Alabama
What’s on America’s Thanksgiving menu? Start with religious diversity.
By Monique Parsons — November 25, 2021
(RNS) — This year, invite your guests to share the stories of their diverse faiths.
‘Am I the worst thing a person can be?’: Witches fight media bias
By Heather Greene — June 14, 2021
(RNS) — 'Criminals aren’t labeled as Baptist,' one witch observed, unless the crime is related to professed religious beliefs, as was the case in the recent spa shootings in Atlanta.
Will yoga classes in public school lead kids to convert?
By Yonat Shimron — June 11, 2021
(RNS) — Indiana University Professor of Religious Studies Candy Gunther Brown says parents should worry less about where yoga comes from and more about how it's being taught.
Alabama lifts ban on yoga in schools. Sort of.
By Mat McDermott — March 18, 2021
(RNS) — Alabama avoids constitutional entanglements but falls squarely into the mouth of cultural appropriation.
Alabama House votes to end yoga ban, but don’t say ‘namaste’
By Kim Chandler — March 13, 2021
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Board of Education voted in 1993 to prohibit yoga, hypnosis and meditation in public school classrooms.
Jesus for president? It’s more complicated than it looks
By Ryan Dradzynski — November 3, 2020
(RNS) — A proliferation of signs, shirts and stickers advocating ‘Jesus 2020’ has inescapable political implications that merely disavowing politics doesn’t resolve.
Alabama officials sued over voter registration form requiring ‘so help me God’ vow
By Jack Jenkins — October 1, 2020
(RNS) — A secular advocacy group has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of three plaintiffs, arguing that the state’s requirement violates their constitutional rights.
Alabama governor apologizes to ’63 church bombing survivor
By Jay Reeves — October 1, 2020
(AP) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has apologized to a survivor of a racist 1963 church bombing that killed four Black girls, calling the blast an ‘egregious injustice,’ but declining Wednesday to pay restitution without legislative involvement.
Baptist, vegan ex-football player may overturn Alabama’s ban on public school yoga
By Megan Botel — April 1, 2020
(RNS) — For some of the state's residents, 86% of whom identify as Christian, yoga and other non-Christian practices have long been considered satanic.
From New York to Alabama, blacks worshipped in own spaces before slavery’s end
By Adelle M. Banks — August 1, 2019
NEW YORK (RNS) — As the nation marks the 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of Africans in Virginia, a Harlem church joins others that have represented the enduring faith of slaves, free blacks and their descendants.
Montgomery, Ala., churches part of city’s 200-year history of slavery, civil rights
By Adelle M. Banks — August 1, 2019
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (RNS) — 'It is the cradle of the Confederacy and the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement,' said a local church historian.
There is more than one religious view on abortion – here’s what Jewish texts say
By Rachel Mikva — May 23, 2019
(The Conversation) — Although the Hebrew Bible does not mention abortion, a discussion of miscarriage in Exodus suggests that a fetus has a different status.
It’s unfair to say Christians’ pro-life stance ends at birth
By Trillia Newbell — May 21, 2019
(RNS) — God is always working in ways we don’t often see. Evidently, so are his people.
Could draconian abortion bans reverse Roe — and unite Christians in opposition?
By Kira Austin-Young — May 17, 2019
(RNS) — It’s a brand-new day when a liberal, female Episcopal priest is in agreement with Pat Robertson, but perhaps this legislation can draw opposition from Christians across the spectrum.
State-level abortion laws push compromise toward the impossible
By Jacob Lupfer — May 17, 2019
(RNS) — Even as we get a clearer view of what each side is ultimately advocating for, it's not likely that our divided political climate will allow either side to prevail decisively and indefinitely.
