DIY Faith
Luke Putney testifies to the healing power of music, helping others
By Bob Smietana — December 11, 2019
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Aspiring musician Luke Putney hopes to help others while recovering from a brain tumor and stroke that left him unable to walk and play his guitar or bass. Earlier this fall, he walked a modified marathon — a mile a day for 26 days — to raise money for his charity, which helps provide funds for music therapy.
‘Mission accomplished’: How one woman built the mosque of her dreams in Vegas
By Aysha Khan — December 10, 2019
LAS VEGAS (RNS) — Four years after becoming the first woman to build a U.S. mosque, Masjid Ibrahim’s 74-year-old founder says she’s still amazed by the community she has created.
The sin and self-care of Peloton
By Tara Isabella Burton — December 9, 2019
(RNS) — Peloton isn’t to blame if our culture is obsessed with self-improvement or for the quasi-eroticization of ‘decadent’ self-care. It's just riding alongside.
As Americans become less religious, the role of chaplains may grow
By Alejandra Molina — November 27, 2019
(RNS) — As fewer people identify with a specific religion and as houses of faith experience a drop in attendance, some religious scholars expect that in the next number of years people will be more likely to meet a chaplain than a local clergyperson.
How colonialism still colors our ideas about who gets to teach religion
By Simran Jeet Singh — November 26, 2019
(RNS) — If I were a white scholar, would anyone question the appropriateness of my teaching Buddhism?
Why these New York Sikhs are fundraising for a mosque in India
By Aysha Khan — November 25, 2019
(RNS) – A Sikh-majority village in the Indian side of Punjab has some 300 Muslims, but no mosques. This Sikh family in New York City wants to change that.
As the Chick-fil-A flap shows, the brands we buy are increasingly a values proposition
By Tara Isabella Burton — November 22, 2019
(RNS) — Chick-Fil-A may have capitulated to market forces by ending its support of conservative groups. But its about-face says less about “cancel culture” than about the American spiritual marketplace.
Boston College students and faculty push to reject Koch funding — and Koch values
By Aysha Khan — November 19, 2019
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (RNS) — As Boston College finalizes a potential Koch Foundation donation to its political science department, many at the Jesuit institution are hoping to pressure administrators into reconsidering the grant.
Before we can rein in hate crime, we have to admit the size of the problem
By Simran Jeet Singh — November 18, 2019
(RNS) — A system of hate crime reporting that doesn't include Heather Heyer's death in Charlottesville or a murder of a Sikh in Tulsa won't lead to real solutions.
The next stage of witch resistance is here
By Tara Isabella Burton — November 15, 2019
(RNS) — If all realities are equally plausible in the Internet age, then there is no reason that magic should be less plausible, indeed less powerful, than any other form of reality-creation.
How India’s youth are taking to a path shown by a 15th century mystic
By Kalpana Jain — November 13, 2019
VARANASI, India (RNS) — As Indian millennials chart their own spiritual paths they are leading a revival of the teachings of a mystic who wrote couplets on the nature of the divine and criticized any form of orthodoxy.
With interfaith exhibit, Boston’s Abrahamic faith groups revisit their shared roots
By Aysha Khan — November 11, 2019
BOSTON (RNS) — The Episcopal Cathedral is hosting a new interfaith art exhibit that explores the life of Abraham — and launching an accompanying book study focused on Sarah and Hagar.
Behind Weird Christian Twitter, millennials bent on rebelliously orthodox belief
By Tara Isabella Burton — November 8, 2019
(RNS) — Weird Christianity may still be a fringe identity, but it gets at a much bigger question about the future of Christianity in an increasingly fragmented, irreligious age.
She reclaimed her faith as a woman. Now she’s teaching others to reclaim theirs.
By Yonat Shimron — November 7, 2019
DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — A harrowing journey toward gender transition led Yiscah Smith to find God's dwelling within. Now she teaches others to do the same.
Neighborly Faith urges evangelicals to find a ‘third way’ to befriend Muslims
By Emily McFarlan Miller — November 6, 2019
WHEATON, Ill. (RNS) — Neighborly Faith is a nationwide movement to bring Christians and Muslims together.
