commentary
Episcopal Church needs to look for #MeToo in the details
By Sean W. Rowe — July 3, 2018
(RNS) — The Episcopal Church’s General Convention, which begins this week (July 5) in Austin, Texas, will consider more than 20 resolutions put forward by an all-female special committee on sexual abuse, harassment and exploitation. If we pass these resolutions, however, it is essential that we not sit back and say we’ve done what the moment — and the gospel — demands.
By any other name: Why the ‘travel ban’ really is a Muslim ban
By Todd Green — July 3, 2018
(RNS) — The language of 'travel ban' is neither neutral nor objective. When journalists repeat this language, they become complicit in amplifying Trump’s propaganda and in inscribing anti-Muslim prejudice into federal immigration policy.
The case for gender-segregated beaches
By Michele Chabin — June 29, 2018
(RNS) — News that New York City Councilman Chaim Deutsch has rented a city-owned Brooklyn beach for separate male and female swim days is creating excitement among devout Muslims and Orthodox Jews, but critics say the practice amounts to gender discrimination.
Religious liberty: A US birthright for conservatives and progressives alike
By Jacob Lupfer — June 29, 2018
(RNS) — Religious conservatives need to realize that they are not the only ones who believe religious freedom is a sacred right. And progressives, whether religious or not, should not dismiss the entire concept.
Keep kids with parents at border — and remember how we got here
By Tony Perkins — June 28, 2018
(RNS) — If the executive order survives the courts, it will undoubtedly be more compassionate than previous policies, which enticed parents and other adults attempting illegal crossings to subject children to the dangers of the desert, the division of families and even death.
Liberals run risk in weaponizing church discipline against Sessions
By Jacob Lupfer — June 21, 2018
(RNS ) — A move by members of the United Methodist Church to rein in Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a symptom of our exhaustion over the immigration debate. But the liberals' sudden commitment to church discipline is shortsighted and likely to backfire.
Why won’t most of Trump’s ‘court evangelicals’ publicly condemn his border policy?
By John Fea — June 21, 2018
(RNS) — While a few conservative evangelical Trump supporters have openly criticized his administration's border policy separating children from their parents, most of the 'court evangelicals' have not. Their silence sheds light on how evangelicals have defined 'family values' for the past 40 years.
What do evangelicals want from Trump on foreign policy?
By Jacob Lupfer — June 13, 2018
(RNS) — As President Trump's attention turns to international affairs, members of his loyal evangelical Protestant base need to ask themselves: What do we want out of U.S. foreign policy?
Fewer couples are marrying in churches. Does it matter?
By Jacob Lupfer — June 7, 2018
(RNS) — The main reason church weddings are dropping is that more people are raised without religion.
A reckoning for Southern Baptists, and an opportunity
By Jacob Lupfer — June 1, 2018
(RNS) — The daily drumbeat of bad news about SBC leaders has set the stage for the denomination’s annual meeting in Dallas this month. Will the meeting accelerate a decline? Or could it be the start of a revival? Our columnist's advice: Don’t write off the Southern Baptist Convention.
Invitations to Iftar
By Catherine Orsborn — June 1, 2018
(RNS) — When people gather for dinner in hundreds of homes, mosques, churches, synagogues and community centers across the country, it shows another way for our country.
Southern Baptists have more repenting to do
By Brian D. McLaren — May 29, 2018
(RNS) — Unfortunately, the bulk of Albert Mohler’s agony and call for mercy focused not on the pain suffered by women and girls at the hands of church leadership, but on the 'humiliation' of his tribe, the SBC, which is led exclusively by men.
Islam scholar Bernard Lewis’ legacy of disdain for Muslims
By Hussein Rashid — May 29, 2018
(RNS) — Lewis understood Muslims as violent by nature, irrational, abusive toward women, lacking in culture. He could not conceive of Muslims in the context of modernity.
Millennials: get over your faith phobia
By Aamir Hussain — May 24, 2018
(RNS) — Interfaith work isn’t about watering down our religions. It’s about building relationships so we can together serve others.
Appreciation: Philip Roth belongs in canon of greatest American authors
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald — May 23, 2018
(RNS) — Roth was a literary archaeologist who dug deep into his imagination and memory to re-create the American Jewish milieu of his youth.
