Evicted sharecroppers along Highway 60 in New Madrid County, Mo., in Jan. 1939. Photo by Arthur Rothstein/LOC/Creative Commons
Need to know: Thursday, February 28, 2019
Biblical guide marks 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia
'Lament and Hope, a Pan-African Devotional Guide' was produced by Bread for the World and is set to be dedicated at a prayer service at a Washington church on the last day of Black History Month.
Pennsylvania prosecutor fights clergy sex abuse as she maintains Catholic faith
When local district attorney Kelly Callihan referred an abuse claim against her family’s erstwhile pastor to state authorities, she initiated a series of investigations that renewed the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis nationwide.
Jewish youth organization nabs $25 million gift to help empower young women
The gift from businessman Theodore Perlman, and his wife, Harriette, will allow BBYO to start a women’s leadership initiative connecting women through their college and early professional careers with mentorship and training.
Somali sheikh leads a seven-year campaign to end female genital mutilation
With sermons and through local media, Sheikh Ibrahim Hassan has made it his mission to convince parents and girls in his country that FGM is a cultural practice, not a religious one.
The Jewish answer to how to punish the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter
I plan to avenge the attack on my husband's synagogue and our community by celebrating our lives as Jews, writes Beth Kissileff.
The Church made vagina sculptures long before Nadia Bolz-Weber
But early Christian yonic art symbolized baptism, not free sex, writes Tish Harrison Warren.
Latest news from RNS
Pizzeria ordered to pay $4,500 for booting gay rabbinical student
JERUSALEM (RNS) — Though Israel is considered a bastion of gay rights, the case cast a harsh light on this religiously conservative capital's sometimes ugly treatment of LGBT people.
Southern Baptist executive group urges caution before investigating church abuse
The work group determined that six on Greear’s list require 'no further inquiry,' three should be investigated and one is not a Southern Baptist congregation.
United Methodists pass Traditional Plan, keep ban on LGBTQ clergy, same-sex marriage
Delegates to a special session of the United Methodist Church decided Tuesday to strengthen the denomination’s ban on the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ people.
More views from RNS
Christians and Jews agree: The Bladensburg Cross is no secular symbol
Claiming that a cross is a generic memorial to all the war dead ignores real differences in our religions' teachings about eternal life and violates the fundamental aspect of religious liberty, write Holly Hollman and Marc Stern.
Abortion Survivors Protection Act vote shows how both parties are unserious
(RNS) — The GOP’s Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was defeated in the Senate 53-44 — precisely the result the Republicans were looking for, and precisely the problem with our politics.
I miss my Mormon Sunday School class
Two-hour church is great, says screenwriter and guest blogger Cinco Paul--except when it makes it harder to have deep, honest discussions in Sunday School.
