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Photos of the Week
By Kit Doyle — November 1, 2019
(RNS) — This week’s gallery includes the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue, the Diwali festival of lights and more.
New rule would allow foster care, adoption agencies to exclude on religious grounds
By Yonat Shimron — November 1, 2019
(RNS) — Lifting the provision sets up a culture clash, pitting those who champion exemptions for faith-based charities against civil liberties groups who claim religious groups receiving government funding should not exclude anyone.
David raped Bathsheba, and why that matters
By Russell L. Meek — November 1, 2019
(RNS) — If we can use a softer label or somehow chalk sexual violence up to lust or hormones or a woman’s seduction, those who defend or cover up for clergy sexual abuse are off the hook.
Trump’s refugee cap compromises the US economy and American identity
By Scott Arbeiter — November 1, 2019
(RNS) — Before 2017, the US took in more refugees in a given year than all the other countries in the world. Thanks to the drastic reduction in US refugee admissions, other countries are outstripping us as the land of opportunity.
Pope Francis: This Halloween, take time to reflect on the ‘three deaths’
By Claire Giangravé — November 1, 2019
RNS — 'A culture that forgets death begins to die within,' Pope Francis told a group of young people on Halloween. 'He who forgets death has already begun to die.'
Paula White to head Trump’s faith office
By Jack Jenkins and Adelle M. Banks — November 1, 2019
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Paula White, a Pentecostal preacher and longtime adviser to President Trump, has been tapped to head the White House's Faith and Opportunity Initiative, a successor to previous administrations' faith-based office that coordinates outreach to faith communities.
Could a revived ‘theology of hope’ restore faith in hopeless times?
By Martin E. Marty — November 1, 2019
(Sightings) — The theme of hope, found in the preaching of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as in feminist, Latin American and black theologies, urges fellow believers to be impatient with the world as it is.
To help migrants and deported people, Latina Muslims seek to open Tijuana shelter
By Alejandra Molina — October 31, 2019
(RNS) — A group of Latina Muslims in San Diego is raising money to build a shelter across the border in Tijuana, Mexico, to not only assist the surge of migrants there, but also to help those who are deported from the United States.
Harriet Tubman, in movie and real life, guided by faith in fight for freedom
By Adelle M. Banks — October 31, 2019
(RNS) — A new movie on the life of Harriet Tubman makes plain how the young Maryland slave put her faith before fear to rescue herself and dozens of other enslaved people.
A tribute to Mwalimu John Mbiti, patriarch of African philosophy and religion studies
By Jacob K. Olupona — October 31, 2019
(RNS) — The professor's research and scholarship shaped the academic study of African religion as we have come to know it today. The world is truly poorer with him gone.
A tribute to Mwalimu John Mbiti, patriarch of African philosophy and religion studies
By Jacob K. Olupona — October 31, 2019
(RNS) — The professor's research and scholarship shaped the academic study of African religion as we have come to know it today. The world is truly poorer with him gone.
What the US bishops can learn from the Amazon synod
By Thomas Reese — October 31, 2019
(RNS) — The American Catholic hierarchy isn't ready to follow the synod's search for real-world solutions. Too many conservatives believe that if we simply return to the old ways of doing things, everything will be fine.
Communion should be personal, not political
By John Gehring — October 31, 2019
(RNS) — Pastors who think they are protecting the faith by denying pro-choice Catholics Communion should remember that Jesus built his movement by instead inviting the sinful and vulnerable to the table.
At Diwali, a Malaysian family mixes local traditions with ancient Hindu rituals
By Alexandra Radu — October 30, 2019
(RNS) — For one Malaysian family descended from Indians who migrated from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the rituals of Diwali have been renewed every year for four generations.
Southern Baptist church: Racial prejudice a factor in rejection of black pastor
By Adelle M. Banks — October 30, 2019
(RNS) — Pastor Marcus Hayes, a leader of Biltmore Church in Asheville, North Carolina, received 81% of the vote at First Baptist Church Naples in Florida. But an 85% vote was needed for approval.