RNS) — Black Muslims helped elect Joe Biden president and are gearing up for 2024.