Inside Masjid al-Rabia’s office, administrative intern Reed Fowler coordinates care packages to be sent to Muslim inmates. Fowler is a seminarian at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and is interning through the school’s Public Church Fellowship program. RNS photo by Aysha Khan
Need to know: Wednesday, March 27, 2019
In Chicago, one mosque charts its own path
Masjid al-Rabia is part of a growing global movement toward ensuring mosques are accessible and friendly toward women worshippers. But 'women-friendly' means something a little different for director Mahdia Lynn.
How two Jewish Bible scholars got an audience with the pope
Marc Zvi Brettler, a Duke University Hebrew Bible scholar, said it took a bit of chutzpah, but, turns out, the pope was interested.
Survey: Most Americans continue to oppose religious service refusals to LGBT people
Last year's Supreme Court decision granting some vendors the right to refuse service based on their beliefs has had no measurable effect on popular sentiment.
US Muslims fund African wells to honor New Zealand shooting victims
American Muslims are raising funds to build 50 water wells in Africa and South Asia in honor of the 50 victims of the New Zealand mosque massacres.
All Americans owe it to our country to see what’s happening at the border
There's a widespread system of criminalization, commodification and dehumanization that pervades every corner of our immigration and border apparatus, write Aaron Alexander and Lauren Holtzblatt.
Openly gay, openly Christian Buttigieg challenges the religious right
Ed Kilgore writes, Pete Buttigieg offers a particularly interesting contrast with the 45th president. Would anyone be confident in accusing this married, churchgoing, Afghanistan veteran of being ethically inferior to Donald Trump?
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‘Best of Enemies’: Real faith and racial reconciliation on the big screen
A true-to-life, if farfetched, buddy movie demonstrates the possibility of racial reconciliation forged through a shared Christian faith.
Six Israelis. Three weddings. One Statement.
The couples cannot, or will not, submit to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox rabbinical rules regarding marriage. So they've arranged an American alternative.
The Church of Almighty God members detail arrests in China, seek asylum
Leaders of the Church of Almighty God, which has been labeled a cult by Chinese officials, say thousands of their fellow worshippers have been arrested over the past year. Some church members have fled to South Korea to seek asylum.
More views from RNS
Call it AIPAC-phobia
(RNS) — The season of irrational fears: of AIPAC, and of the Democratic Party. Let's cut it out.
Why is it wrong for Trump to speak ill of John McCain?
(RNS) — Trump's secular critics need to pause and think about what grounds their outrage.
Flannery O’Connor instructs Catholics to ‘stalk joy in scandal time’
(RNS) — O’Connor, who would have turned 94 this week, still shows a way forward for Catholics burdened by bad news about the church's earthly leaders.
